We arrived into the vast and highly impressive Singapore airport in the late afternoon and on the way to the terminal 3 to get the MRT we found a slide, so Dave had to have a go! We got the MRT to Lavender and walked 15mins to find our hostel- the Blue Jazz Hostel. Singapore is known for it being expensive, in comparison to the rest of South East Asia but with that it is also very clean and modern. We had just booked somewhere that was relatively cheap, as we were only staying a few nights, and where we were able to walk to some interesting areas and get the MRT easily. We only had a couple of days in Singapore so we headed straight out to the Gardens by the Bay (Farrer Rd to Bayfront), which is the botanical gardens, of Singapore. We walked through the gorgeous gardens and watched the impressive evening light show at the Supertree. Due to it being relatively expensive we didn’t head into the paid areas such as the Cloud Forest, not feeling like we needed to but have since heard that they are really beautiful if you can afford it. In the gardens we found a small food court called Satay by the Bay for some roast duck and rice. We meandered around marina bay and through some of the malls nearby which extravagantly had a small river with working gondolas for boat rides on it. We headed into the casino that was attached to the mall (passport needed to get in) to be nosy at the games, people and help our self to the free soft drinks in there before getting the MRT back to our hostel.
The following morning we took advantage of the free breakfast then walked around Little India area near to our hostel. We took the MRT to Bugis and looked around the shops and food court enjoying chicken skewers, Korean meatballs, char siu bun and tor sur bans (13 SD). We took the MRT to Joo Koon and then took a taxi (17SD) as we were running late to get to our pre-booked tour at Tiger Brewery and the bus we were due to get was late/ no where to be seen. We joined our brewery tour group for 2pm (18 SD each), which actually ended up being an interesting and enjoyable tour. We got to try pouring our own tiger beers from a tap. Then at the end of the tour we all got half an hour in their pub to sample as many different pints until 3.30pm, which was a very good deal. They had beers such as Anchor, Tiger, Tiger Ratler, a strong brew, ABC stout, and a range of craft beers. Their Tiger Tavern pub was also decorated exactly like a typical English pub. At the end of the time we were also given a can of Tiger that was fresh. From Tiger Brewery we got the 182m bus to Joo Koon (EZ link) and then took a metro back to City. As we were in Singapore we also thought we should try another local beverage at its origin. We headed to the Raffles hotel, which is very famous and had Singapore Slings in the Bar & Billards room. Although not cheap (31 SD for a Singapore Sling, 36SD after tax) it is something interesting to do and the place has a lot of history. Still not a drink I really like! Whilst there you can also eat the monkey nuts where guests are then able to shed the casings onto the floor, a tradition meaning the floor is covered. To try to make up for the expense we took the MRT back to Little India for some dinner. We found somewhere that was very busy and doing tandoori chicken meals for 12.50 SD, which was very tasty and very filling. Due to being so full, we meandered back to the hostel for the evening.
Our final full day in Singapore we tried to walk and explore some different areas to make the mot of our time. We first headed to Kampong Glam area and enjoyed walking around and seeing the beautiful Sultan Mosque. We walked down to Arab street to try and find a magnet and there was also a street running parallel to this which had lots of interesting shops, restaurants and bars with a very fun vibe. We saw some of the park view sculptures at the bottom of the buiding, which were beautiful and very artsy. However there was a very rude lady who let us know that the park view museum itself wasn’t open. From here we took the Bugis MRT to Promenade where we ventured through the malls, through a travel exhibition and then tried to walk along the water front however a large section of it was blocked off for an event for national day. We eventually managed to walk along the riverfront and get good views of marina bay, the high flyer and the art museum. We walked to the merlion statue and park to join everyone in taking photos.
We decided to go to a different area after this as seeing the sights for free was great but there was no food in our price range in this area. We headed on the MRT from Raffles place to Chinatown, which is a heritage centre in itself worth wandering around. For novelty and price we headed to the Michelin star restaurant there which has a Michelin star for its local dishes. So for 35 SD for pork and rice or chicken and rice we had a Michelin meal after finding it (the place now has several other restaurants under the same name) and queuing up for a bit. It was nice and filling but neither of us felt it was instrumentally much different to any of the other chicken and rice dishes we have had. We ended up stumbling on a street food festival there to which was heaving with people and had lots of small stalls set up with interesting small tasters for 50c each so we had to try a couple of things. Exploring the area we saw the beautiful colourful Sri Mariammaan temple. After a full day of walking we headed back to the hostel to sort out our bags for leaving the following day and to chill out.
In the evening we headed over to Senor Taco (orchard towers) on Dave’s dad’s recommendation and he had also offered to pay for a meal there for Dave’s birthday. We ended up walking down a road with large office blocks, lavish hotels and high end shops, getting the impression that the place may have been a bit fancier than we had expected. That did not end up being the case though, we turned down a road that went behind some of the office blocks to a much sketchier part. There we found the very small taco bar, open and opposite a club that had lots of “escorts” outside of it. We sat down though and ordered some tacos and margaritas. Initially the guy serving us had been nice enough but not overly chatty. Dave went up to him and said who his dad was and instantly his face lit up, knowing full well who Dave’s dad was. The margaritas that came out after that were significantly stronger and like goblets. We ended up having a very fun evening with great drinks, tacos and conversation with the owner and chef. It ended up being too good though, we were both quite drunk, didn’t keep an eye on the time and ended up missing the last MRT. A while away from where our hostel was, not fully with it, with Dave in a bad state I had to hail a taxi and managed some how to find our hostel on getting to the right road!
In the morning we were both not feeling our best. We had planned to go early to the airport in order to explore it but it was clear that that wasn’t going to happen. We had to sort our stuff out, with Dave also discovering he had to sort his stuff out from the night before! We had breakfast and checked out for 12. We had a brief walk to the mall near us just to get some fresh air before finally deciding we should probably just head to the airport. We got the MRT to the airport and checked in our luggage so we didn’t have to carry this around with us and then did manage to explore some different areas of the airport. We took the subway to terminal 2 and explored the enchanted garden, orchid garden, entertainment area and movie theatre as well as the sunflower garden. In terminal 1 we saw the water lily garden and cactus garden. After exploring for a while we found a Subway for sandwiches, which definitely made us feel a bit better. Our flight ended up being delayed for an hour but being in the best airport in the world we tried out the free massage chairs whilst we waited. Then we were off to a new country to explore Bali!
Alex
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