Journey to middle earth: Hop on, Now get off!

A tried and trusted transportation method for sight seeing is known internationally as the "Hop On, Hop Off" bus. Today, this was to be the mode of my introduction to Singapore. On the way to purchase tickets, I had the chance to view the Marina Bay skyline in daylight. The very modern buildings, some of which look like they came out of Thunderbirds mixed with the old history, such as our very beautiful old hotel, The Fullerton, which was once the main post office. We were convinced to purchase a 2 day package including a hop on, hop off river cruise.

Little India was colourful. Chinatown markets emptied our wallets. The Raffles Hotel impressed with its history and the phenomenal cost of a drink. At the end of the bus journey, the onboard guide directed us to the nearest river cruise "Hop On" jetty, encouraging us to join the evening cruise. That night we walked to the jetty, waiting for the boat which promptly sailed on past us. Surely we were wrong - so we chased after it through an array of night restaurants. As we passed by each one, we were strongly encouraged to eat at that establishment as we "looked hungry". We noticed the boat did not stop on the next stretch of water so we retraced our steps back to the jetty, once again ambushed at each restaurant. This event was repeated again and suprisingly none of the hasslers remembered us from the three previous, very recent attempts to win our business, despite my stunning looks and striking physique....

After much frustration and trying to find the jetty to "hop on" we finally discovered that there was only one "hop on" stop for this 'hop on, hop off' cruise. To add insult to injury, my mother did a face plant while we were rushing to one of the "not in use" jettys. Finally finding the correct spot, the staff member on duty in his best school teacher voice told my mother off, "Do not roll your eyes at me!" when she enquired why the "hop on, hop off" cruise only had one stop. The 30 minute cruise took us back only over the area where we had just walked and returned us back to the original stop - we had spent three times longer trying to find the jetty than we did on the actual boat. Then we had to walk all the way back past all those restaurants yet again......