My Cruise Journey

I had never thought I would be involved in the cruise industry. After spending a short spell in the airline industry in the 80s, I then ventured into the travel industry. Cruising in the early days was meant for the discerning travellers and mostly, the westerners when their international cruise vessels made a stopover in Singapore. Cruise vessels were usually docked at Keppel Container Terminal as the cruise centre was not ready yet. The birth of cruising in Singapore and the region started in the late 80s and very quickly, cruise vessels, the likes of Andaman Princess and Coral Princess soon made Singapore its home port. It is undeniable that high sea gaming was the key reason why cruise vessels making its presence here. Cruise-to-nowhere or high seas cruise soon became the mainstay in the itinerary until the governing body had to step in to ‘pressure’ local cruise operators to do more destination calls. That year was 1991 when I received a call from a friend who was the executive director of the cruise company asking if I was interested to join them. They were looking for someone to help set up a travel outfit and without a second thought, I jumped on the first opportunity. The company had chartered two cruise vessels, Orient Sun and Royal Pacific (the latter sank in August 1992 from a collision). I have had no idea what was I supposed to do when my friend asked me to pack my belonging to cruise onboard their newly chartered vessel, Royal Pacific. He only said urgent help needed onboard. But I was supposed to set up the travel outfit and I had wondered how kind of help or expertise I could offer. I had never been with a cruise liner before. However, like an obedient soldier taking order from his commander, I did not question further. On my first day of work, I was sent to Keppel Container Terminal to board the vessel. While waiting for Royal Pacific to arrive, I can’t believe my own eyes when I saw rows of white Mercedes lining up at the wharf side. The PR personnel from the company had also gathered too. Handphone then was the bulky Motorola type for the privileged ones only. They were practically talking on the mobiles oblivious to my presence. Finally, the vessel slowly making its way to the wharf side. I must admit my heart was thumping with excitement as it was my first time coming that close to a luxurious cruise vessel. When the gangway was ready, the VVIP passengers were first to disembark. They were quickly ushered to the waiting Mercedes. Their dress code reminded me of a typical HK ‘big brother’ movie scene – it was so surreal. Apparently, they were high stake VVIPs where winnings or losses can go into millions. I was introduced to the chief purser whom I was supposed to help. After a brief conversation with him, I was soon left on my own and I still did not have a single clue of my assignment. It was a newly chartered vessel and every department was still trying to get things organised. My friend probably thought with my airline experience, I could help in the purser/front office. Alas, cruise and airline are completely different entities altogether. Guess, I had to figure out what to do during the long voyage. It was a 5-day turnaround voyage to Tanjong Priok (Jakarta) and back. I decided to park at the front office to understand the ship operation. As I hardly knew anyone onboard save for the chief purser who was introduced to me, I thought I should move around to see who I can make friends with. Fortunately, there was a small of Singaporeans onboard. The late hotel manager was a Singaporean and he brought his Singaporean core team to head the various departments. Very quickly, they became my close buddies onboard. M/V Royal Pacific was built in 1965 as a car ferry. Her original name was M/V Empress which was then plying domestically in Australia. The 13,176 gross tonnage car ferry was reconfigured into a passenger cruise vessel sometime in the late 80s by its new owner. The newly furbished cabins and amenities onboard were luxurious. Compared to older vessels like Coral Princess, Andaman Princess and Orient Sun which were already trading in this water, Royal Pacific was a class of its own.

The vessel when it was still named as ‘Empress’ undergoing re-configuration from ferry to passenger vessel in 1989/91. This is how I got into cruise industry when I was supposed to set up a travel outfit. There was no guidebook to follow and everything was a new learning curve for me. M/V Royal Pacific was the first vessel I got involved in. Unfortunately, the vessel sank in August 1992 when we set off for a 2-day high seas voyage. With the sinking, it did cast a brief dark cloud on the cruising industry. My cruise journey continues…

Second Trip By Apex Club of Singapore

On 12 June, Saturday 48 of us, mostly from volunteer organisation group, Apex Club and some friends made a trip to St Ignatius School in Batam. This was the second trip after SANL group last trip on 22 May.

The President of Apex Club, Chao Loy did a marvellous job in marshalling his ever enthusiastic volunteers to contribute a lot more things prior to the trip, from toys, clothes, shoes, stationery, etc - simply unbelievable! One of them who works in MTV Asia even managed to convince her company to donate brand new children's toys and shoes, among others, so nice of her.

The travel sequence was almost similar from the last group except this time around, majority will be spending one well-deserved night at Batam View after the day visit to the school.

Departed from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal at 9am sharp and upon arrival at Nongsapura Ferry Terminal, everyone was transferred to Batam View for light refreshment and some briefing. Everything went hitch-less, even some members didn't realise they had already cleared immigration and customs.

It was only 9am when we arrived at Batam View, rooms were not ready for early check-in. Thus, we proceeded to board the coach for the school after briefing was done and we left at about 10.00am.

When everyone boarded, each of them was given a lunch box to be taken first while the children will have theirs at the school. The last time with SANL group, we had lunch at the school and bringing with us some 250 lunch boxes to be taken with the children but it was a mess when our food was invaded by hundreds of houseflies. This time around, it was better to have lunch first and leaving quality time to keep the children entertained instead.

While on the coach and ya, the journey took some 1 and an hour and with plenty time to kill, Chao Loy who is known as 'Karaoke King' took the initiative to sing for us to keep us pepped up. For some reasons initially not known to me, there were some friendly resistance from other members. He was not swayed, took the microphone and started singing which didn't really rhyme but still acceptable lah. He went on for few more songs, everyone just 'tahan' somewhat. Halfway through his singing, the aircon suddenly went dead. Almost immediately, fingers pointed at him for the demise of the aircon. It gestured in jest, knowing too well his singing played no play to the aircon saga. Since we were already half through through our journey, we decided to press on. We simplyopened all the windows for natural air instead. It was quite sunny.

Unfazed, Chao Loy decided to continue singing but this time, most of us raised objections and one of us joked he might invite rain this time. With confidence, he shot back and assured us that Batam won't rain. He then started singing. Well, God is probably watching and true to form, rain came & heavy too and we had to shut our windows. Can you imagine? With windows shut and air-con down - all thanks to Chao Loy, his songs and his assurance. We were supposed to be angry under that circumstances, shouldn't we? On the contrary, we had a good time laughing and laughing away - poor Chao Loy, though he is the President of the Club but he has to be the 'joker' for the day to keep us entertained. We had a field day.

Again, God was kind to us. The moment we arrived at the school, miraculously there was no rain at all. However, shortly after transferring all the donated items from the coach, it poured heavily.

Everyone had a great time at the school. The new playground equipment was there, just delivered and the children were happily playing among themselves, well before the rain came. This nondescript playground is nothing compared to those in Singapore but to the children, it is certainly 'God-send' to them. From the donated sum we have had raised, S$6,010 to be exact and so far, we had already put in place playground equipment and 50 lockers in the school. We still have more than S$2,000 to be spent which will be utilised to the fullest, rest assured.

Thanks, once again to the good samaritans from Apex Club and friends for bring joys and laughters to the children at St Ignatius School.

Trip By Apex Club of Singapore on 12 June, Saturday

Charity Day Trip by SANL & Friends

The response received to the charity trip to St. Ignatius School had been overwhelming that two departures have to be carved out, first departure was scheduled on 22 May and the second one is on 12 June.

In our first departure on 22 May, we were supposed to have 40 of us from the Singapore Adventurous & Nature-Lovers (SANL) group and friends but 8 had to cancel at last minute due to personal issues. Finally, 32 from our group left by BatamFast ferry at 9am from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.

The ferry ride took just about 40 mins and upon our arrival at Nongsapura Ferry Terminal, we had an express immigration clearance without the need to queue up. By 0900 hrs, Indonesian time, we were at Batam View Beach Resort reception lobby. Breakfast was made ready for us.

Prior to set-off, as event organiser, I took the opportunity to address the group and one of the key issues was to announce to all that we had raised a net proceed of S$5,803.10 from this project. The large part of the proceed will be used to erect a playground at the school. We had also received loads of donation in kinds, ranging from children clothes, toys, books and stationery, among others which were all ferried to Batam in batches thus saving us the big logistical nightmare if we were to bring everything on the day of departure.

Two witnesses appointed from each group, SANL & friends on 22 May departure and Apex Club on 12 June will help to ensure every cent is properly accounted for and a final statement on the expenditure will be made publicly on this blog for everyone sighting. Transparency must be the order of the day!

The coach journey took us some one and a half hour but we were all too excited and were looking forward to it. When we finally arrived at St. Ignatius, everyone helped to unload the lunch boxes, kueh kueh and donated items. It was an automatic drill by us, everyone was too eager to help out in one way or another.

It is our good fortune that we have talented people in our group who can keep the children in awe-and-suspense. All thanks to Dauglas for donning his clown costume and performing his magic tricks to amuse them; our highly charged-up E.Z. for keeping the children laughing away; Judy & some volunteers for making the lovely balloon sculptures; Angie for lending her lovely voice in leading us in songs; Christa, the forever kid herself for taking the lead in getting the kids in drawing their aspiration; T.S. for taking charge of the hastily planned program and the rest of us for helping in one way or another. All of us should deserve a pat on our own shoulder for making this trip a memorable experience for the children at St Ignatius School.

This trip has ended well and I am looking forward to another visit by the second group on 12 June.

Trip to St Ignatius School on 22 May, Saturday

Synopsis
St Ignatius School was established some 10 years ago by St. Petrus Church, a private initiative for the under-privileged children in Rempang island off the southern tip of Batam island linked by one of the 6 bridges called Barelang. Travelling takes more than an hour from Nongsa, Batam which will be our pick-up point.

Over the years, concrete building blocks comprising dormitory and school were gradually built by two Batam based companies, Batam, PT McDermott and OLPS.

This primary school has some 150 students, ranging from 6 to 15 years of age of which, there are 90 of them who live in the sparsely furnished dormitory. Correction to be noted here – these kids are not orphans but the fact remains that their parents could ill-afford to accommodate them, let alone providing a decent education. Thus, the responsible of educating & housing them falls on the heavy shoulders of three Catholic sisters who live with the children in the school/hostel compound.

The school is chiefly supported by kind contribution in one way or another from the local business community and even good Samaritans coming from as far as Singapore too.

Prior to the commencement of this trip, I took an initiative to pay a visit to understand more of their urgent needs. As can be seen in one of the pictures here, there is an old & badly rusted swing which can just squeeze in 3 small kids on one side but it is only a matter of time, this sole & treasured swing of theirs will soon give way one day, sigh! Imagine it is shared by 150 kids and obviously, jostling for space becomes a norm…”how lucky our kids here are”, we just wonder.

It is the school’s priority to put in place a decent playground with slide and swing for these under-privileged kids to while away their times where computers are unheard of. I have requested one of my colleagues to find out the cost for playground equipments and hopefully, the fund raised from all well-wishes would realize the kids’ dream. Therefore, I shall coin this event on 22 May, ‘Project Playground’ from us all.

The charge for this day trip is S$100 per adult or child which will comprise of return ferry transfer, all transportation transfer and a lunch (lunch box taken with the kids at the school). After deducting all costs, the net proceeds will be pledged to the school. We do not intend to give the school money but to use the money raised from the proceeds to purchase essential items with the playground as our first priority though.

Our target is to raise at least S$5,000 and those who wish to pledge more is certainly appreciated. The beneficiary from this fund raising project is not only for St Ignatius School, we hope other similar schools from different faiths will stand to benefit too.

On our intended visit on 22 May, we will be organizing an array of exciting program at the school. We hope to entertain the kids, to bring joy and laughter to them. We need talented volunteers who can sing, dance or perform magic show, just anything that can keep these kids in awe-and-suspense. In all, we intend to spend some 3 hours at the school, eating & mingling with the kids.

One last note anyone who would like to contribute in kind, please consider the following things for the school:
• Spoons, plates & cups (hard plastic - melamine material only)
• Stationery & books (note: they don’t speak English though)
• Toys (aged 6 to 15 years)
• Children clothing (aged 6 to 15 years)
• Any essential items

Departure on 22 May is from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal by BatamFast ferry @ 0900 hrs and returning on the same evening at 1830 hr. Ferry ride to Nongsapura Ferry Terminal takes about 40 mins only.

To save the hassle, collection of these items can be arranged prior to the trip, to be transported over & assembled at Batam View. If anyone needs such arrangement, please contact Collin Ng @ 91998690 or email to collin_ng@hotmail.com.