I didn't have very much expectations about the company cruise trip when my boss announced that it was happening, a part of me felt like it was a very last minute decision with hardly any proper itinerary prepared, so there was no way our plans for the trip was going to be maximized.
And then of course there is a part of me that is also just battling this feeling of loneliness right now, so the thought of being stuck on a ship with my own thoughts, in my own little confined cabin was a bit depressing.
But thankfully before this trip, I went a bit crazy on Hinge and was matching with a bunch of profiles, so I had a lot of texting with a bunch of different people to keep my mind busy, I felt like an online dating whore.
Day 1 - Embarkment Day
We had planned to meet was 10.30am, but I was there by 10am and decided to just check-in my luggage at the counter, then waited inside the place for my colleagues to arrive.
But after just sitting around, I decided I didn't want to wait for them anymore because the queue to check-in was starting to get longer and longer, so I joined and then realized, by sheer luck, that the 2 ladies directly in front of me were my colleagues who had been just eyeing around the crowd for me.
We checked into the counter and were given our room key, then headed to the waiting area to be embarked...
Everyone went to put their luggage into their respective rooms, mine was checked-in, so I didn't have any luggage to put down, but I went to check out my room and it was small...
Shot taken a night when my luggage finally arrived.
... since the cruise was booked pretty last minute, we could only get the Oceanview suite, which meant there was a window but no balcony, so our view was literally the ocean. It was honestly decent for what it is and I am very grateful to my boss for upgrading me to my own room.
After settling down, all of us met at the corridor because our rooms were thankfully next to one another except for one colleague who got affected because he ended up getting his own room thanks to my request for my own.
We headed to the top deck for our lunch...
... and the queue into the buffet restaurant was crazy long and barely moving.
It sucked and I was completely bummed out at this point because if this was a preview of what to expect for the next 4 days, we are gonna be wasting a lot of time just standing around waiting to get into the restaurants.
But mid-way through queuing, we were alerted that there was a smaller buffet right outside the main restaurant where we were, and it served a much smaller variety of food, but we didn't have to queue up for it, so we settled for that instead...
First meal on the first day, it was very disappointing. After the meal, we decided to just explore the rest of the cruise and walked around a bit, the weather was not great...
... the sky was overcast and it was drizzling, people were still in the pool swimming despite that...
... all the outdoor areas were wet as well, which was a bit sad.
... but the view of the ocean was pretty nice.
Once we were done with the upper deck, we headed into the lower deck and that was where all the action was happening...
... all the jackpot machines that lined the walkway were all occupied by these old folks and they were all locked in and gambling away.
There really wasn't too much to see, there were a few stores here and there, and I came across a few blind boxes....
After walking aimlessly for a while, my boss decided we should go sing some Karaoke, so we went to check the price and it was $140 for 2 hours, which is insanely expensive, we decided to just go back to our rooms to rest, but after a while, my boss decided we should just go for it anyways because there was literally nothing else to do...
I don't usually drink, but I did during the Karaoke session, it was pretty fun, everyone sang, the older ones sang their oldies, and then the younger ones and my boss sang the more modern offerings.
We split up shortly after and I decided to explore the ship on my own, found a cafe in the lower deck that sold Matcha Strawberry Latte for $10...
... it was actually a pretty decent cup of Matcha, the colour was dark, the strawberry sauce had real full sized strawberries in it.
Went to look at some perfumes that the boutique store was selling after I was done with my Matcha, ran into my colleague who was also looking to get some perfumes and the both of us were there for quite a while, contemplating whether to buy or not because there was a 15% discount going on that was only going to be for the first day. I couldn't find any scent that I was particularly drawn to, so I didn't end up getting anything because it was still a little over a hundred dollars.
We split off and then got together again for our first dinner onboard the ship...
... the serving size for some of the dishes were questionable, the food itself was alright I guess, just not really my style so I didn't particularly enjoy this meal. Almost everything had bones in them, the pork ribs, the fish, the prawn had shells that needed to be peeled, They did serve us like char siew slices, but they only brought 2 plates that had 6 slices each, I felt like I was eating from a sample plate.
We then called it a day after this because this was a late dinner, by the time we were done, it was probably around 9pm, so all of us headed back into our rooms, I took a bath and started scrolling on my phone, I was also kept busy with chats with a few of my Hinge matches, so they were able to really keep me entertained throughout the day.
Then I got an email from HDB about my BTO Application.
I had told myself that if I don't get it, it's fine because the BTO in Clementi is extremely expensive and the 10 year MOP is not something I am very comfortable with, so I went into the results with that mentality...
... sigh.
The feeling of not being able to get it still sucks, I didn't even manage to get a ballot number, that's how bad it was. I wonder if I hadn't cancelled my first ballot, would it have made any difference.
I am not upset I didn't get the flat at Clementi, I guess I am just more bummed out by the fact that the idea of actually having my own place has to be postponed till the next exercise, and even then, it won't be confirmed. The good thing is the next exercise will be next month, but the options for next month doesn't really have any location that I personally like, only one I could consider if Jurong, so we shall see. I would like to apply for Tengah SBF, but the application rate for those are way too high.
My day ended with that not so great BTO Ballot result and my overall impression of the cruise in general is that it is seriously boring as fuck, I was so glad I did not go through with a solo cruise trip because if it was already that bad with my colleagues, I can't imagine how much worst it would be completely alone, it would be such a sad sight.
Day 2 - Penang
In order to avoid the insane queue, we all decided to get up extremely early and head to the restaurant for breakfast at 7am.
I was already up at like 5.30am and decided to spend the first hour just doing some exercise in my room, so by the time it was time to meet up with everyone else, I was already very awake, everyone else however had bloated faces and I could tell they had just gotten up.
The plan to skip the crowd worked really well because there were so much available seats, we didn't really have to queue for our food, and everything worked out really well.
Since there wasn't any proper itinerary planned prior to this trip for what to do in Penang, my boss decided to just quickly plan one out, and the first thing he decided we should do is go to a shopping mall to avoid the afternoon Sun.
Disembarkment was at 11pm, so we all decided to just walk around the ship again...
... we headed out a little later to avoid the first crowd of people, and had a quick bite at the cruise restaurant before leaving the ship for Penang.
My boss called a Grab and managed to get one within 10 minutes, despite the crazy crowd that were still gathered outside the ferry terminal.
Since we were a group of six, we had to get a big car, for some reason, my accountant thought I should take the center seat because I was the skinnier one and didn't need as much space.
I don't sit the center seat often because I am too tall, so I will usually end up blocking the rear view mirror, but I also didn't feel comfortable asking her to go in first because the middle seat tend to be very uncomfortable, it just didn't feel very nice, so I begrudgingly obliged.
It was the most uncomfortable ride of the entire trip, I was already having pretty bad lower back ache and the arched middle seat was not doing me any favors, the ride was 15 minutes long and it just got worst and worst.
When we finally reached the mall, all I could think about was the ride back to the Ferry and the middle seat I would potentially have to sit again.
Anyways, the mall itself didn't have anything too special, it just feels like any other mall in Singapore, there were a lot of familiar brands.
I can't remember the mall's name, but our first meal on land was Penang food in the shopping mall's food court....
... there was nothing authentic about this, nobody was impressed, in fact, everyone was kinda disappointed at the food. We didn't end up finishing them because it just wasn't good.
We were done by around 2.15pm, and everyone decided to have a bit of free and easy and explore the mall on our own until 3.30pm.
It was way too long! I walked into a few stores, stayed the longest at this perfume place and smelled a bunch of perfumes I wasn't going to get, but the staff was really helpful so I felt kinda bad not getting anything in the end. I was pretty much done with the mall at around 3.00pm, by which time I ran into my boss and we attempted to wait at the main entrance until everyone else arrived, there wasn't any seating so it was not a great idea.
I ended up walking around again because 30 minutes of just standing there would feel like forever, so I got myself some Famous Amos, just as a snack for the evening back onboard the ship.
When everyone was finally gathered, my boss called for a Grab to take us to the Penang Art Street, he then also offered to take the middle seat in the car after I complained about how bad my back was aching during the first ride.
... this place reminded me of Haji Lane, there were a bunch of shops and cafes everywhere, but everyone was walking and not really taking time to explore the different shops and cafes, it's like the goal was just to go there just for the literal sake of walking finish the entire stretch of road and calling it a day.
I had done some research on the place the night before and knew there were some places to visit...
... like this little ice cream shop.
I wouldn't say it's a must visit, but it is better than just walking the entire stretch of street without actually visiting any of the cafes.
My colleague got their soft serve, and I was just helping her hold on to it while she went to get some more souvenirs at the store across the street.
I got their Cereal Milk Ice Cream, which sadly didn't come in a soft serve version, but it was good, it reminded me of the one at MilkBar in America, this one had bits of cornflake in it so there was a nice chewy bite to it from the frozen soggy cereal
My boss and accountant both taking pictures of their soft serve, which I thought was kinda funny in an endearing way.
After the ice cream was done, we came to this spot...
Not sure what this place is called, but it's apparently a great spot for taking photos...
... and I saw this place that was selling Turkish Coffee, but because it was already 5pm, I was definitely not gonna get a cup of that, instead, I got a Nutmeg Soda, which tasted a bit like watered down Coca Cola.
After this, we did more walking, came across a local perfume shop, wasn't too impress with their offerings so I got nothing, but my accountant did end up getting their hand creams.
It was hot! But luckily it wasn't humid, so we were mainly battling with dry heat, I didn't get sticky or overly sweaty.
The goal was to visit Kimberley Street for some authentic Penang Street Food, but it wasn't fully opened yet, and since we had to go back to the cruise by a certain time, we settled for a little hawker place we found instead...
We were still full from the ice cream, so my boss only ordered 3 plates of food, but the general consensus was that this tasted much better than what we had at the foodcourt in the mall.
I really wanted to get something to eat in the ship at night in my cabin besides the Famous Amos cookies, so I walked over to a cafe nearby that sold Tiramisu...
The cafe was quite empty, so it was nice and quiet, and the aircon was very much welcomed after having been walking under the Sun for a while.
The plan in the beginning was for me to just get my Tiramisu to go, and then we will head back to the cruise, but my boss decided he wanted to have a cup of coffee before we head back, so he got drinks for anyone who wanted one, I took that opportunity to ordered a cup of Matcha Latte and all of us just chilled in the cafe for a while. I had a lot of messages to reply to because I was an Online Dating Whore on that trip, so I got to them and then we headed back to the ship.
There was another smaller cruise ship docked next to our cruise at the shore and the size comparison is massive, our cruise looks like a literal building.
Everyone went back to their cabin to rest up and bath, then we met up again for a proper dinner...
... what I had.
It really looks like IKEA food. The taste was alright I suppose, nothing to scream about.
After dinner we went to watch a show at the Theatre, I didn't particularly enjoy it very much but my colleagues seemed to like it, I just don't think I am someone who can appreciate those type of theatre shows, but it was a good way to kill time I suppose.
When the show was over, I went back to my cabin to have my durian tiramisu cake, no cutlery available so I had to use 2 coffee stirrers as chopstick to have my cake. It was pretty good!
Day 3 - Malacca
The final full day of this trip.
We opted to have Chinese Food for Breakfast and it was a decent spread, not too much, for the six of us to fill our belly before our disembarkment into Malacca
The disembarkemnt was scheduled to start from 1.00pm, and there will be ferries that would go back and forth to bring people to the land and then back to the cruise, we wanted to avoid the crowd, so we decided to go a little later...
So we did and got send to the theatre which was functioning as a waiting room, there was a staff who was just guiding and instructing us. We were in the theatre for probably a full hour before it was our turn to take the boat out to Malacca
In the middle of waiting, the staff suddenly felt like singing Karaoke and actually sang the entire Whitney Houston song, I Have Nothing, he was actually pretty decent and I just thought it was quite funny because no one really asked for it, he just wanted to sing and he was really into it as well.
The boat that we were ferried in was actually a life boat, it was small and it shook a lot, since my colleagues and I were the first few to board the boat, we were just rocking back and forth in there the entire time because the waves were quite strong, it was really really bad, and people were so slow, especially all the older folks.
The ride to Malacca was equally bad because the boat driver was moving so fucking slow as well, pair that with the rocking of the boat caused by the wave, it was really causing major motion sickness on my end.
When we finally reached the shore, the crew let the people who were above deck get off the ship first, so the ones who came into the ship first and had to endure the stuffiness and the initial rocking of the boat were the last to get out.
I was just glaring at everyone who was taking their time to climb down the steps, because the slower they took, the longer the rest of us had to wait, and we all really wanted to get out of the ship.
We headed to Jonker Street once we were free, which was within walking distance from the Ferry terminal, and immediately headed for the first shop to get all the goodies. Since I hadn't really gotten anything from Penang, I made sure to get as much as I could here.
My boss got all of us chendol that was situated in that very same shop and it was pretty good. We also got all our snacks and souvenirs at this first place we visited, which I guess we had to because the store is right there and we probably weren't gonna come back to it again at the end of the day.
We pretty much walked the whole stretch of Jonker Street right after that, and it was just straight walking, we didn't really stop to visit any of the cafes or shops along the way, it was just like what happened at Penang, my boss just wanted to make sure we walked the entire stretch for the sake of being able to see everything, but also nothing at the same time.
At the end of the road, he decided to make a U-Turn and we ended up going to this cafe that is tucked behind another shop, it was a pretty quiet place because it's not really one of those "must visit when in Jonker Street" type of cafes, I did come across a few of those popular ones during our brisk walk, but they were crowded and my boss didn't seem interested to really stop.
I got myself a cup of Matcha... naturally.
They had 2 options, their Original Matcha and Uji Matcha. Original cost about 15 ringgit whereas Uji was about 24 ringgit, I was too lazy to go divide it by 3 and actually calculate the cost difference in Singapore Dollars, so I went with the original one instead and it was a pretty disappointing cup.
It tasted too much like the CBTL one, reminded me more of a dessert than actual Matcha Latte, should have just gone for the Uji because the price difference would have only been less than SGD $3.
We sat around for a while, discussed where to visit next and I honestly didn't feel like we did much in Jonker Street because of how quickly we were zipping pass every single shop.
Dinner was outside of Jonker street, so we took a Grab over...
...and this was recommended by our accountant, who is born in Malacca.
I generally do not care so much for Asian food, but this one was actually really good, everything dish was very flavorful, it was just a very delicious meal, I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
But it might also have to do with the fact that we didn't really have any proper lunch when we Disembarked because of how long it too for us to actually Disembark, which messed up our original schedule of going for Chicken Rice Balls.
There wasn't much time left after dinner was over since the last ferry back to the cruise was at 7.30pm. We took another Grab over to the Ferry Terminal, got there at about 6.30pm thinking it wasn't gonna be too crowded because it's cutting pretty close to the last Ferry...
We were wrong, there was a queue that stretched from the entrance all the way back here, I thought this was for the next ferry and that it was already pretty bad...
But Lo and fucking Behold...
We got ushered inside, got seated by the staff and then waited for about 30 minutes for things to happen, this photo was after 30 minutes when we finally got ushered out of the waiting area...
...only to find ourselves in ANOTHER waiting area...
We finally boarded the ferry at around 7.45pm and got back to the cruise a little before 8pm, thankfully the ferry back was a large boat, so the rocking and swaying was at a minimum.
According to my colleague, we spend 2 hours just waiting
My colleagues decided they wanted to catch the final show at the cruise theatre, so they went ahead and I decided to just go back to the cabin and rest because it's just really not my thing. So I washed up, replied to all the messages that I had because I was in my Online Dating Whore era on the ship and then met up again at 8.30pm for some Gelato.
We hadn't visit the Gelato Shop until this very evening, and it was honestly pretty good, I got myself a Strawberry with Chocolate Rice.
Then we just walked around the cruise ship a bit more, since it was going to be the last night for us onboard.
This was the main performance stage in the middle of casino area.
My boss wanted to get a drink, so we visited Zouk on the top deck and it was extremely quiet because it was a headphone party, it was really weird. Didn't end up staying in Zouk because of how odd the atmosphere felt.
Since there wasn't much else to do, I broke off from the group and went to the cafe where I would get my Matcha to get some supper in the form of...
I guess only their Matcha was good because these 2 were kinda thrash, I felt a bit gross because I just had Strawberry Ice Cream not too long ago and I was already stuffing my face with that concoction.
Day 4 - Go Home
There is really nothing much to report on the last day, normally I would spend the last day of my trip buying as much souvenirs and snacks as I can, but since we are stuck on a boat, there really wasn't anything worth getting.
We had our breakfast....
... and I decided to get my last cup of Matcha from the Cafe, and had as much of it at the cafe while I got back to replying my messages, after I was done with my all messages, headed back to the cabin and just stayed there until the timing to disembark.
If I had a book, the window area would have been a perfect little nook to just sit in and read, but alas I didn't and I only manage to come up with this set up 30 minutes before we were set to disembark.
Disembarkment took a hot minute, there wasn't any clear instructions as to what was going on, so people were just queueing up with no idea what we were actually queueing up to do, we are originally in line at Deck 6, then one of the staff told us to go queue at Deck 7 instead, so we went up to join the queue there, that queue did not move at all, and one of my colleague decided to go back to Deck 6 to check, realize the queue for Deck 6 was moving, so all of us when back down there...
... this is the queue, some were standing, others were seating, the problem is we didn't have any proper system in place, so most people came out of their cabins at the same time and it was honestly quite a mess. We could have and should have just waited in our cabin until the main bulk of the crowd cleared out because it took us an hour from leaving the cabin room, until we finally disembark, this was almost as bas as the disembarkment into Malacca, except we had to ferry that we needed to take to bring us to the mainland.
The same staff who was guiding us through the Malacca disembarkment was also doing the Singapore, and like the last time, he also started singing.
Most of us really just wanted to get off the ship at this point.
We eventually did and due to how crowded it was at the Ferry Terminal, trying to call a Grab just felt like a challenge, so I opted to take the MRT back, it was 450m from the Ferry Terminal, since there were a lot of senior citizens onboard the ship, there were also a lot who were walking to the MRT Station from the Ferry Terminal, and they were walking to fucking slowly it was driving me nuts.
I took the train to Newton, and then decided to just take a Grab back from there, got picked up in a Mercedez Benz, which was surprising, but the driver was extremely unhelpful and didn't bother to help with the luggage.
I now have zero mood the work and the fact that there is now nothing in the immediate future for me to look forward to has brought me back into a slightly depressive state again. I'm just really fucking bored with life and with work in general.
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