After a wonderful but far too short visit to Singapore, it was time to board the ship. The funny thing was as we hopped on and off buses or sat eating breakfast at the hotel, we would catch snippets of conversations that told us there were other people waiting to board the same ship. Either we would ask them or they would ask us if we were heading for a cruise with Holland America. So before we even stepped foot on the ship we met other passengers.
We had to check out of our hotel by noon but couldn’t board the ship until 2:30 so we settled into a comfortable area of the lobby and planned to write and post the first blog. However fellow cruisers Herman and Hilda from Reno, Nevada stopped by and we got caught up in a conversation with them. We had met Herman and Hilda on the Hop On Hop Off bus the day before. Before we knew it the time arrived to leave for the port. We grabbed a cab which was surprisingly only $7.65 Singapore dollars ($5.68 US)
Once at the pier we had a wait to check in to Holland America and go through exit immigration. When it was finally time to go up to the immigration counter Bill was sent to one line and I to another. Bill went through fine. Remember when I said they took a digital fingerprint of each thumb when we entered Singapore at the airport? You place each thumb on a glass surface and it scans your prints. We had to do the same thing when leaving Singapore to board the cruise ship. Only the immigration agent had a problem verifying my thumbprints. So without any explanation to Bill or time for me to explain, they took me into a locked room with several immigration agents. Seriously I wasn’t the least upset or worried. I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong and figured it was just a problem with the machine. They scanned my thumbprints on another machine, checked them, unlocked the door and sent me on my way. In the meantime I had a very anxious husband waiting outside the door. I told Bill he shouldn’t work my fingers to the bone because it is wearing off my fingerprints! Just another story to tell and memory to laugh about down the road.
With all that done we were welcomed aboard the Holland America Westerdam and made our way to our cabin. We couldn’t wait to get unpacked and settled into our home for the next thirty days.
Next up: Ko Samui, Thailand