Hawaii 2019/2020 Day 1

Here we go again on another adventure, climb aboard if you dare! 

Waiver warning! Do not read this if you are displeased with toilet talk, are not a foodie and have little or no sense of humour.

It always seems like a waste of a day when you have an evening flight, the bags sit waiting at the door and are opened frequently for forgotten items or a change of plan. And then finally it is time to start the holiday!

Koru Lounge on departure

Our flight to Honolulu (NZ10) was only a few minutes late leaving and we were hoping for a spare seat in our row of three. But alas a young English lass joined us, so we three squeezed in together in row 36.

Nothing eventful to report on the flight. Movies and food were okay and we managed a few winks, but not for long enough to enjoy the luxury of a dream or to dribble. I can’t say the same about ‘English Lass’ as she fell fast asleep as soon as we were airborne and missed her supper. As the passengers started to stir ready for breakfast she did one of those jumps that one does in their sleep. Well I swear that she actually left the seat, thank goodness for her seat belt I say! She woke with a start and I even put my hand on her shoulder to steady her. We did all have a laugh at her expense though. She was a good sort.

Arriving in Honolulu we were behind half of Japan and a little under half of China. We were herded into the carrel system which snaked parallel to the desks and the moved into a perpendicular configuration. Lance was quite perturbed and was twitching and scanning the area with his eyes moving from side to side. I advised him to stop unless he wanted a full body search. We continued as if we were part of a pac man game and finally emerged into the heat. Well actually is was lovely, about 24 degrees at 8:30 am.

Our hotel is the Shoreline and is right in the hub of Waikiki. It is pretty basic and a bit small, but has air con and is clean. Check in was later in the afternoon, so dumping our bags we headed out for a looksie. 

We spotted trolly cars loaded with tourists so decided that, that would be a good way to get our bearings and see a bit of the place. Our ticket was for all lines and could be used for two days. The lady advised me that the ‘blue line’ was the best for sight seeing, so on we climbed to the upper deck and headed off. As is usual with these tours we had a running commentary and this guy was pretty easy to listen to. We headed out along Waikiki along the east Oahu coastline. The views were great and we made a couple of stops for photos.

The sun was beating in on us for most of the trip and there were patches where it was incredibly windy. I was concerned that I would be burnt and that I would end up with lips hanging with cold sores, but so far so good no sun burn at all. We forget that the sun in other parts of the world is not as fierce as how it is down under in New Zealand. 

When we got back we were starving so we nipped into a teppanyaki restaurant called Suntory. By then we were feeling a little travel weary and a bit smelly as we had left home 19 hours earlier and hadn’t had a shower or change of clothes. I nipped into the toilet as we waited for our table and came out to Lance with a smug look on my face. Clean as a whistle, they had a fancy toilet with heated seat and spectacular built in bidet! Now all I needed was a cold beer and some food. Our waitress was probably an owner or something and was a Chinese women in her fifties with a great sense of humour. The meal was perfect, just what we wanted with suburb fillet steak and seafood. We passed on the ice cream and toddled back to see if our room was ready.  

It is a bit of a funky place, when we got out of the elevator we were greeted with hot pink walls. But everything works and we will managed to squeeze my shopping into the tiny room.

Whilst Lance took a rest I wandered out to a couple of places over the road and made a few purchases. Then we managed to squeeze in more food with a trip to the Californian Pizza Company. We had been to this restaurant in 2000 in San Diego with the boys and we loved it so much that we went back the next night and even bought a couple of their recipe books which I still use.  

We weren’t that hungry but you know how it is when you see a new menu! We ordered garlic roasted chicken pizza and a bowl of Mexican street corn and we thought we were getting wedges with a blue cheese sauce but it was a wedge of lettuce with a caesar style salad that was very good! As a loyal Kiwi I always try and do my part for the economy and order New Zealand wine (and I don’t like American wine), so I ordered Kim Crawford sav blanc and asked for the 9 oz glass, which is what the menu indicated. Another waitress came along with Lance’s beer and a large wine glass for me, she looked at me strangely. 

"Umm, can I get some wine in the glass?", I asked. Oh! She said that the other girl had said that I wanted a 9oz glass? So out came a small carafe with what I gathered was 9oz of wine. 

The menu had the price after each item and then the calorie rating (well that’s what it looked like to us, could be some other technical thing). Why would you have that at a pizza place?

The food was great but the service shoddy at best. She came and took our desert order and left the plates until I asked her to take them away. We waited forever for the desert and when she delivered it she said "sorry for everything". Maybe they were understaffed?

Back to bed where we slept like babies.

Day 16 Last day in Singapore - 12 January 2019

After three days in Singapore we felt we had achieved a lot and today could be a bit more chilled. So off we set to the river front at Fullerton Square. 

Once again the MRT took us straight to where we needed to be and we emerged from the underground right in front of a small kiosk where you could book a river cruise. We were served by a little old Chinese lady who was a little bent over but very sprightly. As we were getting some information from her a guy stopped and asked her something in Chinese. She answered and turned to us "he asked me where's smoking area, how do I fucking know". As you can imagine our jaws dropped and we just cracked up laughing as did she. Bossing us around she told to be back at the pier by 10:20 so we don't be late and miss boat. What a character!

The old wooden boat had capacity for about twenty but there were only four of us. We were joined by an English couple on their way out to New Zealand to stay with family in Mt Eden. It has been surprising how many people we have bumped into that are on their way to good old Aotearoa. 

The boat ride around the river was the perfect thing to do allowing us another perspective of this beautiful city. 

Lunch was had had the Maxwell Food Centre in Chinatown. This was a spot that we had seen on TV and really we wanted to go there to experience some Tian Tian Hiananese Chicken Rice which is a popular Singaporian dish. Once again a little old lady came to our aid "wha you wan" she asked me and fortunately an Australian bloke in the line had told me to ask for the white breast. I was pleased with this assistance as I was looking at chicken backs hanging in the window that went right down to the parsons nose (chicken bum). The lady got me organised and pointed to Lance who had found a seat amongst the bustling lunch time crowd "he wi you"? And she promptly started delivering our dishes to him, shuffling along in huge yellow gumboots. The meal was the most succulent poached chicken with some broth and rice. Delicately tasty and really hearty, the sort of thing you want when you have the flu. Another lady in the line had told me that she has it for lunch every day. 

Back at our hotel it was time to pack and lay by the pool for the last time. And then our 'last supper' back at Chinatown. Stopping in for some duck, once again Lance saved the table. This food area is in a blocked off street with restaurants with outside and inside seating and down the middle foodcarts cooking and serving also. While Lance was waiting a lady came along and asked "you wan beer" and sure enough a couple of cans of Tiger beer arrived to accompany our duck and rice. By now it had started to rain as only it can in the tropics, fortunately the street had a glass roof so we continued round until we found or actually were coerced into another small shop where we sat outside and had drink. My wine was great and tasted very much like an NZ sav. We also managed some dumplings which were also good and some cereal prawns. These prawns were coated in some sort of crushed cornflakes with a savoury flavour. By now the rain had eased but the thunder was still rolling so we jumped in a cab back to the hotel. 

Last night for us. Our pick up arrived at 5:45 am (highly recommend Buffalo Tours) and delivered us to the airport. And here I am now back in Auckland ready to unpack. 

We have had a great trip and hope to return to a few of the places visited. Thanks Jo Charles at flight centre for organising us and making all the right choices once again. Happy Chinese New Year!

Day 15 Singapore- 11 January

And now to see the Gardens By the Bay in daylight. Last night we paid $3 each for a return shuttle from the entry to the centre of the gardens and today we took a driverless car for $5 each. It was so cool, the track had been set with an algorithm and the car had sensors to stop or go around obstacles. We were driving on the same path as the shuttle had the night before and people were walking as well. The car would slow down stop or veer left or right. We did have a man with us who pressed the remote control to start it and the rest of the way he just stood with his back to the road talking to us about the car and the gardens. Being the only ones in the car meant that we could ask lots of questions. 

At the centre we entered the glass dome gardens and they were very cool in both temperature and scale of awesomeness. I was surprised in both of the domes at how many of the plants are plants that we can grow in New Zealand. The flower dome was very pretty and preparations were being made for the Chinese New Year celebrations coming soon. The other dome was more tropical with a 35 meter waterfall and was several stories high. All of the water for the gardens is collected in rain reservoirs and the power is from solar panels on the top of the domes. The whole place is a scientific and technological genius! Cooling systems, water collection and purification, eco systems and solar power generators. 

The sky walk runs between the super trees giving a bird’s eye view of the park. Ranging from 25 to 50 meters high it was quite an experience. The pathway is a tiny bit see through but not scarily see through. However an English guy slowly passed us with his feet placed wide and arms outstretched he said that he was terrified of heights and didn't know why he was doing this. He tentatively stretched out towards the handrail and quickly clutched it. Poor bugger. 

Lunch was had in style at the top of one of the super trees. We had thought that we would get something light because we were going out for dinner but you have to grab these opportunities when you can. Don't you?

I had a delicious soft shell crab and Lance sizzling Vietnamese steak, both were very good. Dessert, yes dessert, was fresh mango, sticky rice and a wonderful coconut cream sauce for me and Lance had a coffee creme brûlée. When I asked our very charming waiter where the toilet was he said to go around to the right and it was in the corner. I did wonder about that as we were in a circular building so where were the corners. Tucked away was a nice clean toilet with a huge statue in it. Felt strange having this man in the loo with me. 

We separated on the MRT so that Lance could have a nap and I could go shopping. I really think that it was Lance's cunning plan to do the Singapore part of the trip after the cruise because anything that I tried on was bursting at the seams! 

Three weeks earlier I had booked the restaurant Ce Le Vie online. It is on the 57th floor of the Marina Bay Sands, right on the surfboard part that sits on top of the three towers. So we got ourselves gussied up in more formal attire and took a cab. The place was crawling with people! And I did expect the drop off bay and lobby to be a bit more oppulent. At the lift we were stopped at security and they said that we needed to buy a ticket $25 to go to the top. We told them that we were going for dinner and they said that we needed to queue with the 12 million others. No we have a reservation that has been confirmed! And they let us up. We could have been telling lies! White robed people were everywhere. Not like monks or anything but people in their hotel robes and slippers coming and going to the huge infinity pool. We were not allowed to enter that area as only hotel guests had entry. Judging by how many of white robes were buzzing in and out I'm not sure that it would be a particularly pleasant experience. 

Up in the Altitude bar we managed to score excellent seats to enjoy a mojito and the sunset. It really was quite special and the people watching was great. In fact there were some more people in robes but they actually were monks and their robes were orange. 

Inside the restaurant we were placed in a centre table which was a little disappointing as I had requested a table with a view. Lance asked the waitress if we could change and mentioned that we had requested a view. She apologised and said that the tables were for 'club' members. Next thing you know we were whisked away by the maitre de and placed at a table with a view. The hot, tight but formal clothes just may have done the trick. 

Dinner was divine. I started with tiger prawns with an avocado mango salsa and Lance had sushimi followed for me by salmon poached in lemon oil and set in the most delicious coconut cream sauce with crumbled something a rather on top. Lance went for a rib eye steak and we had a couple of sides that were equally as great. Alcohol was expensive as was the meal but this was a once in a life time dinner and we loved every minute of it. 

Day 14 Singapore - 10 January 2019

Today we thought that we would get up earlyish and get on the Hop On, Hop Off bus. The night before the zoo driver had dropped us off in Chinatown and said he would be leaving from the same place at 9:30am. But do you think that we could find the stop? After 45 minutes of walking around in circles a young woman approached us and asked if we were looking for the Hop On, Hop Off bus. She was looking as well and had been waiting at another stop and one had whizzed past. Finally we found one and climbed aboard for the full circuit. We find that this is a good way to see a city and usually the commentary gives you all sorts of interesting information. Not so on this bus. If we had prepared better we would have got Big Bus tours, see what happens when you don't over prepare! We also had to wait nearly an hour for the second bus. However we did see a fair bit of the city which is the greenest city that I have ever seen. Even the construction site had a living wall on it. We were told that rather than making Singapore a city with gardens they wanted it to be a city in a garden. Sky scrapers are draped in foliage and at any opportunity and even where you would never think it possible they have things growing. Maybe that is why the sky is clear and looks unpolluted. 

Our new friend Sarah from Austria came with us on the bus tour and when we finished we stopped off in Chinatown and shouted her lunch. Actually Lance said "our shout, just say yes". She had no idea what he meant, must be a down under thing as she spoke great English. She looked at me in confusion as she stuttered "yes" so I explained that we would pay for her lunch. 

Lance had been craving dumplings and finally we found some and got the order right. After all the gallivanting I needed the loo and was directed up some stairs. Four flights in fact to a very clean toilet with the most ornate basin. 

After a cool down by our pool we headed off to Gardens by the Bay for dinner. We wanted to make this a quick trip as we were going to go back the next day. It was the right thing to do. The gardens are magnificent at night and it was a beautiful temperature. After a dinner of duck which cost us $13:50 for the two of us and a beer which was $22 for two we made our way home.

We are finding it difficult to stop taking pictures of the Marina Bay Sands. It is a bit like when you are in Paris and have to take a snap of the Eiffel Tower every time you see it. There is a connection though. The top of the Marina Bay Sands is the length of the Eiffel Tower if you lay it on its side. 

All of these trips were done on the MRT and we are getting really good at it. It is such an efficient way to get around. There is a notice on the train that tells you that molesting is an offence and if it happens it must be reported. The consequence of molest (sic) is jail or caning. I am not a supporter of corporal punishment but this does sound fair to me.  

My cough is still hounding me and my black eye is going from purple to yellow. Or maybe the yellow is my liver telling me it is time to go home a start a cleansing diet. Other than that we are both well. Lance’s back is holding up and my toilet stops are back in urgency but for a couple of old crocks we are having a great time.