Advertisement I stayed in Doulos Phos The Ship Hotel, a short ferry ride from Singapore. The 110-year-old ship was brought to its resting place in Indonesia and renovated into a hotel. It was a unique respite from the hustle and bustle of Singapore.
Life in Singapore, a small island state in Southeast Asia that's just slightly smaller than New York City, can get claustrophobic. Weekend getaways to nearby islands are popular escapes for weary residents. Bintan, an Indonesian island just an hourlong, 107 Singapore dollars ($80) round-trip ferry from Singapore, is a top choice.
Related Video The sibling trio turning Bali's river trash into sandals and furniture As my ferry turned into Bintan's harbor, I caught the first glimpse of what would be my home for the next 36 hours: a 110-year-old mammoth ship that's been converted into a hotel. About Doulos Phos The Ship Hotel The ship, retrofitted to become a hotel in 2019, was built in 1914, just two years after the Titanic sank. Built in Texas, it was a cargo ship carrying onions from 1914 to 1948.
Until 1953, it was a passenger ship that ferried pilgrims to Rome. Advertisement In 1953, it was acquired by a cruise company and served as a passenger ship before it was sold to a Christian missionary in 1977. There, it spent 33 years as a floating library sailing around the world.
When it was decommissioned in 2009 at 95 years old, the ship received a Guinness World Record as the oldest active passenger ocean-going ship. Singaporean bus.