Despite the grandeur of Singapore it was very easy to navigate to my hotel within the first couple of hours. I arrived on Saturday November 3rd and planned to depart on Tuesday November 6th, plenty of time, maybe too much time to see and enjoy this international pot.
With little time, I had pre-arranged a guided tour the first full day in this Fine city. Known for its cleanliness and aptitude towards capital punishment, the city is the finest city in the world. Fines and rules are everywhere and if you don't follow them you are going to be fined or even caned! Its quite the shock; however, with all these rules and consequences it makes it a great tourist destination as everything is clean, easy to navigate and people are friendly.
I arrived at my hotel, the Swissotel Stamford which was the tallest hotel in the world, before some hotel in the middle east took its reign. This 5 star hotel was a bargain on a deal on Expedia and out of it I was even able to get a free upgrade to the business lounge and a bay view room. Worked perfectly! Exhausted from the flight I went to bed early and woke up extra early to grab a coffee at Starbucks!
At 8am I had arranged for a guided tour of the city's historical and significant sites. I was picked up at 8.15am promptly and roughly 30 others joined as well. This introductory tour lasted 4 hours and gave a great insight of the city.
It began at the Singapore Flyer, the world's tallest Ferris wheel, I decided not to on this as it was roughly 35 dollars and my hotel was taller with equivalent views. :P
We visited the Merlion the symbol of Singapore. Half Lion and Half fish this statue is found on every postcard!
After Merlion, we headed to Chinatown for visiting Singapore's oldest Buddhist temple, built in 1840. Roughly 74% of Singapore is Chinese and the rest is divided up as Malaysian, Indian and others.
From there we headed to The National Orchid Garden which is world famous for its naturally grown orchids. Its a huge park, and given our 30 minute limit we could only explore roughly 25% of the entire park.
We then headed to Little India which was packed and where the tour ended. With the Hindu festival of Denpasar (walking on fire) on full throttle, thousands of Hindu's had pilgrimaged to Singapore to celebrate this religious festival. They congregated in Little India and then paraded barefoot to Chinatown where the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore is located. This is where they then proceed to walk across burning coals.
It was quite the sight and neat to share in their experience; however, I did not participate in the fire walking. :P
After the tour, I wandered around Chinatown and took in the sights, ate odd food for cheap less than 2 dollars and saw another Buddhist temple with a relic of Buddhas tooth.
I ventured back via the subway (MRT - Mass Rapid Transit), literally costs only $.25 cents per trip! Amazing, to my hotel for a quick rest. Around 6pm, I boarded a shuttle bus from the hotel to Singapore's Night Safari!
This unique zoo experience is the only one like it in the world! I arrived not knowing what to expect and was blown away by the opening "Fire Breathing" performance by the local Malayasian cultural center, and then boarded a tram that took us around for 45 minutes to view all of the animals. It seemed a little bit like a Disneyland adventure; however, it was pretty neat to see all the animals out and active in the darkness.
I stayed at the Night Safari wandering around in the dark taking in as much of the animals as possible. Very fun and very neat experience, probably the closest I will get towards the real deal!
I made it back to my hotel via the shuttle around midnight and then slept in the next morning. Little did I know that Singapore is one of the shopping centers in the world, I used my second day to explore Orchard Road one of the most densely populated streets in the world with Shopping Malls.
Overwhelmed with my arrival to Orchard Street, I didn't know what to do! I entered one mall right above the subway station and couldn't find my way out for about an hour. Thousands of stores and hundreds of luxury goods stores were everywhere and each one of them was packed with shoppers!
I decided to take part in consumer behavior and shopped around and literally didn't stop window shopping/shopping for 4 hours!!! The most I have ever done! There was so much to see and explore. Some of the best food I have ever had was in the food courts of these malls. Super cheap and everything being rated A, B, C, D based on their hygiene, A's were always best and for less than $3.00 I could get a full meal and have leftovers!
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| Phad Thai for less than 3 dollars!!!!! |
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| Chicken Rice the steamed chicken in butter. A Singaporean specialty! |
After being shopped out, I wandered back through the city stopping through Clarke Quay the entertainment area with clubs, bars, restaurants all along the Singapore River. Very pleasant and nice.
I returned to my hotel and then ventured out during the early evening to see what the city looked like at night. I went to one of the famous "Hawker" centers (Food Courts) where you could get almost any type of food cheap, plus some delicious satay for less than 40 cents per stick!
On my way back, I ventured towards Marina Bay, where the city's largest and most luxurious hotel, Marina Bay Sands Hotel is located. There, I was able to see the evening's light show which was a little bit cheesy but was entertaining!
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| Entrance to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel |
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| Artwork of Obama in my hotel lobby |
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| My airplane home, the A380 the worlds largest passenger airplane |
It was a great way to end my time in Singapore!
It was an interesting city to explore and I am now able to say that I have been there and probably not return as a final destination....too much shopping for me.
My return trip was interesting as well, instead of flying a Boeing aircraft I flew on Singapore's Airbus A380, the largest airplane in the world with two levels of seating. I was able to snag a seat on the upper deck and it was very spacious and I didn't have a neighbor next to me so I was able to stretch out and have a comfortable flight back to Melbourne. It was a nice way to end my fun weekend trip!
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