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Monthly Archive: January 2023

Singapore and NYC  – December 2022-2023

Our last stop in the Maldives was the Westin, another hotel where we used points. They gave us a room all the way at the end of a boardwalk.  10 villas were between us and the next villa with guests (The hotel was doing renovations.) so we could have had a wild party and no one would have heard us! The staff was great and we learned a few tidbits about the hospitality industry in the Maldives:

  • 60% of resort employees have to be Maldivian citizens
  • $519 is minimum monthly wage;  working over 8 hours per day requires OT pay
  • The 10% mandatory service charge is pooled together and shared by all employees at the resort except for management. 

The Westin has their own desalination and filtration plant for water so we could drink the water if we wanted – we did!

We were the last villa way out there in the line.
Biolumenescent plankton on the beach on our last night.
Mark’s birthday!

Singapore was the next stop – flew there on Christmas Eve.  Singapore goes all out for Christmas with decorations everywhere – streets, shops, hotels.  We even got a short visit with Ana who we met in Split during our RTW trip.

The highlight of Christmas Day was doing the laundry!
Singapore skyline from our window.
Hotel Christmas tree
Robot to seat people at Din Tai Fung, a favorite restaurant. We were at a table away from the main walkway so we had a person seat us.
Singapore skyline

We flew to French Polynesia via Frankfurt and NYC and San Francisco. Susan’s bucket list included flying Singapore Air first class one time and this was it. Mark’s research found their “best” first class are suites on the A380 and that routing to the U.S. only goes to NYC.  Since we were going to fly through NYC, Susan suggested we stay for New Year’s Eve – why not?  We didn’t spend any travel money in 2022!

Susan in the Singapore Air suite on the flights from Singapore to Frankfurt (14 hours) and then 8 more hours to NYC.
A few of the suites connect and 2 single beds make into a double. They were not the most comfortable but Mark managed to get some sleep.
We spent one night at the TWA Hotel at JFK. It’s the old TWA terminal from 1966 made into a hotel but with all the old furnishings – dial phones in the room, pay phones in the lobby, photo booths, old style departure boards. It’s good for one night when you’re pretty tired.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The city was packed but we managed to walk 18000 steps one day. I was thankful and amazed that I felt well enough to all the walking.
New Year’s Eve Time Square crowd
It’s finally 2023!
Happy 2023!
We could even see the Statue of Liberty in the distance in the haze.

Then it was on to Tahiti via San Francisco.