Singapore or bust!

Now I don't want to be a show off or anything, but I am heading off to SINGAPORE tomorrow! Yes - I'm going back to one of my favourite places to visit. I've been before in 2007, and I loved the cleanness of Singapore, the cool people and the deliciously tasty hawker markets and the kopi and teh tahrik, YUM!

This is famous teh-tahrik milk tea, I love watching it being made.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a phone call. The lovely girl on the phone told me I had won a prize - and I literally starting screaming! I was so excited I didn't even care where she was from or what my prize was, #easypleased! Once I calmed down I asked what I had won, and she said 'You entered a competition to win a cruise'. It still hadn't sunk in, I thought she was ringing to say I had won a runner up prize. It finally dawned on my that she had used the words 'won a prize' and 'cruise' in the same sentence - I HAD WON A CRUISE! I have to say, this has got to be one of the best days of my life. How often can you say you won such a great prize? A few details later (and for the life of me I couldn't even remember where she was from or much else except the word CRUISE), and I was off the phone to her and straight onto my hubby to tell him. The response from him wasn't as exciting as mine (remember the screaming?!) but thats because he knew the wouldn't be able to get leave. Then to my daughter by text, then to my boss etc etc. You get the drift, I was sooooo excited.

The gist of it is, I will fly to Singapore (we extended the stay a little to have a 4 day mini break), sail from Singapore to Darwin and then fly home to Sydney. And all I have to do in return is to write about my experience for +Cruise Guru and let other people know what they can expect if they choose a cruise holiday. Talk about a hard gig - NOT! and I get to take my sister along with me for the ride, lucky thing! I was busting to talk to her about it but she was on a cruise LOL.

You can't visit Singapore without seeing the Merlion, its Singapore's favourite tourist attraction slash cheap tourist souvenir image

So last night I was up late packing my bags and getting ready for a super fun holiday. I'm taking my sister along. Beth would have loved to come but she has only just come back from USA so the timings just not quite right. We have been comparing bag weights (15kg - plenty left over for pressies) and clothing lists, and just generally being totally pumped about it all!

I will work tomorrow (no, not a hero, just conscious of a very generous boss who let me take the holiday even though someone else was away #love) and then leave early and nip off to the airport for my sensational Singapore holiday.

My hot tip so far for the trip is the packing. I bought Bag in a Bag. If you have never heard of these, you are in for an efficient packing treat. I bought mine on e-bay for around $15 for a set, and they work amazingly. You pack all of your clothes and belonging into the bags, and then pack the bags into  your suitcase. If you think this sounds dumb and a waste of time, forget it. I have finished packing and there isn't much at all in the other half of the bag! Its like a miracle.

This is my bag with the nifty bag-in-a-bag set. It only weighed 15kg too - a record for me!

I was going to read up about the other blogs people have done similar to mine for reference, but ran out if time so I'll just have to wing it. It's not like I don't have any cruising experience at 11 cruises and counting. If you have any hot tips or feedback for me, would love to hear from you, just post a comment for me.

So this is it, I've packed, gotten my clothes ready for tomorrow and I'm off to sleep soon, getting my beauty sleep ready to impress those cool Sinaporeans tomorrow.

More to come - next stop Singapore!