FAMILY TRIP TO SINGAPORE

A FAMILY TRIP TO SINGAPORE

I have been fortunate enough to have visited a few international countries as a part of my job as well as in the pursuit of my travel bug. US, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, and Emirates etc have been the countries where I have set foot and have explored what the countries have to offer. So with the account showing a healthy balance and with the Ganapati festivities offering a chance to combine a long weekend along with the school holidays, we decided this was the right time to go out.

On the choice of destination, we were pretty sure that we wanted our kids to experience the attractions that Singapore had to offer. My kids are  9 and 5.5 and while my younger one might be a little on the younger side to enjoy Singapore, we decided this was the best time since the crucial school years start for my older one from the next academic year.

Note :-  Before you,  my dear reader, proceed further, take note that this is  a long long blog and captures our experience in great detail of our 9 day stay in Singapore. 

TRIP LOGISTICS

We flew Air India, directly from Mumbai to Singapore. While we would have preferred slightly more reasonable fares, the fact that the flight left earlier and landed early morning in Singapore - allowing us the use of a  whole day at our disposal, tilted the scales in favor of Air India. Similarly the departure on the return leg in the evening, and landing in India late night giving us the use of a full night's sleep made us choose convenience over cost (which would have at most saved 4 -6K max.). Another factor in choosing Air India was the large amount of luggage AI allows us to carry. At 25-30 kgs. per passenger, it gave us the freedom to pack without worrying about weight etc. 

We decided to stay at an Airbnb for the first time ever. The choice of stay was at Sharm and Gesan's house which is located in the suburb of Eunos. We explored plenty of options and while there were some definite good choices in there, the final selection was based on hybrid mix of factors including availability, cost, amenities and user reviews. Firstly, located in Eunos, the house is midway between the airport and the heart of the city. The amenities we were offered were a mid-size bedroom which could accommodate 4 twin size mattresses side by side,  a dedicated bathroom (though just outside the bedroom), AC, a  small geyser/water heater for bathing. The room itself is part of a larger row house/bungalow, which has rooms for the couple and their son, a kitchen (which we were not allowed to use for cooking), a dining area and a larger living area which had a TV and Sofa. Tea and coffee were available on tap, with the heater and the ingredients kept handy.

The house itself was a part of a quiet residential suburb. It is barely 5 minutes walk from the nearest bus stop, with buses plying to the nearest MRT (Eunos on the East West Line) with regular frequency. At no point did we have to wait over 5 minutes for a bus to the MRT. Overall the location was quite convenient. The hosts are pretty well organized in their approach to their guests. They lent us MRT cards (which saved us around 20 SGD in cost - since we would have had to buy our own otherwise) which were ours to use till we were in Singapore.

Singapore is known to be a costly place, and especially for budget travelers like ourselves. A small miscalculation can lead to significant cost overruns and while the costs of major attractions were well known, we had to do some risk mitigation on the food side of things. Therefore we carried plenty of Indian snacks and ready to eat food with us. This included snacks like bhujiya, muruku, banana chips, bhel etc, as well as MTR's pohas and upmas , rajma chawal and Maggi noodles. Not only did these help us on the cost aspect, carrying the snacks allowed us at times to just get back home direct, without having to worry much about sourcing dinner. 

With regards to food, we knew we were going to be challenged on account of a few reasons. Firstly, we are not eat-at-McDonalds-wherever-you-go kind of people (McDonalds’ being the placeholder for any international food chain with standardized food), so that was the absolutely the last option. Secondly neither do we think only Indian food when it comes to eating outside, so Indian food was again not our go-to option. Thirdly, we did not know Singapore food that well before the trip, to be forewarned or to be reasonably sure of our food supply. While me and the wifey can survive pretty much any cuisine, the kids were a potential worry.

THE SIGHTS AND THE ATTRACTIONS

We had planned to cover most of the major attractions that Singapore has to offer and had actually made detailed day-wise plans for each day even before we had left India. However the best laid plans can come a cropper, and we were lucky that we did not have to change our plans for any exigency. We could in fact improve on our plans - and did keep some time on hand for any activity which was previously not in our itinerary.

 

Day 1 - Day of Arrival - 25 August 2017

We landed on time - around 8.00 am Singapore time and were out of the immigration and baggage claim by 9.30 am, on account of longer queues at the immigration. This was followed by breakfast at the airport - since we were not served anything significantly heavy on the flight. I don’t know if this is something that AI does specifically, or something that happened on just our flight, but the food was quite light. We had a quick bite at the lounge and were anyways not that hungry, but someone hungrier might have had tough time with the smaller food tray. A short 15 min ride later, we were at our Airbnb place - which would be our residence for the next 8 days. An unpacking exercise followed by a short nap and we were ready to take on the day.  Our first task for the day was to get money exchanged and a social visit to our neighbor’s son who is settled in Singapore.

With that done by early evening, we came back to Eunos and stocked ourselves with supplies which were to be our breakfast supplements (in addition to the one provided by our Airbnb guests). Things like eggs, chocolate milk, fresh bread etc were utmost essential and would stand us in good stead for the next few days.

Day 2 :  26 AUG 2017 : Jurong Bird Park

We got a scare in the morning with my youngest showing  signs of fever and this delayed our departure. Thankfully on giving him a dose of paracetamol, he seemed ok and we could continue as planned. Getting to the bird park is easy. We took an MRT to the Boon Lay station and at the adjoining interchange; we took a bus that goes to the Bird park. We reached the Bird park a little late –around 12.30 pm or so. With a near sick child and us still not having completely got over packing and travelling, we decided to take it light and do as much as we could without being stubborn and insisting on seeing everything.

Very early in our planning process (and from our earlier experience ), we had decided that a 4-park pass was the way to go, considering that we were going to visit all 4 of them anyways and the 50% cost saving on offer. The 4-park pass was at SGD 78 - adult and SGD 56 - child for the park hopper pass - which includes unlimited tram rides at all parks wherever available and a carousel ride for the kids at the zoo. My recommendation is to go for it - especially if you are with kids. Not only does it allow you to rest your weary legs, it can give you a good overview of the parks.  It also serves as a good strategy when you want to run from show to show, especially if you want to catch shows that are at a remote part of the park.

The fame of the Singapore bird parks is quite widespread and well deserved. I don’t think there are too many places like this around the world, which have been created by thoughtful design. Yes, one may argue that cage is no place for an animal, but quite a few of the birds are not caged and are allowed to roam freely in near-wild conditions. This was my second visit to the Bird Park in the last 9 years and by no means did I feel that it was a rehash. The birds, the greenery and the overall design of the park made me feel as if it was a new experience.  

The bird park itself is divided into sections.  The details can be had from the website of the bird park. I would sincerely urge one to take time and do your research on planning out the trips within the parks as well. The parks are not small … anywhere between 5 to 6 times larger than the Indian zoos.  The bird park has many shows where birds perform, and they are usually not at the same venue.  One has to walk 5-10 mins to reach the next venue. So if one has to catch a show, it is advisable to have a plan of attack that includes planning for the shows and seeing individual sections.

From our individual perspective, we did a complete tram ride of the park, caught the 2 main shows – the Kings of  Skies , which is largely about the predatory bird like falcons, eagles and vultures etc,  and the High flyers show, which is about parrots, toucans etc.  We also spent a lot of time at the Lory Loft – a trip I would urge you to sincerely take. We also visited the hornbill area – which contains different types of hornbills and is bang opposite the Lory loft. The waterfall aviary is also a beautiful area, where you can see plenty of birds in the open including peacocks, peahens, cassowary etc. The aviary also contains a very tall artificial waterfall that forms the perfect setting for  a jungle like visit.

We did not stop and see every enclosure or every cage that the Bird park has to offer. But then again if you want to do it, I would urge that you plan to spend the complete day at the Bird park – because the park is vast and it is at one end of the park and you will need to visit the area just for the Bird park.

Feeding the birds

My daughter enjoying the birds eating out of her hand

Feed the birds and they sit on your hands

At the Lory loft

At the High Flyers show

The Flamingo pen

At the waterfall Aviary

A freely moving peacock

Parrots at the High Flyers Show

A Vulture at the Lord of the Skies Show

Day 3 :  27 AUG 2017 : The City

We had planned on a duck tour - essentially touring in an open vehicle which is amphibious - capable of navigating in both water as well as on land. The tour we took was from Sunteck city mall, and was quite conveniently located near to the Esplanade MRT station. The aquatic portion took us close to the Merlion park,  showed us the Marina Bay Sands hotel, the Gardens by the bay, the Singapore flyer and the entire downtown Marina area. The land portion took us through the downtown historic district showing us the heritage area of Singapore.  If you are in for a bit of city tour, would urge you take this option.

The Duck tour was followed by lunch at the Sunteck City Malls food court. The food court is vast and houses many different kinds of cuisines. We followed it up with a tour to the Merlion Park, seeing the Merlion upfront. In addition to the Merlion, the park has many bayfront restaurants  and one can spend hours hanging around.  We walked down a few hundred meters from the Merlion park to the Singapore Flyer. While it is not a easy walk – especially given the humidity of the area, it is worth the effort as it takes you past the Durian – the eponymous fruit shaped convention area and the heart of downtown Singapore.  The walk also takes you over a nice walking bridge that spans the bay.

Singapore Flyer is no longer the top sightseeing option Singapore, having been replaced by Marina bay Sands as the tallest structure in the city. Moreover I guess most of the Singaporeans have been to this place, multiple times already, leaving the attraction for tourists only. Regardless, the flyer is very well maintained and the views of the city are magnificent. Moreover, a nice 360 degree rotation spread over 30 minutes makes for a nice relaxing ride.

By the time we were done with the Flyer, it was already evening and left us with a limited time to see the Gardens by the Bay. However we did not want to visit the area again, just to see the one attraction.  So we went anyway.  While the Gardens are free for the public, the gardens contain 2 domes – the Cloud Forest Dome and the Flower dome, the entry for which is paid.  The Cloud Forest Dome contains plants and shrubs that are present in the high humidity, higher altitude areas which give the effect of being in the cloud. The dome mimics the effect, creating a  misty effect throughout the dome.  The flower dome as the name suggests contains flowers from all around the world.  It walks you through desert like environment, showing you cacti and desert flora and leads you to a flower arena where colorful flowers are arranged making it a beautiful place to visit.  A note to the wise – both the domes are kept at quite a low temperature.  After walking through the humid environment outside, walking into the dome, the sweat dries on the  body making you feel quite cold, quite quickly. It is advisable to keep a extra layer of clothes just for this attraction. I don’t think there is any other place in Singapore, where you need an extra layer of clothes.

At the end of the domes, we visited the light and the sound show conducted at the Supertree Grove. This is free of cost and gets filled quite quickly. When we went, the show was already underway and it was a Sunday too… so we plunked down at not exactly the most advantageous of positions, but the show was good and we enjoyed it despite our poor vantage point.  The Gardens by the Bay are a must visit even if you are not a nature enthusiast and can tolerate plants and trees.  My only regret was not exploring the whole gardens. Hopefully a trip to Singapore someday gives me a chance to explore them at a greater leisure.

At the Merlion Park

The Marina Sands Bay hotel in the background of the Merlion

Gardens by the Bay - As seen from the Singapore Flyer

At the Cloud Forest

At the Cloud Forest Dome

The Flower Dome

The Flower Dome

At the SuperTree Grove

Day 4 :  27 AUG 2017 : The Zoo, The River Safari and The Night Safari.

The Zoo

Learning from our experience with Bird Park, and planning to do all 3 attractions on the same day, we left quite early and reached the zoo close to its opening time, around 10.30 am. On reaching, we immediately we set off for the first show of the day. We had planned to cover all the 4 shows that the Zoo has to offer. The first one was the Splash Safari where a sea Lion performs various acrobatics. It is quite endearing and the kids enjoyed it immensely. The next show was the Animal Friends show, which was quite boring – even for the kids and which we were happy to leave mid-way.  We rushed to the Elephants show – but quite frankly if you are someone who has seen elephants up close in India, the show is easily avoidable.

We then undertook a complete tram ride of the park, which was quite a smart move, because the ride actually shows you all the large animals that are kept in open pens.  So if you are not an animal lover like me – the tram ride actually lets you cover the whole park showing you a lot of the large animals without you having to walk all the way.  After the initial preview, we visited a few enclosures to the animals up close. A particular mention goes out to seeing the white tiger, the Polar bear, the Lion and the kangaroo enclosures.  Do try and catch these even if you do not visit other animals.

The River Safari

The River Safari is a showcase of all flora and fauna that frequent the river ecosystems around the world. The whole safari takes about 2.5-3 hours to complete, including the 2 rides – Wild Amazonia and the River Quest.  The River quest is a simple ride through a lake, giving you glimpses of some animals including the Giraffes. The wild Amazonia ride is a moving water ride that takes you through holding pens of the animals. The 15 minute ride is easily one of the 2 highlights of the River Safari. The other being the 2 Pandas that are kept in the River Safari. Other notable attractions being the Flooded Forest and the squirrel monkey Forest.

The Night Safari

As the name indicates, the Night Safari is a ride that tracks the nocturnal animals. The ride is essentially a fixed tram ride that goes through an artificial jungle.  The entire trail has enclosures where animals can be seen in low light.  It is a thrilling experience, giving one a feel of riding through the forest through the night. Of course one is also free to explore the entire trails on foot as well. However it is not for people with young kids.

Reflections of the day 

The entire park complex of these 3 attractions  -   Zoo, River Safari and the Night Safari are a easy bus ride from the nearest MRT Station  - Ang Mo Kiyo and buses ply quite frequently between the zoo complex and the station.

The fact that we could complete the 3 attractions in  1 day is  a credit to my children who walked without complaining, despite their tiredness. Also we did not stop at every pen and cage, allowing us to cover the park catching glimpses of large animals. If you want to do all these 3 attractions, you need to decide clearly which enclosures and animals you want to visit, and which ones you can skip.  The park map can be found at the website here. It is all well if you don’t have young children with you, but if you have kids the idea is to catch the key highlights while skipping a few. The Zoo has map that can take you through various different trails – and it is available online as well.  Decide a course upfront and stick to it.  The River safari is simpler - it is one continuous loop through all the attractions. So you can just walk past the areas you don’t want to see.  The Night Safari is one tram ride of around 30 minutes through the whole park and it opens late in the evening – after the zoo and the River safari have closed down.

Day 5 :  28 AUG 2017 : UNIVERSAL STUDIOS.

The Universal Studios is a Hollywood based theme park with rides based on iconic Hollywood movies produced by Universal studios.  Located on the island of Sentosa, the Universal studios merits one day ride visit easily. Even that may not be sufficient for seeing all the rides that the place has to offer. Open only for a  period of 8 hours from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm, most top attractions have waits of anywhere from 40 minutes to 1.5 hours.  The entire park is divided into 7 theme based zones . Hollywood – the central boulevard that houses shopping and other memorabilia , also has a large central avenue where most of the meet and greet characters come along. Madagascar – based on the eponymous movie , has one ride and one carousel ride. This section is for kids and can be easily completed in less than an hour and sees lesser rush as compared to other more exciting sections.  Far Far Away is a cartoon character based section based on the movie Shrek and its spin offs.  The Lost World is  a dinosaur based theme area. The Ancient Egypt is based on the “Mummy” series.  The Sci-Fi section is based on the themes of sci-fi movies like Transformers and Battlestar Galactica. The section houses 3 of the top rides in the Universal Studios viz.  The Transformers Ride and 2 roller coasters – HUMAN and CYCLONE.  The New York section bases itself on shows and attractions based on the Big Apple.

With 2 kids and 2 adults, and despite going on weekday, we could not complete the whole park in 1 day. However we did manage to complete  a major part with some few key rides  (you can check out the details on the website) which were :

•  Madagascar -  A Crate Adventure (Madagascar section)  - Joint Fun adventure, go with whole family
• Puss in boots – Giant journey (Far Far Away section) -  Good coaster for the family, but had the longest wait time we encountered.
• Enchanted Airways   (Far Far Away section ) – A junior coaster, great fun for the whole family.
• Waterworld   (The Lost World section) – Great live show. Superb stunts, take raincoats if you plan to sit in the first few rows –named aptly as the Splash Zone.
• Canopy Flyer  (The Lost World Section ) -  Flies over a large part of the Lost World section.  Can take kids along. My kids loved it a lot.
• Dino Soarin  (The Lost World Section ) -  A merry go round, where the seats go up and down based on your commands.  Again – great fun for kids.
• Treasure Hunter  (Ancient Egypt) -  A very simple journey on wheels  - great for kids. Take it only if one has time on hands.
•  Revenge of the Mummy (Ancient Egypt) -  One of the most underrated rides in the whole park.  Starts of slowly, then it is basically a roller coaster ride in near darkness. When you cant anticipate what you are about to experience, gives the ride a total different feel. Kids not allowed. Not to be missed.
• Battlestar galactica - HUMAN  (Sci Fi City) – Great Coaster, great corkscrew turns and full body inversions. Don’t miss.
• Accelerator (Sci Fi City) -  A fun ride for the whole family.  Basically seated in a tea cup, you are rotated  on 2 different paths at the same time. 
• Transformers ride  (Sci-Fi City) -  Absolutely among the top 2 rides in the whole park.  a 3-D adventure, where your vehicle is accelerated , decelerated with sideways jerks  - all with a great back story of all the major Transformer characters including  - Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and Megatron, all chasing the All-spark.
• Lights Camera Action (New York) -  A standing show , which mimics a hurricane about to hit the  Big Apple. Must for the whole family. Not to be missed.
• Spaghetti Space Chase (New York) -  a simple coaster ride based on Sesame Street TV series.
• Meet and Greet (Hollywood) -  We met characters from the Universal movies including Shrek, Gru and the kids had a great time with the Minions.

While we completed majority of the parks, there were a few rides we missed on account of long wait times or the  tight schedule. They were:

• Battlestar Galactica – CYCLON (Sci-Fi City)  -  This is  the complementary roller coaster of the HUMAN –mentioned earlier.
• Jurassic Rapids Adventure (The Lost World) -  A water ride, which wets you thoroughly. But considered by many to be one of the best ride.
• King Julien’s Carousel  (Madagascar) -  Wanted to do it for the kids, but missed it completely.

The Hollywood Street 

with GRU

MINIONS  - always the kids favorite

The HUMAN and CYCLONE Rides

If you really intend to complete the entire park in one day, I would recommend visiting on weekday preferably Wednesday, or Thursday. We were at Sentosa on Wednesday and felt that the crowds were lesser at Universal ( I could be dead wrong).  Also - many rides have single rider entry , which allows a single person to basically fit in one of the empty seats which get left out when groups travel.  So if you are a group of stags, or even a couple who can be stand being apart for the duration of a ride, I would sincerely recommend to go wherever single rider entry is allowed.  Or if you can spare some money buy an express pass (costing 40% or more) which will allow you a quick entry into many (but not all) rides.

Universal stops many rides at 6.00 pm sharp. However if you are standing in a queue at 6.00 pm, they let you complete the rides, extending  beyond the 6.00 pm deadline.   I would recommend the following tips to maximize your trip to Universal.

•  Firstly, be there before time, preferably 15 minutes before, so that  you can get hold of the brochures and take care of ticketing.
• Plan your attack. Decide which rides are a must see. Use the first 2 hours of the morning, finishing off the top 2 rides.
•  Keep a couple of your must see rides for around lunch time (1.00 – 3.00 pm). Most people take a break during that time and wait times are significantly reduced. For example, we waited a total of 20 minutes for the Transformer ride at around 1.30 – which was absolutely short, considering the popularity of the ride.
•  Skip your Lunch, if you can, have a great heavy early dinner at Vivocity food court instead. This will give you another extra 30 minutes, allowing you to cover that 1 extra ride.
•  Enter your last ride just before 6.00 pm. No matter how long the queue, Universal will let you complete your ride.

Wings of Time (Sentosa) :

We were done with Universal by 6.30, and not as tired as the earlier day. We had prudently kept our tickets for Wings of Time with us and we took the Sentosa express to the Wings of time.  If you are not  buying a multi-pass for Sentosa (which has to be done in 1 day), I would urge visiting Wings of Time along with Universal Studios trip. There are 2 shows daily - 7.40 pm and 8.40 pm. If you plan on maximizing your Universal trip as per the tips above, you should take the 8.40 pm show tickets. This is just a sit and watch show, so no matter how tired you are, one can easily do Wings of time along with Universal.

Day 6:  29 AUG 2017: SENTOSA.

We had a late start to our Sentosa trip, reaching the island only around 12.00 pm – which is quite late. We had taken the 5-play pass of Sentosa and were quite clear on the attractions list . We had planned the SEA Aquarium, The Trickeye museum, the Luge + cable car ride and the 4-D adventure ride. K-Live is compulsory with SEA Aquarium. We had also planned a visit to the Merlion and had tickets to the Cable Car.

Cable Car.

The Cable car has 2 routes or lines - The Sentosa Line and the Mount Faber Line. The Sentosa line only takes you within the island of Sentosa, while the Mt. Faber line connects the mainland to Sentosa. We had a combined pass of both the lines.  We took a cab to the Mt. Faber station, which overlooks the whole city and provides a nice view.  A 15 minute ride, going over the hills, the marina and the sea, catching glimpses of the city skyline brought us to Sentosa. 

We used the Sentosa line just for fun, seeing the Merlion from up in the air, seeing the shoreline and the beach etc. However one may choose to avoid it totally.

The Mt. Faber Line

Approaching a Station

The waterfront View

Another Sea Front View

SEA Aquarium

When we had last visited Singapore in 2008, the SEA aquarium was a small automated ride through a large tank under a tunnel. Since then Sentosa has revamped and expanded. The SEA aquarium has increased to at least 10x times its earlier sizes and now contains sharks, dolphins, sea lions and a whole variety of fishes and sea life. If you are a nature lover – one can spend hours here – in fact the whole day. We spent close to 90 minutes in the place, which we felt did a good justice to the place, without being obsessed by it.

K-Live :

Good for the first 10 minutes, where you are watching the Laser show and near life like shows. However the show is about Korean pop stars and songs are not in English. So it gets boring quickly. We walked out 15 minutes into the show.

TrickEye Museum :

The Trick Eye Museum can be best described as a illusion place for the 21^st century. The main theme of this place is the illusions that are created with backdrops, combined with clever , in-app effects to deliver a great illusion, which can be viewed on your mobile.  As soon as one walks into the museum, you are asked to download their app. Using this app, you can take photos and videos against various backdrops in the museum.  The app automatically adds effects into the photos and videos.  A great visit for kids of all ages.

The Skyride and the Luge Ride:

This is a  2-in-1 ride that starts at the base , where a sky ride takes you over the entire island to a place where the luge ride takes off. The Luge Ride is a  gravity driven ride where you can control the speed and the direction.  Seems simple, but is great fun.  Both my kids enjoyed  - needless to say so did the wife and myself.

The 4-D Adventure– Log ride.

The log Ride is a 4-D adventure ride that mimics the effects of a log going through a processing factory. We were told this was the best of the rides in the 4D attraction. However this pales in comparison to the Transformers Ride. So if you had done Transformers ride – only a day after Universal  - my suggestion is to avoid it altogether and focus on other rides.

Sentosa Tips :

• If you have done Universal a day before, Sentosa is totally avoidable – especially if you are adults. My kids enjoyed the whole experience though. 
• The whole of Sentosa cannot be covered in 1 day  - unless you are doing things at a breakneck speed. So avoid the trap of the unlimited fun passes. Instead the play-5 or play-3 passes are a great value for money.
• Start early. Sentosa’s fun filled attractions will take all your day. So maximize your time by giving yourself the most time.
• Some 2-in-1 attractions are because they would not be other wise sold. K-Live is one of them, and no one in their sane mind would really go to the show, so it is clubbed with SEA aquarium – which everyone visits.  The best idea would be to use it for other 5 attractions and buy a standalone ticket for the SEA Aquarium.
• Keep atleast 1.5 -2 hours to really enjoy the SEA aquarium – since it is vast and is quite well designed.
• Drink plenty of water, as the sun and humidity can suck the life out of you if you are not well hydrated.

The Lau Pa Sat  (or Telok Ayers Market)

The Lau pa Sat is situated quite close to the Raffles place MRT Station.   A veritable foodies paradise,  the Telok Ayers Market is one of the top Hawker’s food market in Singapore.  But we went mainly for the satay food on offer there.  A lane behind the market is closed for traffic in the evening hours and hawkers selling satay (or  fire roasted meat on a stick) opens up.    You can have your choice of meat  - chicken, lamb, pork, beef or prawns.  We spent close to SGD 35 for around 20 Satay sticks of Chicken, mutton and prawns. While the chicken was all right .. the prawns were simply awesome. They were quite big and fresh.. went just great with  their dip and beer.  A must visit if you are a Satay lover.

Day 7 :  30 AUG 2017 : Chinatown and Clarke Quay.

Chinatown is little more than a street of hawkers selling cheap souvenirs and Chinese style architecture. It also has loads of street vendors selling Chinese food. If you want to shop for cheap gifts from Singapore, this is the place to be. You can get key-chains at SGD 10 for 42,  $10 for 7 shopping bags,  decorative chopsticks,  Chinese clothes, fridge magnets and loads of other trinkets.  The trick is to look at a couple of places for the best deals. The places farthest from the MRT /Bus stops give you the best deals. 

A middling walk from the Chinatown is the Clark Quay, a bayside promenade full of restaurants and pubs.  However it is quite expensive.  We visited, but did not eat anything there as it was really costly. A must visit , but to sit and eat, you must be loaded to splurge money.

Day 8 :  31 AUG 2017 : Packing and Marina Sands Bay

On account of the significant amount of shopping we had done, and the fact that we had got loads of luggage with us, we spent the first half of the day getting our packing sorted. By the time this was done, it was late afternoon, and we had kept our last evening for the Laser light show at Marina Sands Bay. 

This is a free to attend show and takes place at 2 times in a day -  7.00 pm and 8.00 pm. A great open air show to catch, keeps the audience easily enthralled for about 15 minutes.  Plus a  great spot to relax in the evening and catch the nightfall  as you see the city skyline coming to life right in front of your eyes.

FOOD IN SINGAPORE

Food is central to Singaporean life and if I were to define Singapore thematically,  2 great themes would stand out easily - Food and Water. In terms of food, Singapore is a foodie's delight - that is if you are willing to experiment and eat all types of meats. Food in Singapore can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it – depending upon your preferences and pet food peeves. Like all great cities of world you will find range of restaurants from the top end Michelin starred places to cheap local street side food. However there is a major difference though - most of the native Singaporeans don’t cook at home during the weekdays and weeknights, unless they have a maid who can cook for them. Dinner and Lunch are usually takeouts and this being a daily affair, one cannot very well order expensive restaurant food every time. The solution is an upgraded version of street food called Hawker Center. Hawker centers are a great option for the hungry yet hygiene obsessed Singaporean.  These are nothing more than official govt. designed open-to-air, covered courts that house mini restaurants and surrounded by a largish court where tables and chairs are laid out for people to eat.  Each hawker is certified a grade “A”, “B” or “C” depending on the quality and the cleanliness of the place. Very rarely will you find a  “D” category – as most of “D” category places are closed immediately.

Each hawker center, more often than not, will have a eclectic mix of Singaporean, Chinese, Malay, Indonesian,Indian and an occasional Japanese cuisine place. The food is decently priced and is quite  tasty without the use of too many spicy ingredients.  Most food courts will also have the odd tea and coffee place and a couple of local dessert vendors as well.  All said, if you do not mind sharing your table and eating with the locals, the Hawker center is a great eating option for value meals. We usually ate the Hawker Centers or food courts at the malls. The Sunteck city mall and Vivocity have great food courts offering a mix of different Asian cuisines -  Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Singaporean, Indonesian, Korean, Italian, Burgers etc  - all at reasonable prices.

One dish we fell in love was the Hainanese Chicken Rice. It consists of a bowl of rice (cooked in Chicken or some meat broth), a bowl of clear soup,  a large piece of vegetable – usually bakchoy, some salad and condiments and most importantly  - cold chicken – either with the skin on  or without the skin if you so feel.  It is a simple dish – cooked to perfection and light on the tummy as well. During our stay in Singapore, this was our go to dish especially since the kids loved it.  We tried out plenty of other dishes as well – Laksa, Nasi Goreng, the Roti Pratha , Mee Siam, Mee Goreng , Mee Siam, Korean soup bowls and rice entrees and Japanese Ramen. 

One thing to note is that outside of typical tourist areas, food places wrap up pretty early. It is not uncommon to see shutters down at most places at 9.30 pm. This is on account of the fact that many of these places open early in the morning as well  to serve breakfast.  We knew this fact and therefore had decided to carry some prepacked food and some our meals were indeed had that way. 

A caution for my veggie Indian friends - there is no such thing as vegetarian food in most of the places. Even for seemingly innocuous dishes  - like a bowl of Rice or a side dish of  Soya sauce sauteed veggies, there are elements of meats in it. For example the Rice is usually cooked in chicken broth and the veggies have some fish sauce thrown in for taste.  So you are best off finding an Indian restaurant or take-out place and sticking to it for the duration of your stay. Alternatively carry loads of ready-to-heat-and-eat packs or dry snacks. We had carried quite a large quantity of dry snacks - which were eventually useful when we were roaming at all the attractions.

Overall the food is quite bland in Singapore. As a matter of fact, most of the food in the world as i have discovered, pales in comparison to Indian spices. While i can manage quite well with lightly flavored food, i would urge Indians to set their expectations quite right....unless ofcourse you are planning on finding an Indian restaurant and sticking to it for the rest of the stay.

Korean Soup Bowl

Korean Fried Rice with Meat and Veggies

Mee Siam

Laksa

Hainanese Chicken Rice

SINGAPORE TIPS, TRICKS AND CHEATS 

• Singapore is a hot country with a humid climate.  Moreover like typical equatorial places, as soon as the humidity gets too high, it rains. So carrying umbrellas is a great strategy - for the sun as well as the rain.
• Travel by Public transport is extremely easy and convenient. A short walk from your place of stay will bring you to a Bus stop and you are a short ride away from the MRT from the bus stop.  

  

  On the MRT

• That being said, even a short walk can be sweat inducing. Almost all tourist places need a walk from the nearest Bus/MRT Station. Also within the main attractions  - Bird Park, Zoo, Night Safari, River Safari,  Gardens by the Bay, Universal, Sentosa, Singapore Flyer and the Marina /Merilon park one has to walk plenty.  That implies  a few key things :
• Comfortable footwear.
• Practice walking.
• Making sure you carry water. 
• Loose clothing and a change of clothes if you sweat a lot.
• Eat salty and sweet snacks from time to time – this will ensure loss of salts and energy is replaced from time to time.
• Both Buses and MRT are air conditioned. So any sweat that accumulates dries on your skin. So it is advisable to carry a towel/napkin to dry it off immediately. Else you risk getting cold /cough.
• If you are travelling with kids, make sure that they are used to walking a lot. My 2 angels were used to walking in school and stuff, and love to travel. So their spirits were quite high throughout the duration of the trip. However an army marches on its stomach and we made sure that our kids were not hungry for long. We fed them biscuits, salty snacks and an occasional cola - making sure they did not over exert themselves. 
• Food is cheap, quality and very hygienic at most places. Also one will pretty much find all kinds of cuisine. Feel free to explore. Unlike most international cities, even the street food is regulated by the government  and the regulations are quite strict. 
• Carry a couple of empty bottles with you for filling water. Drinking water fountains are quite abundant in Singapore, very hygienic  and free of cost. At some tourist destinations bottled water can cost as high as SGD 3.50  for 500 ml. 
• Avoid alcohol for 2 reasons. Firstly booze is not quite cheap as in other places. Besides, sun and alcohol don't mix very well - and the sun is quite strong in Singapore being close to the equator.  It is best to stick to an occasional beer.  In the course of my entire 8 day trip – I might have had at the most 2 pints.  Personally, I get bad hangovers if I mix the sun and beer and if you are like me, act with caution before downing a few.
• Carry some ready to eat food with you. As a tourist I have realized that the weight of  your international luggage rarely reaches even 70% of allotted weight. So use that space to carry some ready to cook meals with you. At times you might feel the need to have late night or early morning snack and these will come in handy. In addition to dry snacks, we carried a couple of MTR meals and flavorings like mayonnaise and honey for quick snacks.  Other things can be sourced locally  - like noodle bowls (which are available aplenty in Singapore) especially if you are staying in places with no food.  Sometimes it comes in handy in case restaurants and hawker centers are closed.

SINGAPORE - LASTING IMPRESSIONS

Singapore is a extremely clean and swanky place. It might be an exaggeration but in my humble opinion it comes as close to utopia as gets -  i.e. the utopia you get if tempered down with realism and colored with a hue of mixed communities. Almost all things work - especially in the public infrastructure space. A broken machine or a ride under maintenance is an exception rather than a norm.  

The people are not warm  - they veer more towards the cold and efficient. It would not be amiss if we compare Singaporeans to the Swiss. There are many similarities -  both countries are small, with no dominant natural resources, built on their special skills (Singapore on trading and Finance , and the Swiss on sheer industrial brilliance and Banking), and ofcourse way richer on an average as compared to their neighbors.  However it would be wrong to label the Singaporeans as uncaring or unwelcoming. As long as you follow their rules, keep to yourself, dont wake up the neighborhood and overall be a good citizen, the good Singaporeans will let you be and let you partake the benefits, sights and sounds of their tiny but wonderful land.