Singapore
Immaculate. Efficient. Pricey. Green. These four words sum up Singapore, but I won’t leave you hanging like that.
Singapore is unique, it does not have states or a capital. Simply, Singapore is Singapore. Of course there are the different parts of town, Little India, Chinatown, Business District, The Famous Marina Bay Sands, Sentosa, to name a few. We spent three short days in the country, which we found was adequate time to explore all that needed to be seen.
As we stumbled into the airport, we were greeted by automated wifi kiosks that scan your passport, advanced at-the-gate security checks, and believe it or not, a touch screen “toilet experience” rating system in the bathroom. Yes, you read that correctly.
So.
You’re heading to Singapore and don’t want to blow your entire budget in this expensively exquisite city? Not to worry. 72 hours is plenty of time to see the sights and salvage your bank account. Spend much more time than 3 days in this city, you might run the risk of blowing your whole trip budget (for example a cocktail or beer can cost $15-$20 USD). Singapore government taxes heavily everything they don’t want their citizens doing (drinking, smoking, gambling, etc).
Looking for discounted activities? There’s an app for that! While in Singapore, we discovered the money-saving wonder of a phone application called Klook. In the app you can browse activities, sights, and food at more affordable rates!
Unless you’re coming through the border crossing from Malaysia, you’ll fly into the airport like we did and snag a metered taxi to your hostel. We were fortunate enough to stay with Sean’s family friends, Paul and Donna Lantero. The Lanteros were phenomenal hosts and knowledgeable tour guides during our time in Singapore. We also conveniently arrived during the Chinese New Year and colorful festivities were in full-swing! 75% of the Singaporean population is Chinese. The enthusiasm of the city for celebrations showed. The following photos were taken in the Marina, where we were treated to traditional dancing, cuisine and evening fireworks show to top it off!
Here’s what we got in to, organized for your convenience in a three-day schedule.
Day One
Gardens By The Bay is a large outdoor park area you can walk around (for free) with beautiful “supertrees” that light up at night. We easily spent half a day meandering through the greenery and camping out under the shelter of the canopies to hide from the heat and humidity of SEA. If the natural shade is simply not enough, visit the Cloud Forest & Flower Domes. There is an entrance ticket fee for these but 100% worth it. Download the previously mentioned Klook app, you can purchase discounted tickets for these attractions!
Singapore’s goal is to be known as the “Garden City” and they’re well on their way. Most everywhere you look around you there are rooftop terraces full of lush plants and small trees, public parks for picnics and daytime activities. The Cloud Forest at Gardens By The Bay is the perfect example of Singapore’s “green” initiative. Enclosed in a massive glass dome, the Cloud Forest fills an area as tall as 1.5 football fields. Sean and I treated the dome as our own personal playground, winding round and round the spiraling walkway suspended amidst an array of vegetation, gawking at the shiny geodes and jumping through the mist as the Cloud Forest began its daily watering routine.
After we finished romping around in the Cloud Forest, we wiggled our way through the crowds (influx of tourists because of Chinese New Year) and ended up at the Flower Room. Otherwise known as Guinness World Records’ largest greenhouse in the world!
The most impressive aspect of both the Forest and the Flower Room was they feature flora species and plants from all around the globe. Meaning, most of what we were looking at had to be grown, shipped on a boat/plane/you name it all the way to Singapore and transplanted in a faux environment. I suppose this is NBD for botanists but for those with a struggling green thumb like us, this was quite impressive!
Fun facts for you, taken from the Gardens By The Bay Official Website:
Cloud forest
How much space does the Cloud Forest occupy?
153,000m².
What does this look like?
About as big as 60 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The volume of an Olympic-sized pool is approximately 2,500m3.
Did you know?
2,577 glass panels of 690 different shapes and sizes were needed to cover the whole 12,000m2 surface area of the dome.
Flower Dome
How does the Flower Dome maintain its cool temperatures?
Air is cooled at the lower occupied zones through chilled water pipes in ground slabs, while warm air is vented out at the top.
If you want to read further about the domes, check out their website for more info!
http://www.gardensbythebay.com.sg/en/attractions/flower-dome/visitor-information.html
After getting our greens in, we hit one of my bucket list destinations, the famous Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Not before getting caught in a flash rainstorm, slamming down on us at a sideways slant from the angry sky above. Thankfully we were almost to the hotel when the storm hit so we sprinted across the bridge to dry cover. Note to self – always carry a mini umbrella and be prepared for the unexpected!
We had seen the massive hotel on our way into town from the airport and now that we were finally going to be in it, on it, cheersing to life from the top, I felt like as giddy as a little kid on Christmas Eve. There are three main towers of the hotel that are topped by an immense boat shape structure as seen here:
Each tower’s elevator shoots you to the top, where, for a fee of $15 USD or by simply purchasing a cocktail for the equivalent price, you can enjoy views for days of the city below. Just be careful not to spill your pricey beverage out of excitement like I did. Fortunately, it was just a titchy! My favorite feature of the rooftop was the infinity pool that seemed to plunge over the edge of the 58th floor to nothing below. Unless you’re staying at the hotel for a pretty penny of $600 USD per night, (yikes) you will be denied access to get within approx. 10 feet of the pool. We were able to still manage to snap a few epic photos.
Pro tip: There are three towers with elevators to the top. But once at the top, you cannot walk from one end of the “boat” to the other. You would have to go back down one elevator and up another. We chose the elevator in Tower 2 because it provides the best view over the pool and overlooking the Gardens By The Bay hundreds of feet below.
The Supertree Light Show at Gardens By The Bay is not to be missed! After a few cocktails and petite appetizers, we worked our way back to the imposing Super Trees, now lit up for the evening! The city offers light shows on the trees to hip and contemporary rhapsodies, every night of the week at 7:45 & 8:45 pm. We bobbed, weaved and boogied down for 15 minutes as the lights danced brilliantly around us to the beat of the music – a perfect nightcap to our first day in Singapore!
Day Two
Get urban and check out Chinatown. There is a food “hawker center” near the People’s Park in Chinatown. Here you will find delicious, local, cheap eats. Cost effective meals can be difficult to find in Singapore, but they’re out there if you’re willing to put in a little legwork and sweat a droplet or two.
We happened to be wandering the streets of Chinatown during the Chinese New Year and got to witness the rambunctious festivities. Dragons dancing, drums banging and food stall skillets simmering with the freshest noodle dishes and stir-fries!
“It’s a small world.” We’ve heard it so many times and it turns out to ring true the more we travel. While strolling through the tourist goods shops, we passed a restaurant where a girl we had met on the Laos/Cambodia border was sitting. Last time we had seen her, she was screaming at the local transport employee who had made her and her father miss their connecting bus to their final destination. In French, might I add. All while wearing tight leggings, 5-inch wedges and dragging two suitcases in tow. We always wondered what happened to her after we parted ways and were pleased to hear that they eventually made it to their destination, albeit a day delayed. She mentioned there are good hostels in Chinatown so if you’re traveling to Singapore in the near future, look to stay in this fun and vibrant area of town!
We teleported to India for the second half of day 2. Well, Little India that is.
The incredible thing about visiting larger cities is the many niche neighborhoods that exist to explore! If you visit Little India on a Saturday there is a big market apparently and it’s packed with locals bargaining for the freshest produce and newest curry powders and spices. Getting lost in the streets is the best way to see the rows of pawn shops displaying gold jewelry, stores with cheap goods, mini marts clouded with incense you can hardly see and stands with flowers for praying at the Hindu temples. The area is quite small and didn’t take us more than 2 hours but we felt fully immersed in Indian culture as though we were actually there!
The alleyways are splattered with murals of local Indians tending to chores add work of everyday life.
The Lanteros took us to Banana Leaf restaurant, a local favorite and it was easy to see why! Flavorful briyani rice was dumped on our (literal) banana leaf placemats almost immediately after we sat down and our shared portions were massive, although quickly devoured within minutes! Our favorite was the mouthwatering butter chicken which came highly recommended by Donna and Paul.
After a day of adventure combined with gorging ourselves with savory noms, we decided to call it a night and head back for a movie. However, if we had more energy, our nighttime activity would have been a ride in the Singapore Flyer (just like the London Eye). We didn’t end up ever riding the flyer but here’s a picture to show how beautiful it is!
Day Three
Sentosa Island is just off the shore of Singapore. A visit here reveals a magical utopia of perfectly manicured foliage, spotless streets, and white sand beaches.
We were staying in Sentosa Cove so exploring the island was easy via a few buses, sky trains and hoofing it! Visitors can also reach Sentosa Island via the sky train from Vivo mall. On Sentosa, you can explore Universal Studios (a much smaller version that back home).
Most of our Sentosa day was spent relaxing by the beach at Ola Restaurant & Bar. Beer pitchers & pork tacos are the way to go. If you order “chips” with jalapenos and guacamole, be prepared to be surprised when the food was delivered and our chips were actually french fries! Traveling broadens your verbiage horizons!
A tantalizing pool is nearby, open to customers if you purchase a snack or libation from Ola. Down the road is a wave park where you can shred the gnar in a wave pool, chill on loungers and play arcade games inside for the technology folk. No matter what tickles your fancy, Sentosa has it all!
The highlight of our day on Sentosa was visiting the southernmost point of continental Southeast Asia (funny, since we were on an island, huh?). The iconic point is on a tiny island accessible by a rickety bridge that spans a small bay of water below. Reaching this point was special for us seeing that our entire trip is exploring all that Southeast Asia has to offer, including the farthest borders!
Sean the adrenaline seeker, pushed the limits of reaching the southernmost point, by monkeying around on this cool palm tree suspended over the rocky shore below.
And what better way to end our active day than with a scoop of the freshest local coconut ice cream served in a mini coconut shell and topped with crumbled peanuts?!
Singapore exceeded our already high expectations. Although small, it is truly lavish and grand. We’ve enjoyed a bit of Western vibe society, but our backpacker ways are calling and we’ll soon be grungin’ it on the road again!
“The best things in life are often waiting for you at the exit ramp of your comfort zone.”
-Karen Salmansohn
