Our morning starts early as our ship’s tour meets at 9:00 – so off the gym then a quick breakfast, showered and to the theater for our stickers.  We are way early (as always), only this time the shoreX gal points out how early we are!  Yep, we know.  Anyhow, we hang out at the back of the theater near the exit, watching all the other tours to head off.  Then after a while figure, what the heck, we’ll go on downstairs ourselves -we can find our bus no problem.

When we get to the gangway stairs, there is a huge back up of tour people for some reason – but the other mid-ship gangway is open, so we head there and beat the throngs that are waiting on the stairs.   Turns out they were adjusting the other gangway – which is totally steep – and the gangway we used was fine.  Winding our way through the terminal is definitely déjà vu as it was just about one week ago we did the same thing.  We find our bus easily enough, hop aboard then wait for the rest of the folks to meander out.

We decided to take the tour today because it was called Flora and Fauna – up our alley.  A visit to the Botanical Garden, the Spice Garden and then the Batik factory (ok – don’t know where the fauna will be, but still….).  Sadly, we got a note in our ticket envelope telling us due to road closures for the Thaipusam festival, we can’t go to the Botanical garden, but instead will visit the Clan Jetty.  Really?  We call BS.  The Thaipusam festival isn’t until 2/10 with the main even on 2/11 – no way they are closing the roads a whole day ahead.  Convenient excuse (and PS – Google Maps shows all the roads open – and last week when we spent the overnight here, Google Maps clearly showed all the roads closed for that festival, so there!).  I think it is because of traffic and there was construction up there anyway which they had already told us we would have to walk a little distance to enter the gardens.  To say we are disappointed would be an understatement.  The Clan Jetties are, well, not all that interesting – and we’ve been there.  Oh well – can’t change the itinerary. 

Arriving at the jetty (literally a 2 minute drive – it is right by the ship), we are led through the jetty with copious explanations from our guide Shouk.  He’s full of TONS of information (and I mean tons), but nothing too particularly new, as we follow him through the little boardwalk walkway to the end of the pier.  As we already knew, there are 7 different jetties, each for different Chinese clans living on the island – the Chew Jetty which we are visiting is the largest of the jetties.  Each of these jetties have been here for eons, staked out by claims when the Clans arrived, and each contain a mix of wooden residential houses and shops.  Some are more private than others, the Chew Jetty being the most tourist oriented. 

As typical, we begin our tour at the temple at the entrance to the jetty – listening as Shouk explains the meaning of the guardian statues at the entrance to the temple.  Then proceed down the boardwalk, lined with shops, but also family homes – all wooden with fence post railings on either side – to the fishing platform with views back to the clock tower, culminating at the end of the jetty with great views across the river to the new “long” bridge that connects the island to the mainland.  Plus, another temple here, most likely for fishermen or sailing vessels (but not one Shouk is familiar with, surprisingly since he knows everything else!).

Back on the bus we settle in for a 35-minute drive to the Spice Garden.  Here we are hoping to get some free time for lunch, or at least a snack, since there is no refreshment provided on this 5 hour tour and it is smack dab in the middle of lunch time.  No such luck though – we are split into 2 groups – 1 following a Spice Garden worker who Shouk tells us is his mentor – or Cefu in Chinese; the other following Shouk.  Since we went to the bathroom, we end up with Shouk.  And while the guy is totally knowledgeable about Spices and plants and particularly the Spice Route and history, he never stops talking. 

The gardens are gorgeous, and we see and learn a lot, smelling all sorts of different plants from which Shouk has pulled off leaves, we do see a Sunda Coluga, a flying lemur – which is really cool and probably the highlight of the tour.

There are turtles being raised, a nice stop by a little creek for Pandem, Lemongrass and Stevia tea – tastes like Fruit Loops! Then back through the gardens and onto the bus. Absolutely no free time – and supposedly the restaurant here is really good.  Sigh.

Our last stop at the Batik factory is actually pretty interesting – even if commercialized for tours.  We have a guide here who walks us through the process – from stamped batik to free hand batik which can take many more colors because it is all hand painted.  Then we are set free into the shop – which has some gorgeous clothes and sarongs and wall hangings, but nothing we really need or want, even though we love the designs.  We do actually find a cool apron for $15 USD that we end up buying – and that’s that.  Back to the ship we go.

Not our normal MO, but we get to the pier and go straight back onboard, running up to the buffet to get some food before they close at 2:30.  They end up keeping some stations open longer, since apparently a couple of tours are just coming back.  We’d normally eat outside, as you all know, but since we were just here – and know to get anything decent it’s a 10 to 15 minute walk, and because the Anthem of the Seas has just docked with it’s bazillion people (all Asian – it is on a 3 day Singapore roundtrip), we decided the ship was our best bet.  Plus, we have Thailand tomorrow – for certain we’re eating outside there!

The rest of the afternoon is our norm. Some down time, the gym, pre-dinner drinks, now on our balcony because we can’t face fighting the noise and the crowds in Rendezvous.  Tonight though we are lucky, one of the duos is playing at the Sunset bar, which makes our balcony the perfect place to hang out and listen – without the crowds!  Bonus.

Dinner, as normal, with Ketan and crew, although tonight we actually get a window table because, as Maya says, “you are my friends.”  Yep, we are. Then the balcony and 6 Feet Under.  It is a Johnny Balance show tonight.  One of his shows was enough for us. And we are quite content out here on the balcony, with a nice breeze, some reading and then tv watching until bed.  No complaints here.