Last fall I booked a once and a lifetime trip to Asia. I’ll be the first to admit that the only reason I spent time in Singapore was because it was cheaper to fly into there and then fly to Thailand then to fly directly to Chiang Mai. I was able to add a few days onto my trip so I figured I would spend a couple of days in Singapore and then go on to the real adventure. Boy, was I wrong. I fell absolutely in love with the country, and out of all the countries I’ve been to it would be the first one I would go back to. (I should also warn you that the only image I had of Singapore was of the scene in Pirates of the Caribbean movie, so my expectations were pretty low.) If I had to live anywhere outside the US, this would be the place. So without further distraction I will tell you the best places to hit in Singapore for when you only have a short amount of time, based off of what I did.
Side note: since I do have a lot of medications, I relabeled all of my medication and brought the in the original bottles. Singapore has a very strict drug policy so I wanted to be extra cautious. Of course I was fine the entire time!
Day 1 Chinatown and Night Safari
I arrived in Singapore at around 7 am, and luckily since I slept a bit on the plane ( I can pretty much sleep at anytime, anywhere) I was ready to start the day. The AirBnB I stayed at was nice enough to let me shower, change, and leave my luggage there before my room was ready. Here is the link https://www.airbnb.co.in/rooms/16947051?source_impression_id=p3_1593805945_3Yd61gfafEeeJqRK&guests=1&adults=1 if you want to check it out. The rooms are modest, but extremely cheap. It is also very close to public transportation system that can take you anywhere in the area, After I got ready I went to the MRT station and headed towards Chinatown, because I figured that would be a great place to wander around and get some lunch. There are many temples in the area, most allow visitors even when service is going on. The architecture and statues were beautiful. They also had an open market with tons of tourist trap trinkets. The currency rate when I went was almost equal to the dollar, but everything was reasonably priced. I picked up some Chinese Zodiac chopsticks for me and my roommate, and wandered around for the afternoon around the areas of Chinatown. Once my room was ready I went and took a nap… since I figured with the 12 hour time difference and suffering from jet lag, the best day to do the night safari was the first night when my biological clock was already messed up. Since I am an animal lover and working with animals is my career, I try to check out as many zoos as I travel. The Singapore Zoo is unique in a sense that they have two different zoos, a day zoo and a night zoo. Disney’s Animal Kingdom recently did something similar by offering a night safari option on their safari ride.
Seeing the zoo at night is great because you actually get to see all of the nocturnal animals moving. I have wanted to see pangolins, they are very rare to see since they are the most trafficked animal in the world, and the Singapore Zoo has one in the Night Safari that you can see. I recommend booking your safari and zoo ticket ahead of time, so you can walk right in and get in line for the safari. Also they do have an MRT stop, but since I didn’t know my bearings that well I used the Grab App, which is like Uber for Asia. Both my Grab drivers to and from the zoo gave great advice on things to do while I was there, and most of the things I did was based off of their recommendations. The safari takes you around most of the zoo, where you can see 80% of the animals. There are also paths that you can take and walk the majority of the zoo to see anything you might have missed. I was so excited to see the lions up and moving, since most of the time during the day they are laying out and napping. They also offer show presentations with animals, but I was so excited about seeing the animals moving in the night time that I missed all of the shows!
Day 2 Gardens by the Bay, Merlion Park, Lightshow
After staying out so late the first night, I slept in a little bit and then decided to hit the gardens over by the oceanfront. Luckily it had a stop right on the MRT, so very convenient to where I stayed. It is free to wander, but getting into the attractions cost money. I 100% think they are worth it. I bought a ticket that got me into the cloud forest, flower dome, and the sky way. The only thing I did not do was the floral fantasy which was a movie presentation, I figured I wouldn’t have time to do it.
The cloud dome does not change display, it is basically a giant tower with plants growing from it and giant waterfalls falling from the top.I was awestruck when I walked into the building and saw cascading waterfalls coming from the top. Along with pathway up the tower are different types of rain forest plants and flowers, and explaining why they are important to our environment. One of the reasons why I love Singapore so much is how environmentally consciousness they are and how well they care for their environment.
The flower dome changes display, when I went is was all about hydrangeas. They had hydrangeas along with other types of flowers displayed in different statues and scenes. If you have ever been to Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival it is like that but on a much more colorful scale. In my opinion the cloud dome was more impressive then the flower dome, so if you had to pick one I would do the cloud dome, although I enjoyed both.
There are different gardens scattered around the domes, including the super trees. The super trees are neat looking, but much more impressive at night. There are some nice sculptures and statues scattered through the gardens, I didn’t wander the entire set of gardens, but I did see quite a few on my way to the skyway. The skyway is mixed within the super trees and is basically a catwalk at the treetops which gives an incredible view of the downtown garden Singapore area.
After the skyway I headed back to the MRT station to get hit Merlion Park for dinner. The MRT station was pretty close to Merlion park, but I got off at the wrong station and had to do a bit of back tracking to find it. This was clearly where all the tourist go because it was packed compared to any other place I’d been to so far. I of course got some shots of the merlion statue, and had some of the spiciest Korean BBQ in an outdoor restaurant directly next to the statue. On the other side of the street there are some neat parks to wander, and even a miniature bean like in Chicago. I didn’t spend too much time there, but you can’t go to Singapore without seeing the famous Merloin park!
After exploring some of the gardens around Merlion park, I took the MRT back to the Garden’s by the Bay. There is a huge indoor shopping mall that has a great view of the canal where there is a light show every night. This was also a great location to get some shots of the skyline at night. The light show was cute, but after living right next to Disney World light shows and fireworks are not as impressive as they used to be.
Right after the light show, pretty much everyone goes to the Garden’s by the Bay supertrees for a nightly show called Garden Rhapsody. The giant super trees and lit up and change color and pattern to music. This was really neat, and I thought much more unique then a typical light show over the water like the first show was.
DAY 3
My third and final day I went to the zoo in the daylight. As someone who worked in the zoo and has been to several, this zoo is very impressive. They have many open air exhibits, and even have an open orangutan exhibit, where there are ropes running all over the pathway with the monkeys climbing way up high above you. Of course you would never be able to touch them and it was perfectly safe, but something that you would not see in a zoo in the US. I was starstruck by a beautiful white tiger and probably took 100 pictures of it. They also have a large indoor tropical rain forest area that had lemurs, sloths, and large birds that would come right over to you.
They also have many shows, including a sea lion and birds, I spent much more time here then I did the night safari so I had time to make most of the shows. They are very well done with lots of great conservation points.
Unfortunately I couldn’t do too much on the last day, since I had to take a flight out that evening for Thailand, but Singapore is definitely one of those places I am going to go back to!
Sauntering Spoonie 