7 Days in Sensational Singapore!

We leave Vagabond Temple in Sihanoukville, Cambodia at 8:30 am for our five-hour drive to Phnom Penh where our wonderful Cambodian journey started 30 days ago. It is here we connect to our two-hour Jetstar flight south to Singapore.

We arrive in Singapore just after 6 pm.  Flying in,we have views of this massive modern city.  To us, it looks a bit like Manhattan times two.  The luggage arrives very quickly and we breeze through immigration and customs.  The taxi line is short and we hop into a new Prius.  I like the fact of no tipping with the taxis, makes it simple.  The rates are also regulated.

As we drive to our hotel, it is wonderful to be in a well-developed country after 90 days in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.  The streets are pristine, perfectly paved and traffic moves at a nice pace.  We have been here six hours and have yet to hear a horn! Unlike the other SE Asian countries we just visited, where the horns are used non stop as routine driving signals.

Singapore lies just one degree north of the equator and just off the northern tip of Indonesia. It is a global economic hub with one of the strongest financial and trading markets in the world. Singapore has the highest concentration of millionaire households, with around 15 percent of all households having at least $1 million in assets under management. It is ranked near the top among developed countries in education, healthcare, life expectancy, quality of life, personal safety, and housing.  

We are in Singapore and it happens to be the Chinese New Year. We are staying on the edge of Chinatown.  It is the year of the rooster and, of course, this decor abounds!

We stroll down through Chinatown to a restaurant on the other edge of Chinatown, My Awesome Cafe I was thinking it was a Chinese restaurant, but, not.  Actually it is a cool hipster cafe with some healthier type dishes.  I opted for the avocado BLT and Tracey had a beautiful salad with egg, avocado, almonds, walnuts, rocket, marinated red peppers and cranberry.  I chase mine with a cold Stella and Tracey has a Little Creatures from Australia.  (Ok, so we fell of the vegan, no alcohol diet of two weeks at our yoga-meditation retreat in Cambodia…there is always tomorrow).  We lose an hour so we are up a bit late doing some planning for our visit here in Singapore.

Singapore Sunday

Nice to sleep in on Sunday morning a bit.  There is no 6 am yoga gong or 8 am tour starting.  Around 9:30 am I wander down the street to a very large food market, Tiong Bahru Market Singapore has consolidated their street vendors in these type of markets, where they are better regulated.  I try a sample of a famous Singapore dish, Hainanese Chicken Rice, at a place called, well, Hainanese Chicken Rice. Not bad!  I try the roasted variety which may not be as traditional, but very good.

We head out before noon on one of 39 Singapore walks listed on a pretty cool app We start with the Singapore orientation walk, makes sense right?

 


Singapore is a melting pot of Asian influences.  About half of this walk is spent in the Chinatown area.  We first visit the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple which is actually fairly impressive inside.  It is, as the name implies, a Buddhist temple that claims to have the relic of Buddha from which it gains its name.  Apparently, the relic was found in 1980 in a collapsed stupa in Myanmar.  The temple was completed in 2007 at a whopping cost of $62 million!  
The relic can be viewed on the 4th floor of the temple.

Our walk continues as it winds through Chinatown to the Sri Mariamman Temple, Singapore’s oldest Hindu Temple.  This temple was originally built in 1827 with many modifications and additions since. It has some impressive multi-tiered sculptures outside, as well as, frescoes on the ceiling inside. 

Just down the street from this Hindu temple is the Jamae Chulia Mosque.  The mosque was built in 1826 and is one of the oldest in Singapore. The style is considered Neo-Classical.

From here we walk through Chinatown in search of, apparently, the number one place for Dim Sum.  It looks to be in a stall in one of the big food markets. We walk about a mile, mostly in circles, lol, but we can’t find it.  Instead we try some dim sum at one of the many food vendors in the Chinatown markets, which turns out to be very good. We try the chili crab dim sum, the chili crab being a Singapore delight.  We also try the shrimp dim sum, delicious as well!

Our next stop takes us to United Overseas Bank plaza, or UOB plaza. The walk is a couple of kilometers from Chinatown and passes by some beautiful and amazing new and old architecture.


The UOB plaza itself includes two modern towerrs, one of which is the third highest in Singapore at 280 meters. There is a mosque below one of the towers which makes the mosque unique.  We were not impressed by the mosque itself as it is modern and very unassuming. 

The UOB plaza sits on Boat Quay, an historical area of Singapore that once was the busiest parts of the old port. The port handled 75 percent of all shipping business during the 1860s. The area is now a mix of restaurants, pubs and shops and is a beautiful area.  It also has great views of the Asian Civilizations Museum, and the Fullerton Hotel, a magnificent building that once was a 1920s post office. The Asian Civilizations Museum is a beautiful complex of buildings itself.  But this museum will have to wait as we have already logged many miles on the “wheels” today.

On the mouth of the Singapore river along Marina Bay is the Esplanade Theater, made of glass and aluminum. It is a massive unique building shaped like the durian fruit, thus called the Durian by locals. The durian fruit is a large size fruit with a spiky, hard outer shell. The fruit is highly nutritious but is infamous for its smell.  So smelly, in fact, that some hotels in Asia even ban it from your room.

The walk along the river also has great views of Singapore’s signature landmark, the Marina Sands. The Sands is the building with three towers and a huge platform across the top of the towers.  I think it looks similar to a cruise ship. This is a building that we will visit later that has the world famous infinity pool high atop the buildings.

We walk home from here along the river, another few kilometers. What Singapore has done with the riverfront is amazing with ships, restaurants, hotels and residences all along the banks.  It rivals and perhaps outdoes Chicago’s riverfront.

After a siesta back at our room we head to dinner to a nearby Chinese restaurant on Outram Road, Chengdu Sichuan. The food here is szechwan style and it is spicy!  We have a cauliflower dish packed with garlic, onions, and red peppers.  The szechwan chicken is spicy, as well. It is good, perhaps a little too authentic even for me, as it probably includes about every part of the chicken. The large Tiger beers help mitigate some of the heat and chicken parts.

Monday 

We sleep in on Monday morning, feels good.  Around noon we finally head out to the mega shopping malls, one known as the Paragon.  It is a very large very upscale center with about every store you can imagine.  Not a great place since we are no longer accumulators of stuff and have no room to store it or carry it around the world anyway.  But there are a few essentials that we can pick up there for sure. 

We return home close to five, just in time to rest for a couple hours before heading out to Little India.  We dine al fresco at Khansama Tandoori Restaurant right in the heart of Little India.  The sun has set and the overhead lights lining the street are beautiful.  We go for a couple Kingfisher beers, chicken tikka masala, garlic naan and aloo chat for an app.  All delicious!

After dinner we stop at the 24 hour shopping mall in Little India called Mustafa Centre.  The center is targeted for the budget market and sells over 300,000 different items, everything from jewelry to toiletries to electronics, groceries and household appliances.  It is quite a zoo!  I find prices are similar to what you might find on amazon.com, but of course cheaper than the high end mall we were at today!

Tuesday 

We head back to have prescription glasses made back at Paragon.  I am trying to close out the tax advantaged 2016 Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and a couple pairs of glasses will easily do it. 

At the same complex we head to lunch at Din Tai Fung for dim sum.  Apparently this place has a great reputation, ranked as one of the best restaurants in the world by the New York Times…and the line confirms it. The wait is posted at a 25 minutes.  What’s cool is they give us a clipboard with the dim sum menu to be completed while we wait. The kitchens are enclosed in glass so we can watch the various dim sum being prepared. Shortly after we hand in our clipboard our selections begin arriving.  I must say the hot and sour soup is the best I recall ever having.  And I have had quite a bit growing up as it was one of my mother’s favorites.

For dinner we try some Japanese at Terra Japanese around the corner from our lodging.  The experience here is not so good.  Poor service, out of tuna, lol, and a bit expensive.  Anyway much more sushi and sashimi to come soon when we move on to Japan.

Wednesday

We spend a beautiful sunny Wednesday at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. We have spent time at many beautiful botanic gardens the past year and this is definitely worth a visit.   It is one of three gardens, and the only tropical garden, to be honored as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The National Orchid Garden is absolutely amazing with over 1,200 species, 2,000 hybrids and over 60,000 orchid plants.  Singapore honors visiting head of states, dignitaries and celebrities, by naming its hybrid orchids after them. We see as many as we can as we walk through these in the VIP Orchid Gardens. I think I have pictures of all 1,200 species, lol. A couple more pics…and many more below!

The rest of the park is beautiful and quite large, over 200 acres and is over 1.6 miles from top to bottom of the park at one point. The park is very accessible as it has great hours open from 5 a.m. to 12 midnight every day of the year!  Much of the park is free.

After our morning at the Botanic Garden, the weather continues to be great. We have been trying to plan our trip to Marina Sands park observation deck on a more sunny day.  However, we really haven’t had any sunny days and none are forecast through mid next week.  So we decide to go near sunset to the perch on the 56th floor of the Marina Bay Sands.  Marina Bay Sands consists of three 55 story towers that house over 2,500 hotel rooms.  Sitting on top and across the three towers is a 1,120 foot SkyPark, restaurant, observation deck and a 490 ft infinity edge swimming pool.  From a distance it looks a bit like a large surf board stretched across these three towers. It is considered the world’s largest public cantilevered platform, which overhangs the north tower by 220 feet.  

Our timing allows us to capture a few daylight pictures, not great because of the clouds.  But there are still great views of the city and the hundreds of ships waiting to move into the Singapore port.  An amazing scene.

Also visible is the enormous “ferris wheel” called “The Flyer”. The Flyer is Singapore’s version of the London Eye. It is the second tallest ferris wheel in the world, second to the recently opened “High Roller” in Las Vegas.


After a few more pictures of the night views after sunset, we head back to our hotel, the New Cape Inn.  We head to a Peranakan restaurant.  Peranaken people, culture and food represent the Chinese who were born in Singapore and also have a Malaysian heritage.  Thus the food is more Malaysian than Chinese.  

After dinner we talk for awhile to Ann who is a born and raised Singaporean, living here for 70 years.  A wonderful lady!  She is interested in our story and travels over the past year.  Perhaps we will see her in Florida sometime!

Thursday

This morning we head out to the neighborhood of Kampong Glam! This is an area near the central part of Singapore that used to be the residential area for the Malay aristocracy during the 18th and 19th centuries. The area also consists of several small laneways in the heart of the Muslim quarter.

There are wonderful restaurants and boutique shops in the area as well as street art throughout Haji Lane. We enjoy a wonderful lunch at Beirut’s Grill.

We stroll around the area including the beautiful mosque, known as Masjid Sultan  The mosque was originally built in 1824, rebuilt in 1932. Each dome base is decorated with glass bottle ends, donated by the poor during its construction so that all could contribute.

As it starts to rain we head over to the Singapore Library.  It is an impressive library that happens to house the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Management and Alumni Singapore office.  We stop in, say hello and have a great chat with the Alumni Director.

We head back over to the Kampong Glam area and Haji Lane to Cafe Om for dinner.  Neat place as it gives you a sense of peacefulness, serenity and spirit. The upstairs of the cafe offers yoga and meditation. We have a nice relaxing evening and end to a great day.

Friday

We make a trip to the Singapore Post Office in the morning to lighten our load before heading to Hong Kong Sunday. Wonderful service at the post office as the clerk essentially helps us “pack” our belongings and send them off!

It’s another nice day and later in the morning we head off by train to Sentosa Island.  We take the MRT, Singapore’s subway. It very easy to use, not overcrowded and like Singapore, very clean.  Expansion of the MRT lines is underway in many parts of Singapore.

Sentosa Island is close and easily accessible from the Singapore mainland. The island has many attractions from golf courses, resorts, Universal Studios and the SEA Aquarium.  We pic the SEA Aquarium, arguably the largest in the world.  

The Aquarium is impressive with over 100,000 animals and 800 species. They have an Open Ocean Habitat that makes us feel as if we are under the water with the more than 200 sharks.  They have a wide variety of both sharks and rays.

The animals in the aquarium are grouped according to 10 different zones with 49 habitats. Fish are from many areas including the Bay of Bengal, the Straits of Malacca & Andaman Sea and the Great Lakes of East Africa. A few more pics of more species below!

Back for a quick siesta, a stop to pick up the prescription glasses I had made and we are on our way to Clark Quay.  Clark Quay is on the Singapore river and is filled with restaurants and pubs.  It reminds us a bit of downtown Chicago, along the Chicago River. We end up at a Japanese restaurant for some Sashimi and cold Asahi Beer.  All delicious!  The area is buzzing on a Friday night, but not overly crowded.  It makes for a relaxing dinner and evening.

After dinner, we head down the river a bit, still on Clark Quay to the Crazy Elephant.  It is slated as a blues bar.  The band tonight is Eddie and the Blues Machine.  All are talented musicians playing some great music.  Eddie, from Brazil, has a very good voice.  He is spending a bit of time in Singapore before moving on to other countries. It is a decent crowd, again comfortable and not overcrowded.  At least one local is getting into the music, dancing and enjoying himself. The venue is a good fun spot for some live music in Singapore. 

Saturday 

On our last day in Singapore we head to the Gardens by the Bay We take the bus and get off in a business district area.  Being Saturday it is not busy, so we have a chance to view some of these cool skyscrapers and buildings without all the weekday crowds.  The view of the city and waterfront is beautiful. 

We head toward Marina Bay Sands complex to get some pics of the unique buildings.  We pass through the Sands and then venture to the Gardens.  The Gardens on the Bay are impressive.  They are home to numerous “Supertrees”.  These are large man-made trees that harness solar energy which is used for various purposes including a nightly light show. The Supertrees are also used to collect rainwater for use in irrigation and fountain displays. They also serve as air intake and exhaust functions as part of the conservatories’ cooling systems.

The OCBC Skyway links two of the larger Supertrees. The Skyway offers great overall views and picture opportunities  of the Gardens, and the Marina Sands.  One could spend a day here in the gardens, conservatories and greenhouses.

Off to Hong Kong!

It’s Sunday morning and we are off to catch a taxi to the Singapore Airport to Hong Kong, a country that competes with Singapore in being the latest and greatest.  Singapore is impressive, even down to its efficient, high tech, well designed airport (I must say this may be the most impressive of the many many airports I have been through).  Singapore is on the expensive side, but offers much with its bustling energy, cultural diversity, high standard of living, and tropical climate.

A few more pics below…please check out the amazing orchids and SEA Aquarium pics!




















 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 Comments

  • Made me relive my flying days in singapura as it was known & my forays to orchard road where we stayed at the oberoi Singapore & serangoon road ( little India ) for lunch at Banana Leaf famous for fish head curry , crab curry & u ate on a banana leaf ?

    • I assumed you had roamed those streets! One of the pictures of me in front of a gate is at the “High Commission of India” in Singapura…

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