Most of this blog will be from my trip this year, but some parts will be from my experiences in 2013.
Highlights:
Lowlights:
Weather/Environment:
Accommodation:
This time I stayed at my cousin's place, but in 2013 my mum and I stayed at Marina Bay Sands for a few days. It is pricey, but very beautiful. And the rooftop infinity pool is great, obviously.
Overall:
I loved Singapore, and I would visit it again the next time I go to Malaysia. It's very easy to get around, and it's not that much of a culture shock because it's the most Westernised Asian country I can think of. The food is not as great as Malaysia, but it's a good country. There are a lot of fines though, so be careful with what you do, e.g. don't chew gum, etc.
Marina Bay
From the airport, we went straight to the Bayfront MRT stop which takes you to the Marina Bay Sands hotel and shopping centre. After lunch, we went to the ArtScience Museum, walked halfway across the Helix Bridge for some pictures, then went to the Gardens by the Bay, where we went to the OCBC Skyway and both the Flower Dome and the Cloud Dome.
Marina Bay Sands Hotel
This hotel is beautiful, from the inside, from the street outside, and as seen from the city. It also has a night show every night at 8pm and 9.30pm (as well as 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays, check the website here) and the view is really great from Clarke Quay.
Best views: Helix Bridge, walking along the Clarke/Boat/Robertson quays
Hidden gem: Many Singaporeans don't know about this themselves, but go to the eighth level of the Supreme Court to see a great view of the city, including Marina Bay Sands. The only downside is you are not allowed to take photos (there are security cameras), and at security downstairs you have to walk through the scanners and surrender any cameras. It has a great view though.
The ArtScience Museum
My favourite building in Singapore because of it's beautiful asymmetry, which is also another reason I love the Opera House.
You will pass by it when exiting the Marina Bay Sands Shopping Centre, and you can get a good view of it from the Helix Bridge.
There is always a little free exhibition on the architecture of the building, and they have some pretty cool exhibitions and a cool gift shop as well. Check out their website to find out what exhibitions are being held when you are there. In 2013 they had a really cool Lego exhibition, and this year they had an Escher exhibition which was amazing.
Gardens by the Bay
Just a short walk from hotel, the Marina Bay area is all reclaimed land, meaning artificial land created from rocks that have settled over a period of decades to form the stable land that it is now. Reclaiming land is an ongoing process that is necessary for Singapore as it is such a tiny country.
The Gardens are lit up every night at 7.45pm and 8.45pm, so a good idea is to start out in the evening so that by the time you finish, the lights are on.
The OCBC was the best attraction in the Gardens, as it provided an amazing view of the area and of Marina Bay Sands, and it's very cheap. Tickets are only $8 per adult (I'm pretty sure they were only $5 last time) and it's a pretty interesting walk 22m above ground. The artificial supertrees house solar panels that help to generate electricity to power the light shows. One downside is that the workers there rush you to keep moving forward because of the number of tourists there (and I don't remember them doing that last time).
The domes are pretty interesting. They house different plants and floral collections depending on the time of the year. But just as a warning, these domes are freezing. Bring a jacket.
The Cloud Dome is the taller of the two. You take an elevator up to the top then slowly walk down. It's an interesting place, but I think if you are rushed for time and on a budget, it can be skipped.
The Flower Dome is the shorter of the two and houses different collections of plants depending on geographical region. I really liked the African area because of the baobabs and cacti, but the rest was not as interesting. In the centre, they have a floral display which they change every season or public holiday to reflect the time, e.g. Christmas, Chinese New Year, Easter, etc. This is better than the Cloud Dome but I think if you are rushed for time it doesn't need to be seen.
River and Night Safari
I took the MRT to Choa Chu Kang, and took the 927 bus to the zoo. Purchasing a two-park pass is cheaper than purchasing passes separately, and I started at the River Safari. The River Safari is pretty straightforward as there is only one direction to walk in, and I also went on the Amazon boat ride. After that, we had dinner, and then we went to the Night Safari, first walking around the four trails, then going on the tram ride.
I am not going to lie, one of the reasons I wanted to come to Singapore again was because the River Safari had not opened the first time I went to Singapore. I was super keen for the River Safari, but it turns out that the Night Safari was the better one, and the River Safari can actually be skipped to save money and time. I didn't go to Singapore Zoo, though, so I can't make any comments on that, although apparently it is similar to the Night Safari, so I would be keen on going there the next time I am in Singapore.
The Night Safari is a zoo only open at night. The main attraction is the tram ride that goes around the zoo, however there is a huge line for this as soon as the park opens. I had a look at this suggested itinerary they had on the website, and I walked around the zoo first. It was raining but that meant that there weren't as many people walking around either. It's interesting that it's an open air zoo at night because this meant that when it was raining, some areas were quite slippery (good thing I was wearing joggers), and this was exacerbated by the fact that some places are not well lit, so it's easy to fall and injure yourself. I'm actually curious as to how lawsuits would work here, as the novelty of this zoo is that it is outdoors and open, but still I think it is very easy to slip and fall.
Another thing that is both a downside and an upside is that the animals are not enclosed in cages, and they have natural barriers so you can sort of see them "in their habitat". For example, the coyotes have a moat surrounding their area, but it was a bit of a concern when they started running around and jumping here and there, because I was wondering whether or not they could actually clear the length of the moat as it doesn't look too big from where you are standing.
Regardless, it was a really fun time walking around.
After we walked around, we queued up for the tram ride. By now, a lot of the crowd had dissipated, and while the queue still looked really long, it was constantly moving, so we still got on a tram pretty quickly.
The tram ride was really a highlight. They ride to some places that you don't walk past, and they have a narration playing as you see each animal. You can't take very good photos because flash photography is not allowed (and they call you out if you take pictures with flash, like the girl in front of me did), but it's a great experience.
After the tram ride, we queued up for the Creatures of the Night Show, but unfortunately it was cancelled because of the rain. We then quickly left for the taxi stand, and while there were a lot of people queueing up, there was constant progression of taxis, so we got into a taxi in a decent amount of time.
The tram ride in the Night Safari was actually what I expected of the River Safari too (and why I was so excited for it). Maybe I'm just stupid, but I seriously thought the main feature of the River safari would be the boat ride, hopping onto a boat and having a look at a whole heaps of animals.
Instead, the river safari is more like an outdoor version of the Sealife Aquarium, and then the boat ride is only a 15 minute thing and they show you random things like giraffes, so it's not that exciting. There is a $5 Amazon River Quest boat ride which is more to what I was expecting, but it was a bit underwhelming, especially because it went by really fast and you couldn't really see some of the animals as they were hiding or sleeping.
Perhaps a better attraction would be the Singapore Zoo, which sounds like it is a daytime version of what the Night Safari is (but without the tram ride).
Singapore Botanic Gardens
The Botanic Gardens was also a huge favourite for me. I got off the Botanic Gardens MRT stop, walked through the gardens to the other side, and caught a bus to the shops at Orchard St.
The Botanic Gardens are filled with different types of gardens that you can walk through. There is a box of maps at the entrance, and you can return your map to the box so they don't have to print more.
There are so many things to see here that I was there for maybe 3 or 4 hours and still didn't have enough time to explore everything.
My favourite gardens were the Evolution Garden, and the National Orchid Garden. Be sure not to miss the Orchid Garden, it closes at 7pm and the last entry is at 6pm. It costs $5 and it is simply amazing.
The other gardens also have different opening times, and as I said I didn't check out all of them, but some of them you walk past a little section of them anyway.
I would highly recommend this, and I would even suggest you do this instead of the domes at the Gardens by the Bay if you don't have enough time.
Cultural Areas
We decided to check out the different cultural areas all in one morning/afternoon. An interesting thing about Singapore is how embracing it is of different cultures, dedicating specific areas to them and even having a public holiday for different religious events.
Chinatown was up first. There are a few streets filled with little market stalls that you can walk around. You can also go to the huge Chinatown Complex Food Centre for a massive collection of hawkers stalls. There is one famous soya chicken stall in the red section of this food court, however the wait is something like an hour or so so I didn't bother, and I've heard at least two people say it's not that great.
Little India was up next, where the smell of curry hits you like a brick wall. This was a bit underwhelming, mainly because all I wanted was some roti but they didn't have any! I had to walk around asking people where roti was sold, and eventually they pointed me to one shop that did all types of rotis and murtabaks. I was so disappointed in the lack of roti.
Arab Street at the Bugis Junction MRT stop was last. Bugis Junction has a lot of market stalls, and then you have to walk a little in the opposite direction to get to Arab Street and it's surrounding streets. I thought this place was pretty interesting. The food was decent, although the people are quite pushy, doing a one minute memorised spiel on everything they have on the menu. There's a beautiful mosque there as well, so it's decent for photos.
Shopping
I planned to not do much shopping in Singapore because I wanted to focus on sightseeing, and I could do way more shopping in Malaysia, but I did go to Orchard Street for a bit after my Botanic Gardens visit and my goodness this is like shopper's paradise for anyone who wants to shop! The whole place is just an interconnected web of say 6 shopping centres, and you can literally shop 'til you drop.
So there's my blog on Singapore, I hope you enjoyed it. I really loved this country and would highly recommend it to anyone.
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