Mumbai-Singapore, Oct. 27, 2013 Tips on Asia travel?

[southseas]

Hello, all! We are booked on SDII for the above cruise and after getting all the required vaccinations, meds (including anti-malarials, which were actually covered by our health insurance much to our shock) & visas this is beginning to feel real. We are extremely excited about this cruise and are trying to plan to pack as lightly as possible while still being prepared for the weather and respectful of cultural dress requirements.

 

Is anyone cruising with us? Does anyone have any advice for Asia travel? This will be my first trip to Asia.

[JES4845]

Better find out if any kids onboard despite the SD marketing. Our cruise in the Black Sea last month, our ninth by the way, was ruined by unruly children and rude parents of same. I would think you are ok on this type of voyage but we were led to believe there wouldn't be any kids on the Black Sea and we had about 8 or 9 monsters and their parents who ruined it for the rest of us. As you will see on other threads, our pleas to SD to honor their marketing as an adults cruise have been ignored. Beware of any families! At least ask In advance about the kids count so you know going into the voyage. Hope it works out for you!

[southseas]

Yikes! I'm sorry your cruise was spoiled like that. :( I'll never understand why parents drag young kids on a ship like Sea Dream that has NO facilities for them. Bored kids act up, especially if the parents aren't, you know, parenting.

 

Hmmm, maybe the thing to do is if you ever find a child unattended go straight to the bridge and report it, citing safety concerns, e.g. kid drowning in the pool, kid falling overboard, etc. I bet if the parents had to have the kid buckled to their sides the whole cruise they wouldn't be so eager to bring them along!

[Zimmy]

Southseas, I looked at your itinerary and it sounds fascinating. Will you be spending much time in India before you embark?

 

The only place on your itinerary where we have been is Singapore. Interesting place - we loved the night safari, the botanical garden and the teahouses. It is extremely hot and humid there. We were there the same time of year as you will be, but I'm not sure it makes a difference. It is hot and humid all year I think. Anything you wear while in Singapore, do not plan on wearing it again until it is laundered/dry cleaned. So you really do have to have enough clothes. I'm talking about the kind of humidity that steams up your sunglasses the minute you walk out of the hotel.

 

Did your travel doctor tell you that you need mosquito protection during the day in the cities? Apparently there is a daytime city mosquito which carries Dengue fever, and you need to protect against that.

 

Have a wonderful trip. I hope that you report back to us and tell us how it went.

[JES4845]

Zimmy is spot on. I have been to Asia many times over 20+ years though less often recently. Major league hot and humid is right. Friends just came back from Singapore and mentioned some of the same highlights. The street food stalls which are closely regulated so very clean and tasty were a favorite on past trips. You can also get a drink at Raffles Hotel. If you are adventurous you can also do a day trip across the bridge to Malaysia but I would recommend it only if you have exhausted all there is to see in Singapore. Enjoy your voyage! The friendly crew will take wonderful care of you.

[southseas]

Hi, folks! Thanks for your responses. :) Yes, our travel doctor advised us to to use a Deet-based mosquito repellant even though we will be taking anti-malarials. (To our utter amazement, our normal health insurance covered these at a $10 pp co-pay, color me shocked!) We'll be in Mumbai for two days before our cruise and in Singapore for ~1 1/2 days post-cruise. For Mumbai, my personal objectives are just to go to as many markets/absorb as much local color as possible. We are looking into local guides for this, possibly through our hotel. I have not been to Singapore but my husband has (for work.) He went out for dinner with co-workers and ended up with such severe food-poisoning that he had to have a doctor come to his hotel, and afterwards a duty-nurse and an IV! (Most of this was ALSO covered by our health insurance, though the costs were ridiculously low.) Nevertheless, we will soak up as much local culture/cuisine as possible. :)

 

We already know that SeaDream will take awesomely good care of us once we are on board, I just wondered about those pre- and post-cruise times during which we will be on our own. I guess this worry has been exacerbated a bit by the recent events in Kenya (and knowing that Mumbai has been a terrorist target in the past) but you know what, we intend to enjoy ourselves and the cultures we are visiting without regard to crazy extremists who do not represent them for the most part.

[Varvara]

My husband and I will be travelling with you on the Mumbai - Singapore cruise.

It will be our first time on Sea Dream but we have been on many other cruise lines and we have been to Asia several times including India, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

[southseas]

Varvara, we will look forward to meeting you! We'll be the bespectacled couple with accents (one Southern U.S. and one French.) Would love to get your thoughts on the offered shore excursions.

[Varvara]

South Seas.... I am not too crazy about the limited shore excursions. But I suppose they can't please everyone. We will probably take one in the Andaman Islands but otherwise we are planning on going ashore by ourselves in most ports. I wish we had more time some ports like Cochin and Sri Lanka in order that we could do more independently, as time is always a factor, especially in Sri Lanka with an early 6 pm departure time. So we may be forced to take a tour there in order to make sure we are on the ship. What is your opinion on the tours offered?

 

As for Mumbai, it will definitely be a cultural shock to you. My husband and I agree that going to the markets may be a little ambitious if you haven't been in the scenario of a very hot, crowded, dirty market with pushy vendors, but if you are adventurous and have a good guide, it may be alright. But since you brought up terrorism in your post, keep in mind that markets are areas that are targets as well as train stations and synagogues or any area that is extremely crowded.

 

As for Singapore, it is one the places we feel the safest in. The city is clean, the hotels are top notch and we enjoy the shopping on Orchard Road. We haven't been there for at least 3 years so we look forward to seeing the new Marina Bay Complex and going to Sentosa Island, which was practically untouched when we were first there a over a decade ago. We also enjoyed the Singapore Zoo and the Jurong Bird Park.

[southseas]

Hmmm, I guess it's a good thing we decided against the slum tour, then! ;) We're doing a car tour with a very experienced guide, and while markets will be included they won't be the entire focus. I am also interested in the Kala Ghoda arts district so we are including that as part of the tour. We've done a bit of adventure travel--the Galapagos, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, downtown Atlanta, etc.--and try to just go with the flow. I'm sure we will experience a good bit of culture shock, and we can't wait! :)

 

Singapore seems very promising to us, too! I was tickled to read about how safe the food stalls are--we plan to be a bit culinarily cautious in Mumbai and to go hog wild so to speak in Singapore. We've been reading up a bit on the history of Singapore and are very interested to experience it.

 

Our experience with Sea Dream shore excursions has been overall very positive--we find that they pay attention to details and try to personalize the experience as much as possible. We are particularly interested in the spice farm and elephant orphanage visit, but as always, whether shore excursions go forward or not will depend on how many people sign up. We wish we could spend more time in Sri Lanka, too. As this will be our first visit to these countries, we are interested in getting a 'taste' of the culture, etc. that will help guide future travels. And to be honest, we also booked this particular trip because there will be several sea days--we find that the attentive service and intimate surroundings of the yacht are one of the best parts of any cruise with Sea Dream. (I am not a PR person for the company, really, I'm not!) Anyway, as long as we have good books, interesting people to talk to, cold beverages and a place to relax we're pretty happy.

 

Looking forward to meeting you onboard!

Edited October 18, 2013 by southseas

[Varvara]

We look forward to experiencing Sea Dream as you have and to meeting you as well.

[whatnot]

Since I would love to do this cruise in the future, I am looking forward to your posts!

[southseas]

Whatnot, I will be happy to post notes about our trip! I'm not much one for spending time on a computer while I'm on a trip but I am going to keep a travel journal and will post when I get back. :)

 

I wrote an extensive journal on our last Caribbean trip including a hike we took up to the top of Saba (one of THE highlights of that cruise) but somehow never got around to posting it. The Saba hike is not for the faint of heart (we're not fitness fanatics, but that wasn't the problem, it was my lack of foresight in not wearing moisture wicking fabrics and footwear with better grip to the soles when we were essentially climbing straight up a mountain in a rainforest--I was literally *wringing* out my Tilley hat by the time we got to the summit!) but it was SO worth it once we got to the top and saw all of the island, the villages, the forests and the harbor laid out like so many jewels on a cloth.

 

We're kind of oddballs-when the yacht arrives at an island and everyone goes to the beach we'll sometimes find a local cabbie and go to the downtown and look around, and one of the walks we did on a very undeveloped island that a lot of people didn't like because it was kind of 'rough' with untrimmed paths, etc. we loved because we went through a little wood where there were hermit crabs roaming around everywhere, etc. What I mean to say is that sometimes we like things that might not appeal to everyone but I will happily write up our experiences & I expect this time we'll stay a lot closer to the usual destinations because this is our first time in Asia. Mine, anyway.

 

P.S. I previously wrote that my husband got extremely ill from food he ate in Singapore--turns out I had my locations mixed and he was actually in the Philippines. I don't know how I made that mistake but I wanted to correct my misunderstanding!

Edited October 22, 2013 by southseas

[southseas]

Back from a wondrous trip, tired, happy and in awe of the places we went. I will start a separate thread soon to post about some of our experiences (and I hope others who were onboard will contribute!) There were of course a few glitches but overall my bottom line is that this trip is not to be missed.

 

P.S. There were no kids onboard, and they would have been mind-numbingly bored if they had been.

P.P.S. I did meet the drop-dead gorgeous Varvara and her husband on board: very nice & funny people! :)