Singapore was an unexpected trip, as I had never imagined that I would go there. I was able to tag alone with my husband during one of his business trips. So, while he was working, I explored the city and the hotel. Although unexpected, Singapore was an amazing city to explore and this was my first visit to Southeast Asia.
The first thing I do before starting a new adventure is researching all that I can about the country that I am visiting including its weather conditions, location and the rules and regulations. Therefore, I think is important to include a little about my research about Singapore before telling this adventure.
Singapore, also called Republic of Singapore, is an island located 137km north of the equator at the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula and was once a British colony.
Singapore is a unique blend between the cultural tradition of Southeast Asia and the economy of a first world country. Singapore has low corruption, as it has a unique blend of authoritarian government with emphasis of meritocracy and good governance. This is considered the key factor for the political stability, economic growth and harmonious social order of Singapore.
After my research, the first thing to do is packed. Therefore, considering its location I needed to start packing for a very hot climate as not only Singapore is an island but is located near the equator, so I packed my best salwars (Indian outfit consisting of a long shirt and baggy trousers) and various hats. After all my research and packing, we were ready for the trip. My adventures started on 26th August 2017 with an overnight flight.
Day 1, the flight took around 13 hours and when we reached the first thing that hit me was the suffocated heat of the airport. We were to the airport and we were meeting one of my husband’s undergraduate friends and his family and I was happy to be there.
On Day 2 and after an evening with amazing company and great food, we were ready to start our Singaporean adventure. So, we packed and arrived to our amazing hotel Conrad Centennial Singapore located on Suntec City. We spent the afternoon exploring the surroundings of the hotel as well as exploring the hotel facilities.
On Day 3, first day of hubby’s work, I was ready to start exploring Singapore. I decided that the best way to explore the city without transportation was to take the City Sightseeing Bus from Suntec Hub. This bus company has 5 routes and a 3-day ticket.
This day, it was cloudy and with sporadic rains, so I decided to take the complete route without stopping. The routes that I took were the blue (short to the north), the brown (short to the south) and the green (toward the island of Sentosa).
After taking the three routes, I decided that I would stop at the Marina Bay shopping mall to explore it, as it was still raining. This shopping mall is full of designer brands shops and you could see best view of Singapore Bay and the stands of the formula 1. The best location to cover this view is in front of the ArtScience Museum. This exploration allowed me to familiarize myself with the bay landmarks.
After my exploration and before the last bus stopped running, I returned to the hotel in order to have dinner with my husband. We decided to have dinner at the Merlion Park (Merlion is the symbol of Singapore, which has the body of a fish and the head of a lion). The night was beautiful and we took some photographs from Merlion Bay, where there was some light show. At the end of the dinner, we decided to walk to the hotel and enjoyed the empty streets.
On Day 4, it was an amazing sunny day so I decided that it was a great day to take my DSLR camera out and take those photographs that I did not take the previous day. Therefore, I took the blue route again and dropped in the Sri Krishnan Temple (Indian) and the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple (Chinese Buddhist).
I only entered the Kwan Temple and even though they do not let you take photographs, inside it was an amazing experience, as every inch of temple is beautiful decorated and outside there are flower vendors. The next route I took was the yellow and I was able to see the some of the government buildings and the expensive street full of luxury brand shops, expensive hotels and shopping malls.
The final routes that I took was the red, this is the best route, as I covered the perimeter of the three major cultural settlements in Singapore which are Chinatown, Little India and Malay City. Then, I took a yellow route and dropped in St Andrew’s Cathedral to take some photographs.
After this, I returned to the hotel to wait for my husband for dinner. We went for dinner at the Merlion Park again, but we explored a different restaurant for dinner and then another one for drinks. It was an amazing night.
On Day 5, I decided, as this was the last day of my bus ticket, to cover all the sights that I wanted to take individual photographs and that I knew that my husband would not be interested to see. This meant that I needed a meticulous plan, as it would require for me to take multiple routes at multiple locations. However, I was able to cover them all. I visited Singapore Art Museum, Chijmes, Fullerton Hotel, Merlion Park, Clifford Pier, and Thian Hock Keng Temple. After this hectic day, I returned to the hotel to have a quiet room-service dinner, as hubby was on a business dinner.
On Day 6, there was a national holiday in Singapore, so hubby had the day off and we decided to have lunch with all his friends that live in Singapore and their families. We had an amazing lunch and then we decided to hop on the train to go to Sentosa Island. While I was exploring Sentosa, my husband and his friend were catching up. Sentosa Island is a mini Orlando (USA), as it has all the major attractions like: Universal Studios, Hard Rock Cafe, Marine Life Park, Adventure Cove Waterpark and beautiful beaches.
After exploring Sentosa, we returned to Singapore via train and my husband’s friend was kind enough to drop us at Gardens by the Bay to explore its gardens and climbed the supertrees grove, just before the light and music show started. The show lasted around 20 minutes and it takes place at the Supertree Grove where the structures of these trees lights up as it is metallic and the plant grows around it.
On Day 7, we decided to explore another part of Singapore and had lunch at Clarke Quay, where we had traditional Singaporean food next to the river. After lunch, we stopped to buy some cakes, as we had a dinner invitation with another of my husband’s undergraduate friend at his home. It was a relaxing and pleasant dinner, and we were able to explore another side of Singapore.
On Day 8, it was Sunday so we decided to buy a 2-day bus tickets and explored the cultural settlements that I left to cover with hubby. We took the red route and explored Little India, Malay City and Chinatown. Although, in the map these areas look small, it was a lot of walking. We decided that this was the only time we had to do all our souvenir shopping and we took complete advantage of this. After finishing shopping in Chinatown, we took the last bus to Suntec Hub and we finished the day with a lovely dinner at the hotel restaurant.
On Day 9, I had another day on the bus pass so I decided to explore Sentosa Island until I had exhausted it. This was because on my previous visit I was only able to get my HRC pin, as we needed to go to the gardens. I spent three hours at Sentosa and I was only able to go as far as the Sentosa Merlion, as I was walking.
At Sentosa Merlion, I decided to have some lunch at KFC. While having lunch a peacock was roaming around scavenging for leftovers, I was able to get good photographs of him. After lunch, I was returning to the main square when I saw another peacock, this time white, roaming around the tourists. At the square, I entered every shop but only bought at Hershey’s Chocolate World, as these are my favourite chocolates. After exhausting myself shopping, I returned to the hotel on the last bus and had a quiet dinner at the hotel.
On Day 10, I had covered everything that I wanted in Singapore so I decided that it was time to explore the hotel. I went to the pool, the bar and I decided catch up with some of my admin and started working on my future plans. I went to the first shopping mall that I discovered with hubby for lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon watching the sunset from the window. At night, we had a quiet romantic dinner in our room.
Day 11 was my last full day in Singapore, so I went to the executive lounge on the last floor of the hotel to finish my admin and since the view was so perfect I decided to write my blog and the article that came out was the one of the athletics world championship. While I was at the executive lounge, I discovered that in addition to have unlimited supply of coffee and drinks they served lunch and dinner. Therefore, I spent my last day writing and enjoying the last sunset in Singapore while enjoying dinner. My husband had his farewell dinner with his team and we packed for home.
Day 12 was the last day of the trip. We decided not to explore anything, so we had breakfast at the hotel and after arranging everything we check-out. However, since our flight was at night and the check-out was before noon, we decided to stay all the afternoon at the hotel bar enjoying the ambiance and of course the cocktails. I decided to try the Singapore Sling, as they said it was the typical drink. However, I did not read that is was a gin-based cocktail so I did not enjoy it at all.
After this we decided to say farewell to the hotel and took the taxi to the airport. We decided that since we had enough time we could apply for the tax refund, as we had made various purchases on that value. However, we found out that you need to get a certificate from each shop and not every shop does it. So, this was a bust.
Once inside the airport, we discovered that there are many things to explore inside the airport terminals and we had the time, however, we discovered that these were all spread around and they were very far away of our current location. Therefore, our Singapore trip finished at the waiting area of the airport.
Singapore is an eclectic place and a city of extremes, where you could find within the same area a luxury hotel next to a crowded apartment building, where in a place like Chinatown all the buildings are narrow and next to each other and in the bay area the banks have huge buildings inside a huge area.
In any case, Singapore is the ideal place for building an entrepreneurial business as it has the ideal location to cover all Southeast Asia and has all the advantages of a first world country. Although the punishments for rule breaking are huge, if complying with the rules is a great place to live.
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