By Stephanie
At the end of November we visited Singapore for a week. On our itinerary it came after three weeks in Thailand. We arrived with a few expectations of “clean” and it did not disappoint. It’s really a beautiful city state and a pleasure to spend some time exploring.
We expected the city to be clean and pristine due to the reputed “fines” that everyone hears about. Apparently the fines are not as enforced as they were in the past, but the city is definitely immaculate wherever you go. I loved the fact that there was no gum. I hate gum! But also, people don’t eat on the street. You don’t see people walking around with their take away cups. The streets have no litter and people respect the expectations of the laws. I knew about gum, but I didn’t know about eating on the street. Hope and I were pretty embarrassed when we’d finished an ice cream and realized we’d committed a no-no. Not only was it clean, but I loved looking around the city at of the green. It looked like city planners and architects included plants and trees into all of the building plans.
Accommodations are very expensive in Singapore. We couldn’t find an Airbnb to suit us so we booked the most affordable hotel we could find. We stayed at the “Destination” on Beach Road.. We had a taxi driver who was so impressed we could afford such a new hotel and was shocked that we were “only” paying $200. For us on the road for several months, $200 is actually the very high end of our budget. And, there was nothing luxurious about our room. The room was large enough for a double bed and two single beds (more like cot width) pushed together. That was the whole room. You couldn’t walk between the beds and had to crawl up from the bottom of the bed to get in. If you wanted to get into your suitcase it had to be lifted onto the bed to open it. We stacked our packing cubes on top of the standing suitcases so we wouldn’t have to be in and out of them all the time.
One of our first stops in Singapore was to find the hotel Raffles. I admit I’d never heard of it, but my parents asked me to visit it. Raffles is a very famous hotel where celebrities have been staying for over a century. Also, it is often featured in all the Hollywood movies set in Singapore. I also discovered that it is the birthplace of the the Singapore Sling drink. When we arrived we were disappointed to find that it was completely covered in tarps and under renovation. The beautiful and historical facade was completely hidden. Another disappointment was that all the restaurants were closed for renovation except for the Billiard Room and Bar. My mother offered to treat us to afternoon tea at Raffles, but we had to settle for drinks in the bar. It wasn’t “afternoon tea” as planned, but we did greatly enjoy ourselves. It was a fun bar for the kids as each table had a bag of shelled peanuts and the girls could eat all the nuts they wanted. I did order the heavily advertised Singapore Sling. It was very tasty but came with the hefty price tag of $34. The gift store was expensive, but had a pretty amazing selection of souvenirs for purchase. It had everything from the china they use, to clothes, golf gear to housewares. We had fun exploring the shop and picked up a few treats for Christmas gifts.
We visited the 159 year old Botanic Gardens. I really wanted to visit as it is highly featured in Kevin Kwan novels. It is beautiful, but our favourite area was the Children’s Garden. We found a playground and a pond with a ton of turtles. There was also a nature scavenger hunt which was fun to follow. We spent the most time watching the turtles. It was the hottest day of our visit when we were at the garden and had to stop at every water fountain we could find. From the Children’s Garden we walked the 2km path to Orchard Road, the main shopping street in Singapore.
Randy and I love Hop On Hop Off tour buses and we chose the two day option for Singapore. It’s the perfect way to get around the city and see the sights you probably wouldn’t have set out to find. Our favourite areas to explore were Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam. The girls and I loved exploring all the little souvenir shops in each of these areas. Kampong Glam had some really cool little boutiques and was quite near our hotel. If I weren’t restricted by suitcase space and long term travel I could easily have had fun and spent a lot of money shopping in Singapore.
Our favourite place in Singapore was the Gardens by the Bay. We went back on several days so we could enjoy all of the activities it had to offer. At night the lights on the Supertrees were magical. As it was the end of November, they had decorated for Christmas and had a light show with Christmas music in the Supertrees. We loved the light show so much we stayed long enough to see both the early and the late shows. Another day we visited we went on the Skywalk. This is a suspended walkway through the tops of the Supertrees. It was a spectacular way to see the enormous Marina Bay Sands and the Singapore skyline. Our favourite attractions at the Gardens by the Bay were the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest. Both a delight of foliage and Christmas decorations. There was a Christmas Fair starting on the 1st of December, but we happily enjoyed the lights prior to the opening. It felt like we were at the Gardens by the Bay at least once a day for our own time in Singapore.
I loved Singapore. We stayed for six days and I can’t complain. On one hand I’d like to say that I would have loved to stay longer. However, it really isn’t a very big place. I feel like we were there for the perfect amount of time. There were a few more attractions we didn’t do, but we do feel like we had a busy and fulfilling visit in Singapore. I really loved being there at the start of Christmas season. The lights made everywhere a pretty amazing sight. The people of Singapore know how to make their city beautiful.
Lost Together 