Singapore would forever have been a stopover on the way to somewhere else until I watched an Anthony Bourdain “layover” episode on Singapore. My ears pricked up when he said the place was full of food hawker centres. After good experiences in Malaysia I was intrigued. Add to that the fact that the shopping is supposed to be good and it’s on the grand prix calendar, It was ticking all the boxes for a fun week for both of us.
Art Science Museum at sunset
There is a lot to do here for such a small place, Deciding what you want to do the most is the hard part. Where you want to stay is not… Anywhere is fine. the public transport system is so good it doesn’t matter where you stay. First things first and as we do with every new city now we got on the HoHo bus to get our bearings. There were 2 different routes both about 70 minutes long so we did them both back to back. We did get off at Orchard road for lunch but more about that later.
Maxwell street hawkers
Breakfast. carrot cake and lime juice
FOOD
I am not sure where to start so I think I will start with food as that is the main reason we came here. I’ll start with the hawker centres, We tried Maxwell street, Newton Circus and makansutra gluttons bay which were the big ones that you read about everywhere, And then we also tried a few of the smaller ones that we just happened to be passing when hungry, And some we went searching for because we read somehwere that they had the best…satay sticks or whatever. I can’t remember names or they may not even have had names just addresses but when it comes to hawkers it is very much a “make your own adventure” I love hawkers because they are cheap, tasty, the atmosphere is amazing, great place to people watch and you just don’t get that sort of choice at a restaurant. You must try the ‘carrot cake’ a dish I have never seen before and I think I had the ‘lime juice’ at every place I went and they were all consistently good.
Nox dine in the dark does the best cocktails
Speaking of restaurants there are hundreds around, from cheap and cheerful to rather bloody expensive. They say you can’t get a bad meal in Singapore and from experience this is true, maybe average but not bad. One restaurant that we did go to was ‘Nox dine in the dark’ this place was amazing!! I read about it on trip advisor and it has only been open a few months but all the reviews were glowing and all deserved, it was a never forget experience where you eat your whole meal in the dark with the help of a blind waiter. You have no idea what you are eating (4 small dishes per course) until the end when they let you look at the menu. It’s a must if you ever get the chance.
Din Tai Fung. The best soup dumplings ever
The last place I want to recommend is ‘Din Tai Fung‘ you will find one of these in almost every shopping centre food court or so it seems. 18 of them in Singapore and apparently it has a 1 michelin star. YUP, so good we went twice.
Chinatown
Chinatown
shutters
CHINATOWN
Was very much like all the other chinatowns around the world. We could have gone to see buddhas tooth but didn’t. There were temples to visit, The markets of course but without the knock offs of branded handbags, clothes, watches etc etc, just lots of souvenir stuff, All a bit boring so we didn’t stay there long. The chinatown MRT stop brings you to the heart of chinatown and the Maxwell road hawkers is not far away. Also the La Pau Sat hawkers is nearby but as of September 2013 this was closed, for how long I am not sure and both the hotel and cab neglected to tell us this when they told us how to get there!!
mural on Haji Lane
Arab st
Boutique street
ARAB STREET
Or Kampong Glam is another area of singapore which I thought was very pictuesque and colourful. Again lots of places to eat of the middle eastern ilk mostly but you can also get a good coffee at the kiwi backpackers? There are the 3 main streets here, Muscat street, which is mostly restaurants and touristy shops. Arab street which is full of carpet sellers and fabric shops and Haji lane which was my favourite which was cafes interspersed with little boutique designer stores selling alot of one off stuff and goods that you would not find anywhere else in Singapore. These shops stocked european sizes so you didn’t have to be petite to shop there like a lot of places like this in Asia. This lane opens late so don’t go there for breakfast but it does stay open late. We walked through at about 2am on a wednesday night and there were still a few cafes open and the customers were sitting around smoking shisha pipes.
flowers
The colours
LITTLE INDIA
Next up was little India, Another area of Singapore which is maybe not as fun as Chinatown and Arab street as the streets are not closed off to traffic like in the other areas. You can tell this is here more for the Indian community and not so much the tourists as a lot of the shops were geared towards the locals e.g. the flower stalls etc.
Buddha shopping at the mustafa centre at 2 am
The possibly main attraction is the “Mustafa centre” which is a 24 hour shopping centre that sells just about anything. We decided to visit at about 1am and we were not the only ones there, but it was a lot quieter than it is during the day. It sells everything from watches to bread to make up to sari’s. I highly recommend a visit if you can’t sleep. And if you are hungry there are also a few places nearby on the surrounding streets that stay open late.
OTHER SIGHTS
Orchid
Orchid
BOTANICAL GARDENS. I have visited a few in asia now and they are very same same, Except for the orchid garden which costs to get into but well worth it. I caught the MRT out there and the station was at the other end of the gardens from the orchid garden. So about 1/3 of the way through the walk to the other side I started to panic as I hadn’t bought any water with me, but I was in luck…There are vending machines all over the place so just make sure you take coins. There are also a few cafes and convenience stall but more in the middle and other end from the station. The Ho Ho bus stops at the orchid garden end so I would suggest visiting this when on the bus tour. It’s a long walk in the heat.
Singapore at night, Grand prix track
ONE ALTITUDE BAR. Has the best view of singapore and best place to go at night. There is an entrance fee but you get a drink when you get to the bar. The best place to go to get a good view of the Grand Prix track all lit up.
Parks and trees are everywhere in Singapore
ORCHARD ROAD. Is legendary and it did not disappoint. Wall to wall malls for several k’s and it was hard to work out where one finished and another began. Think of a brand and it is there! especially high street brands and all your more exclusive labels. 20 or more years ago it used to be the place to get your designer gear cheap. Now not so much. I did notice that in the U.S and european brands they sold the larger sizes. I sometimes struggle in Hong kong to get my size even in Zara and Forever 21 and I’m a 10 – 12 Australian. And if you can’t make it to Orchard rd. Don’t worry there are a few more around the place at least 150 although some are better than others.
Guys don’t despair if you care more about gadgets than fashion, not far away is the Funan digital life mall near City hall MRT.
Mark Webber
SINGAPORE GP, NIGHT RACE
3 afternoons and evenings of formula 1 noise and so much more.
The gates opened at 3pm every day and there was something for everyone. If you didn’t want to watch the race, you could see Tom Jones, Bob Geldoff or maybe Rihanna or Justin Beiber sing. Maybe bump in to Dynamo who was wandering around with magic. There were about 4 stages around the track and there was something on constantly on all of them plus roaming entertainment.
love this
Ricciardo and Webber
Masquerade, fire dancers
Or you could just get a set of Radio headphones and sit in your seat and listen to the non stop commentary and watch the big screen or maybe even the cars when the flash past. It’s my third GP and by far the best as far as atmosphere and entertainment go. We got seats where you could see turn 1, 2 and 3. not as many crashes as we had hoped but I guess you can’t win’em all.
sad Shauno
Above is my husband, Sad Shauno. He is sad because Ricciardo crashed on lap 25 and his favourite Mark Webber who was coming second had his car catch on fire in the LAST LAP.!!!
Marina bay Sands
The pool
MARINA BAY SANDS
One of the most amazing buildings you will ever see. If you ever get the chance to see the construction of it on TV it is well worth it. It’s just like a Vegas casino only bigger and the casino is smaller??? We stayed here as it was close to the track. 20 minutes from room to seat at the race.
The pool at night
So this place is a hotel with a swimming pool on the top floor (57) for hotel guests only) and a big viewing deck for the general public. It also has about 50 restaurants/cafes/bars etc, a huge shopping mall, a casino and the Art/science museum. The casino is free for overseas guests to get in to but you need your passport, You can smoke in there but you can’t drink so we never went back after a quick visit. I don’t know about you but I need to drink while gambling.
MBS architecture
As for the pool Trip advisor forewarned me not to go up there during the weekend so we didn’t. We did spend one afternoon up there, no poolside service which was a bit disappointing and we also went up for a swim one night just before it closed at about 11pm, so we could take photos of the city lights… as you do.
MBS in the back ground
GARDENS BY THE BAY
Our room overlooked the gardens so I feel like I know them well. It was just too hot during the day to go wandering around which I would have liked to do. I did however notice they had golf cart tours, (for a price I am sure) which took people around the gardens and to the 2 big garden domes (cloud forest and flower dome) which looked interesting. They look like big bug eyes from above. But I left my run too late and on the last 2 days of our trip one of them was closed on each day for maintenance and I wasn’t going twice so I just didn’t bother.
super tree
The Singapore flyer in the back ground
Super trees
We did however go at night when it was a bit cooler and a lot more people were around who like us had come for the light show or others were having a picnic in the park. This part was free to get into and it was pretty cool. From what I can work out all of these big “super trees” in the garden are solar powered. I took so many photos it was hard to just pick a few. This was a bit of a highlight for me as it was something I have never seen before and with the big hotel in the background it was just a bit awesome. And of course there was a hawker centre here as well.
wow
So I have nothing but good things to say about Singapore and will be back for sure, So much to love about this very modern city.
However some things to watch out for
-My camera lens kept fogging up at night.
-Don’t shoplift, you could end up in jail for 7 years
-Too much food and not a big enough stomach
-It’s HOT
-It’s not cheap like most of Asia
-Don’t go out without water
-It’s Hot especially during a Melbourne winter
-The MRT is fantastic. we only caught taxis when it was closed.
-Avoid Singapore during the grand prix unless you like higher hotel prices and a slight amount of inconvenience, extra traffic and some areas closed during the race.
-Too much to do and not enough time, No Changi village or Sentosa island
-Our flight came in at the ridiculous time of midnight and we thought we could dump our bags at the hotel and be able to amuse ourselves in town until check in time.!!! well despite a 24hr mall and a few places open to eat we ended up spending at least 3 hours in the hotel bar which was open all night and the chair was comfy enough to fall asleep on. Thought this was a good idea at the time of booking and would have been on a weekend but not a weeknight.
-Changi airport has been voted best airport in the world and it is deserved. There is a pool with bar on the roof, Free movie theatre, Butterfly garden, Smokers get an outdoor tropical rain forest to smoke in instead of a smoky glass box. It’s a great airport.
Mr Giggles
So If you ever find your self in Singapore please make sure you say hello to Mr Giggles at the Newton circus hawkers and buy some sunnies from him. He’s the one on the right.
MRT
fromchillybinstoeskys 