Singapore to Japan Cruise - March 2024 (Part 1)

Buckle up - it was a long and eventful cruise, so this will be a long post.

This was my seventh cruise, and by far the most expensive, funded by money my dad left me when he died in 2016. I'd been keeping it safe in case there was a tax bill to pay, but when the seven years was up and I was able to access it I decided to spend it on a bucket list cruise. He was well travelled so I think he'd have approved.

My mother died a month to the day before we were due to leave, so it seemed even more important that I make the most of living and making amazing memories. You never know how long you'll get. It is so difficult not being able to tell her all about it, though.

Roderic and I were joined on this cruise by my youngest, Val, and Val's favourite cousin Grey (sorry Niki and Lara!) who is just two months younger than Val. Val has been learning Japanese for the last three years and both children love Japan so this was something we were all very exited about.

We left from Heathrow on the evening of 1st March, arriving in Singapore after a turbulent 13-hour flight on the evening of 2nd March since Singapore is 8 hours ahead of UK time. Singapore airport is considered to be the best in the world, and as we walked through looking for the taxi rank the children apparently got a glimpse of the world's largest indoor waterfall and the Koi pond, but Roderic and I missed it. 

Singapore smells beautiful. The airport was full of fragrant flowers and the taxi also smelt lovely. The city was impressive right from the start, with very tall skyscrapers with such interesting architecture and clever design that they were also beautiful and elegant. Everywhere was spotlessly clean, and of course it was deliciously warm.

Our hotel, the Capitol Kempinsky, was stunning. Singapore is an interesting mix of old colonial buildings and modern structures and our hotel was one of the former, taking up an entire block but also cleverly encompassing the Capitol Theatre and a shopping mall, much of which was underground. In fact our hotel rooms overlooked the restaurants in the central atrium.

Grey and Val in the hotel foyer as we check in

One of the elegant "ladies in red" (Tomoko, who was Japanese and who the children loved) checked us in and showed us to our rooms, and wonderful rooms they were. The bathrooms were particularly impressive. The children had a bath in theirs, and at the touch of a button the "mirror" at the foot of the bath turned into a television. They also loved that the toilet bowl was lit so you could see it in the dark, and the seat was heated. (Toilets were quite a theme of our trip, more on them later.)

We only had one full day in Singapore, so after one of the best hotel breakfasts I've ever experienced (they had Asian, Indian, British and American sections) we decided to visit Chinatown, or Kampong Glam as it's known, which was about a ten minute walk from our hotel. It was busy and colourful and bright, with a large mosque in the centre, but interestingly wasn't particularly Chinese. There were sari shops and a real mix of cultures, and we found this to be the case for a lot of Singapore. I think Val put it succinctly by saying, "When the British gave Singapore independence it's as if they said, 'Which Asian nation would you like to represent?' and Singapore said, 'Yes'." It really is a hotch-potch of all sorts of cultures, all rubbing along very nicely together, but it's very comfortable for visiting Brits like us. They drive on the left, the road markings are the double-yellow and white dotted lines we're used to, and our hotel was the block within Hill Street, Coleman Street, North Bridge Road and Stamford Road.

Kampong Glam - lots of character and colourful murals

There was a 7-11 near our hotel and the teenagers seemed to want to get noodles from there for most meals, especially when we failed to find McDonald's (there were several, we just couldn't find them due to lack of internet access for Google maps). I did also take them to a Japanese restaurant for Val's favourite noodles, but there was unashamedly nothing on the menu for vegetarians (this would also be a theme) so I just had the complimentary bean sprouts.

In the afternoon Roderic and I went to Gardens by the Bay and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. It rains a lot in Singapore and we got soaked. I think the gardens with the amazing sky trees might have been more enjoyable in better weather, and we were also unable to do the viewing deck of the hotel, but we did have a wonderful pizza dinner at the shopping mall there.

It’s when Roderic commented that he’d be better able to admire the Sky trees if they weren’t all covered in plants that I realised this marvel of ecological engineering was wasted on us. 

The following morning it was dry again and a lovely 30 degrees so once I'd packed I walked down to see the merlion. I passed a wedding outside the supreme court building, and a police surveillance robot. I stopped to take a photo of the robot and it saw me doing so and did a little twirl for me.

The Merlion washing my hair

Surveillance robot

By the time I got back our taxi had arrived so we headed off to the port to join our ship. As efficient as ever, I'd printed our luggage tags and put them in specially purchased plastic holders to attach safely to our cases, but blonde as ever I had then forgotten all about them, failed to give them to everyone, and in fact lost them, so the staff had to write out luggage tags for us. (I found them when I unpacked my suitcase.)

We entered the ship via the art gallery on deck 4. I've been on a ship with an art gallery and art auctions before and it's always seemed a really odd thing to make space for on a cruise ship, but Val, who is an art student, loved it, spent a lot of time there, went to several of the talks, the VIP reception, and nearly bought a painting, so clearly I'm a philistine.

Our staterooms were across the corridor from each other but Roderic and I had the one with the balcony and the children had an inside room - no window. It was the nicest room I've had on a cruise ship so far. Although the ship was built in 2000 (hence the name - Celebrity Millennium) it was refurbished in 2019, and it even had USB ports by the bed - which is a good thing as my extension lead got confiscated. (Surge protected extension leads are a fire hazard on cruise ships.)

We explored the ship and had dinner in the main dining room. We ended up having the same waiters and table each night and they were lovely. Richard and Gale were especially good to Grey, who has a dairy allergy, and brought the next day's menu each evening so that the chef could make Grey's choice without using milk. The chocolate cake with a biscuit base was a particular hit. On that first night Val decided to try escargots which were a daily feature on the menu. They were not a hit, and Roderic agreed when he ordered them the next night.

Our next port stop was Vietnam. It’s quite a culture shock going from Singapore to Vietnam. Singapore is a wealthy nation where street touting is illegal, but Vietnam is a developing country where you are constantly and relentlessly pursued by people trying to sell you things. T-shirts, sunglasses, fans, and frequently they are working with pickpockets who will take your wallet while you’re fending off their advances. One woman in our tour group had her phone stolen from her pocket.

We did a cruise excursion in Ho Chi Minh City. I don’t much like cruise excursions, they’re generally expensive and a bit like a cattle market with everyone crowding into the theatre waiting for the number on their sticker to be called. My preferred option is just to get off the ship and explore the area, but we docked at a container port about an hour from anywhere so I booked the only excursion available - to the Post Office, a lacquerware factory, and an upmarket shopping street.

The coach stopped on the way to allow everyone to get off for a toilet break. Luckily I didn't need to. I was told later that they were... unpleasant. Even the ones which weren't holes in ground. Another culture shock after the spotless Singaporean porcelain thrones.

Our coach burst a tyre on the way so there was more walking than originally planned. Our Vietnamese tour guide told us with great pride about the events of 30th April 1975 and how that date is celebrated and honoured as "Liberation Day" and we were able to see, in front of the parliament building, the actual tank that burst through the compound to capture Saigon.

Street vendor outside the post office in Ho Chi Minh City. Note the little dog with his own fan. I was amazed at what this woman was wearing in 36 degree heat.

The tank which led the convoy of seven tanks resulting in the fall of Saigon on 30th April 1975

Sign celebrating 30th April

The post office may sound dull but it was a beautiful building with lots of vendors inside, and an interesting history. There’s a big picture of Ho Chi Minh in pride of place, which is how I learned he’s an actual person. The laquerware factory was interesting and shows how much work goes into this traditional craft (it's made of eggshells) and the shopping street, which our guide was terrible proud of,  looked just like any other shopping street to me. It was 36 degrees at this stage so we found a nice air conditioned mall and enjoyed browsing until it was time to meet out guide and newly repaired coach to go back to the ship.

Ho Chi Minh central post office

Hand made laquerware

Our next port was Nha Trang where Roderic, Grey and I tendered ashore on the ship's lifeboats (eventually - it was shockingly slow) and were almost immediately surrounded by men trying to persuade us to take their taxi to the beach. Even though it was only a twenty minute walk the whole way there they stopped to ask us whether we needed a ride. You have to be direct and rude in saying no and they are extremely insistent.

Celebrity Millennium among some of the larger traditional fishing boats

We took a wrong turn in Nha Trang and found ourselves in a shanty town of corrugated metal huts on what looked like a filthy building site.It led to the seafront where there were little coracles and people who evidently made their living catching and selling shellfish, but there was no access to the beach, so we went back to the main road and eventually discovered the huge, largely empty and very beautiful sandy beach where we spent a couple of hours. The sea was warm, and notwithstanding the busker it was a relaxing way to pass an afternoon. Across the bay from us was Vinpearl, a luxury resort and theme park with a cable car leading from Nha Trang to Vinpearl island. It seems harsh that people live in such poverty looking out on such luxury.