Journey To The Center Of The Earth (Part 5)

This will be the final journal entry for the cruise walk-through. I want to finish up this journey so that I can talk about more funny things that happened on the ship. Funny and embarrassing.


Anyway, I hope you guys had as much fun reading my stay on board as much as I had experiencing it! When I read some of the things I wrote in the journal, it didn't sound as fascinating as when I actually did it. But who knows, maybe you guys did. I know I did. So here goes the last day of the cruise.

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I laid in bed for a few seconds before thinking about the sunset shots that I got that evening. I wasn't too happy with the pictures I got because there were too many clouds in the way. Then, the thought of waking up early before dawn came into my head.

"I do it all the time to go swimming. I don't think it's really too bad if I woke up at 6:30am"

And that's what I did. I set my alarm at 6:40am before dawn, which from my experience in the pool was around 6:50am.

That morning, I heard my grandma scrambling to the toilet, and that had woken me up. It was still pitch black in the room. I leaned forward to grab my mobile at the end of my bed to figure out what time it was.

"6:38am"

"O..k.... That's cool." I slid a bit further down the bed, and onto the table so I could get down without making too much noise. The strange thing about my bunk bed was that there was no ladder, nothing to get up. So I had to step on the table at the end of my bed to get up. Even for me, I couldn't jump up because I would probably smack my head on the low ceiling. Anyway, it was fine. I managed.

Slipping on my sandal and grabbing my camera and mobile, I quietly approached the door and opened it. "Oh wait, my hat!" I turned back into the room and had forgotten that I had allowed the retracting door to slam shut. Swiftly, I grabbed my hat and went out the door again; quietly this time. The hall lights woke me up. The bright orange coloured lights led down an endless hallway. Fortunately, the elevators weren't very far. Just a few steps away. I took the stairs up 2 decks, and into the dark sky. The sky didn't seem no where 'ready'. It was still pretty dark. So I just sat in the Terrace and took shots of the place.

I sat and waited. There were quite a number of people walking around already. Some getting ready for the day by walking around, others just up because they're early birds are wandering the place. However, I didn't see anyone like me. I didn't see anyone holding a camera, waiting for the sun to rise. Actually throughout the trip, I didn't see too many people holding a camera in hand, prepared to take random shots like I did. I reckon many of them have been on a cruise before so most of them were pretty familar with the sights on board.

Around 7am, the skies began to brighten. Disappointed by the fact that there were so many clouds in the sky, I waited at the end of the ship where the sun was supposed to rise. Before I knew it, the sky had gotten considerably bright, there wasn't gonna be any chance of getting a good sunrise shot. I took what I could, and decided to head to the front of the ship, to enjoy the scenery.

I walked, and walked, and to my dismay, there at the front of the ship were a whole bunch of people! Well, maybe not that many, but there were quite a number of them, couples mostly. Some where taking photos with their tripods, others just taking pictures of their loved ones. But once again, there wasn't anyone like me. There wasn't anyone alone taking pictures by themselves. Everyone had someone with them.

The walk to the front of the ship seemed endless. People were kinda staring. If not directly, then indirectly. I mean afterall, I was a guy, wearing a cap, strapped with sandals, walking up in shorts, holding a camera. I don't think it gets more touristy than that. Oh, maybe a pouch. That would have done the trick.

Anyway, I stood beside this asian couple, embraced together glancing out into the sea. They weren't too awfully young. I'd estimate late 30s? Somewhere there. So I stood beside them, and took some shots. The sun was well hidden behind the clouds, so there wasn't really much I could take besides the sea and the ship.

Frustrated, I just turned off the camera to enjoy the view. The wind blew across my face and over my hat. The sound of the rushing air got louder if I stood up. I don't really like it because my ears would get cold if I did that for too long. I bent down a little bit and placed my face near glass panels in front of me. It was ok when I stood like that.

After a few minutes in that pose, I decided to go roam the ship a bit. I went in, and went one deck down to the Galaxy of the Stars. There, I found how to get into the Captain's Bridge.

I thought this would be where all the passengers would go in, chat and have a personal encounter with the Captain. So I walked down the spirally staircase, and prepared to be greeted by the bridge members. To my disappointment, there before me stood this massive glass wall that separated the bridge from the room below. That would be the smart thing to do because who knows what crazy passengers like myself might do when I am confronted with a flashy light in the bridge. Perhaps if someone like me were to press that flashy light, it might lead to the cosmic explosion of the entire ship where everyone will have to quickly evacuate the ship in less than 10 seconds. They were smart to have put the glass there.

There in the room was a gallery of the ship's construction history and other random statistics. If you want a look at the pictures I took, they can be found on my MSN space.
While I was taking some pictures, I happen to glance through the glass wall into the bridge. There, I saw the sun brightly shining through the clouds and across the surface of the watery sea.

"Hey!" I said to myself. I rushed up the spirally stairs, through the Galaxy of the Stars, up one deck, and out the emergency exit door. ^^ There before me, was the sight of something I wanted to capture. I ran to the same spot I stood on earlier and began snapping my camera. I must have taken 20 photos at least. I just stood there and snapped one photo after another.

Once again, these lovely glass panels has helped an amateur photographer like myself to take a beautiful shot like this. If you don't like it, I don't care. I like it, and there's nothing you can do about it. w00t! lol

Anyway! After another 10 minutes of enjoying the view, I decided to head back in. Maybe go wash up, seeing that I haven't done anything but leave the room at 6:40am. So I went in, climbed 1 deck down, and there stood my grandma.

"Ni qu na li? Wo men zai zhao ni" (The spelling for the ping ying is courtesy of Cath ^^ If any thing's wrong, don't look at me!! haha, I'm just kidding. Thank you very much Cath! =D ;P)

Anyway, my grandma asked where I went and that my mum and grandma were looking for me. I looked at my mobile to see that it was already 8am.

"Ni de ma ma zai fang jian li" [Your mum is in the room]

"Hao. Wo qu ziao ta" [Ok, I'll go get her] I went down another deck and there stood my mum. What lovely timing.

"Want to go for breakfast?" she asked me.

That morning, we went to the Mediterrean Buffet. I had a good bucket load of food that morning, with only the french toasts and waffles to show you. I ate like a pig again, I had forgotten to take pics of what I ate. So this was the only picture of the food I could take.

I was too selfish to think about the blog photos when it came to food. ><" It's not you, it's me. lol See, I even had to stop myself from eating when I took that photo. See that cut piece of french toast? =P

"Must.... resist.... eating...." lol

When we finished breakfast, we went back to the room and washed up (seeing that I haven't done any of that when I left the room at 6:40am). From there, I decided that I would use up the remaining coins I had left from the arcade. That went on for a few minutes before eventually ran out of coins. At one of the arcade game, I read this notice saying, "Purchase 20 tokens, ie. S$10.00 and get 5 tokens free." Then it read, "Valid only 3 hours prior to arriving at Singapore" Very tempting, but no. I think $30 was enough for me. I'm broke now.

After running out of coins, I took my camera, and headed to the Galaxy of the Star's observatory. It was there that I took some pictures of myself from the reflection of the glass. I played around with the camera a bit more and found out how to initiate the timer.

Then when I got bored of taking pictures of myself (which usually takes be a while XP haha, jk jk), I thought it would be nice to explore the ship one last time. I walked and walked, until I found a way to get to the front of the ship. It was an enclosed area, so I'm guessing at the other end would be the open sea. The entrance to the 'tunnel' of the front of the ship. Looks dark but it really wasn't. There were several fluorescent light bulbs every few metres.

The door as seen in the picture above says "Crew Only", so it might possibly be the entrance to the crew's sleeping quarters. But then again, it could be something else. I'm just guessing here as I go along. This was the front of the ship. A lot of room actually. It was a little bit spooky in there because no one else was there and I could hear the sound of the metal stressing on the tension of the ship =S This door is the door I'm assuming leads into the open vast sea. It's right at the front of the ship, so maybe if you open it, lots of water will start coming in. Then the ship might start going nose down because water is gushing into the front of the ship, making it sink nose first. Then again, I don't want to be the first one to get killed if I opened that door.

The sign when going close up says, "Crew Only". Even if I was part of the crew, I still wouldn't want to be the first one to get killed when I open the door. No thank you very much.

Walking down a little bit more to the right, I saw this porthole.

I had a closer look into the porthole...
... and I thought, wow, what a lovely shot. I must get a shot of it.

And I did. =D I'm so happy. ^^

Going down a little bit more, I came across this sign that I thought was pretty amusing.

No offence to any one who wears glasses but, I thought the sign that pointed out "No Glasses" was pretty amusing. Someone taking the sign the wrong way might think you have to remove your glasses and walk without them. The chances of someone tripping on some obstruction on the ground and tripping over some ropes and toilet paper on the ground may possibly cause that person to accidentally fly above the railings and into the sea. That of course, is someone taking the sign the wrong way by removing their glasses. Someone like me with a wild ridiculous imagination.

Anyway, moving on.

The time came close to leaving the ship, and this was the moment I was dreading ever since the beginning of the trip. Sadly, all good things must come to and end, and I knew sooner or later, I would have to leave.

We had lunch at the Pavilion one last time because my grandma wanted to eat there again - after the impressive meal we had the previous night. We were seated, and only had a wait 5 minutes before all the dishes started pouring out onto our table. I ate a little bit because I was still stuffed with all the food from breakfast. It was heart breaking to see that there was still food on the plates when we were done. I guess that's one of the main reasons why I always eat a lot. If people don't finish the food, I'll try to eat it because I can't stand seeing unfinished food. Which is why I make it my duty to finish it, and thus the reason why people say I eat a lot. Sometimes I am known as the "Garbage Bin". Just like our dad when we kiddies couldn't finish our puny bowl of noodles. And because there were 3 of us, it'll be something like this.

"Daddy! I don't want!"

"Daddy, I'm full."

"Daddy, I need to go to the toilet .... oh, and I don't want"

Again, we went up to the deck after lunch to have a look at Singapore as the ship sailed into the dock. I made sure I had my camera with me. The sun was shining so brightly, I couldn't see the screen on the digital camera. So I had to look through the little hole in the camera (whatever it's called) and take pictures from there.

I like how the view of the land and the ship's glass panels all align together to 'focus' on one centre point. I thought it was really awesome that I could get a picture like that. And how did I get a shot like that hovering above the sea? Simple. I could only get one chance at getting the shot. I took a leap of faith. XP What happened after that. Don't ask. XP

haha, no no. I can't lie on my blog. I didn't jump off the ship. I was standing on a part of the ship were it extends out so you could have a good view at the ship's side. Strange, but true. If you want to see the 'balcony', so to speak, you can see a picture of it with my mum and grandma on my MSN Space.

Once again, the lovely panels.

In this picture, you can see the numerous ships all across the open sea. Being there in person, it was quite phenomenal. Just looking at all those ships scattered across the sea, I don't know how many there were. Way too many to count.

When coming into Singapore waters, a little boat has to 'guide' the ship in. Not too sure how it would guide the ship when this little boat is at the back of the ship. Anyway, if you can see, there is a rope attached to the boat and the ship, so they kinda travel 'together'.

Even if the ship wanted to do something funny like, I don't know... tug of war? lol I don't know how the little boat is gonna survive a thrashing from this massive piece of chunk. Fight! Fight! Fight!

In this picture, you can see the entrance of Sentosa. Down the left hand corner of the picture is the entrance into Sentosa Island. And for those that don't know, the infrastructure with the cable and little thingies on it is the Cable Car service that goes in and out of Sentosa and Singapore.

The mascot of our fine country. The Merlion. It's a combination of a lion's head and a mermaid's end. The statue is in Sentosa Island.

I saw this sign when I was coming out of the ship. I had to take a picture of it to post here. Well, here it is. And that's all I can say about it. lol I took a picture of it so it could be known that I was leaving the ship on my blog. haha

Finally, a photo of the ship itself. The glass that I shot through was blue, so that's why the picture is blueish. Not because I did anything to the photo. Personally, I think the picture would look better without the blueish colouring. But in any case, it still looks ok.

If you look closely into the picture, you can see two trucks near the end of the ship. Tells you how big the ship actually is.

Well, if you really still can't see it (XP), here's a close up of the trucks.
Hopefully you see it now. ^^

We went down the escalators, pass immigration and out the Shopping Centre. From there, it was back to the bus stop.