Our flight landed in Singapore early evening, Singapore time, bed time NZ time, so safe to say we started off tired already. We pushed through, we only had about 15 hours there and we wanted to see some of the city.
The main word that came to mind while driving through Singapore for the first time was NEAT. All the streets were clean, the cars were sparkling and the gardens were tidy. There were gardens and trees throughout the city, either side of the motorway.
Our stopover vouchers allowed us free entry to the Singapore Flyer. The Singapore Flyer is a big ferris wheel similar to the London Eye, taking passengers in glass carriages around the wheel with full views of the city, day and night. The view at 165m high was incredible, bright shining lights for 360o, the CBD alight and busy for a Friday night. And that was the thing, everyone was out and about doing things, walking around, getting dinner, shopping at the mall. It was crazy. Cafés and designer shops were all open at 10pm, we surely weren’t in Timaru anymore.
Since the 4th of May is “Star Wars Day” (May the Fourth be with you), the Gardens on the Bay had Star Wars related statues and the giant tree-like structures in the Supertree Grove had “light sabers”, streams of light stretching up into the starless sky). They looked awesome and could be seen from almost anywhere in the city.
We wandered around the gardens, mall and surrounding areas for a few hours but it was stinking hot and since our bags were booked right through to London we were still in our smelly airplane clothes. Trackies don’t go well in Singapore, first off it’s 30oC and humid, but also majority of people are quite well-dressed. So we were looking a bit out of place. We taxied back to our hotel for a sleep before heading back to the airport in the morning.
Lessons:
- Pack shorts in your carry-on if you’re stopping somewhere hot.
- A proper bed and a hot shower makes you feel refreshed after 5 hours sleep and 13+ hours of travel to continue the next day.
- Taxis are pretty cheap, ~$15 from hotel to Marina bay, which was about a 15 minute drive, with the traffic.
- Alongside bacon and hash browns, vegetable curries, dumplings and noodles were served for the breakfast buffet.
- There’s a butterfly room at the Singapore airport which is worth a visit.
At the time I’m writing this we are directly above India, en route to London – unbelievable! So incredibly excited for travelling, Singapore was an awesome stopover, I wish we had more time there, but London’s waiting.
Update: At time of publishing we are currently in Paris, safe and sound, having a great time.
1 Comment
Great blurb on Singapore and photos are amazing – kept safe and keep smiling 😀