A little teaser of what’s to come in a day of traveling Singapore:
- Chinatown
- Marina Sands and the Shops at Marina Sands
- Gardens by the Bay
- Cloud Forest
- Flower Dome
- Walkthrough the gardens
- Singapore Flyer
- UNESCO World Heritage Site Singapore Botanical Gardens
- MacRitchie Reservoir
- Little India
- Gardens by the bay
- Watch the incredible light show
- Cloud Forest at night
- Singapore Night Safari
Day 1: Arrival
After 3 idyllic days in Hong Kong, I was on a plane over to Singapore. If I thought Hong Kong was hot, at times Singapore seemed so humid I swear drops of water fell out of clear blue sky as if the air was so saturated with moisture it just couldn’t handle it and water condensated out of the air.
One of the best things I found in Asia are portable wifi rentals. So you don’t have to get a new phone or pay the outrageous phone charges for international phone use, you can just rent portable wifi for as little as $4 a day in some countries, which you pick up and return at the airport! Singapore was no different, and seriously it is a huge game-changer and everywhere I traveled outside of Japan I rented one.
Singapore is at the forefront of public transportation with it being such a small country, there is a lottery for who can even own cars for a couple years at a time, so most people rely on public transportation.
There are 2 different pass options tourists can buy:
- EZ Card: used by locals and is a regular top up system.
- Singapore Tourist Passes: Available for unlimited public transportation rides for 1, 2, or 3 days and include discounts to some of the major Singapore Attractions
I opted for the 2 day Singapore Tourist Pass. While I am only going to be visiting around Singapore for one full day, I am technically in Singapore for 3 days and 2 nights, arriving late day 1 and leaving early day 3, and I didn’t want to buy separate train tickets afterward. So I got the 2-day pass!
Singapore public transportation is also known as the cleanest in the world and how it keeps its reputation squeaky clean is by imposing huge fines on anything bad people could do. Eating food? $5000 fine. Spit on the floor? $5000 fine. They won’t be shy either from fining tourists, so make sure you do your part by following all the signage and being mindful of those around you!
As you might expect if the country has such tight regulations on public transportation, Singapore’s crime rates are among the lowest in the world, being great for solo female travelers like me.
Dinner in Chinatown
Singapore is an incredibly expensive country and so I thought my best bet would be staying in a hostel in a cheaper area. I ended up picking a hostel in Chinatown with good reviews and arrived just after sunset.
It was tucked away in a side street, and when I finally got there I found out that they didn’t like to use AC. I was hot and bothered and just wanted to cool off, but even the showers only had one temperature setting of scalding hot.
Giving up on the notion of cooling down, I went out in search of food. Fortunately, being in Chinatown, I had my pick of yummy food! Downside, as I quickly learned is common throughout Singapore, food is EXPENSIVE. This small bowl of noodles was $20. Also Singapore locals are famous for being able to handle a lot of spices, and I didn’t think about that as I ordered from a local vender! The vendor felt bad for me though (since I have no spice tolerance whatsoever) and brought me out two glasses of water.
Day 2: All the sights in one day
An uncomfortable hot and humid night later, I was up before the rest of the hostel stayers, determined to see as much as I could of this exquisite country.
The Shops at Marina Bay Sands
I took a train to central Singapore at the Marina Bay Sands and was immediately awe-struck at the beauty of all the buildings and ocean.
The shops at Marina Bay Sands looked like a luxury office district, and I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised to see Louis Vuitton and Gucci stores inside.
While it was only just sunrise, it was already boiling out as I walked around this area.
Cloud Forest – Daytime
I decided to walk to most the places in downtown Singapore because it was just as much effort finding my way back to the train station, hopping on the train, only to get out at the next stop and reorient myself again.
I walked from the Marina Bay Sands Shops to the cloud forest, thrilled to be the first to enter. The woman at reception even congratulated me on “knowing the best time to come” because it very quickly packs with tourists. She also recommended I come again in the nighttime because it is a completely different experience, and your ticket allows you unlimited entries for the day.
It’s hard to capture this place in pictures. It is overwhelmingly beautiful, filled with so many tropical scents. I spent far longer than I expected here, over an hour, until the number of tourists made it less enjoyable (it really does get packed in there quickly) and I made a dash for the exit.
Flower Dome
Just across the street is the similar-looking flower dome. While not quite as impressive as the Cloud forest, you can get a bundle ticket deal when you buy Cloud forest tickets and so figured I might as well see the other one.
I should have prefaced that while the flower dome is not as impressive as cloud forest, it still rivals most other flower gardens I have ever visited and am glad I made the stop.
Passing Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Gardens By the Bay in the daytime
The stops at the cloud forest and flower dome made walking around in the sticky hot air more bearable, giving me breaks in the air conditioning.
Both of those attractions are located in the Gardens by the Bay park. These impressive “trees” light up during the night, and all the travel sites I had read before instructed me I should come back in the evening.
Singapore Flyer
On the other side of a bridge lies the Singapore Flyer, a massive Ferris wheel opened in 2008 which was the largest in the world until the Las Vegas High Roller Ferris Wheel in 2014.
Tickets are pricey and normally I wouldn’t choose to spend part of a limited time frame on an expensive ferris wheel. But the cost was included in my tourist pass and because I had gotten up so early I had some time to kill, which I wanted to preferably spend looking at the views but in air conditioned safety.
It was a long wait to get on the ferris wheel but honestly (and like I said I’m not normally one to promote ferris wheels) this was definitely worth the time. The views of Singapore, already phenomenal from the ground, were multiplied 100 fold by seeing all the manmade beauty Singapore has created over the years.
Singapore Botanical Gardens
I thought I had a more relaxing afternoon planned, just walking through some lovely world famous parks. However, as I should’ve figured, these parks are world famous for everything these is to see there, meaning a lot more walking.
It was beautiful and relaxing, but I should have listened more to my body telling me it was running on fumes from all the walking and hot, hot weather.
MacRitchie Reservoir
I really wanted to visit the MacRitchie reservoir because, apparently, you can see so many wild monkeys here!
Sadly, I didn’t see any, but it was a gorgeous place to relax for a while in the shade. And good thing this was a good place to relax, because I got heat exhaustion, causing me to be very sick for a couple of hours.
I must say if I had extra time I wish I could’ve stayed longer here, and walked around more as I’m sure I would’ve seen some monkeys then!
Little India
After getting myself back to semi-reasonable sorts, I stopped in Little India on the way back to my hostel. Lots of blogs talk very highly of Little India as a great place to eat and shop. It does have a lot of shops and tourists walking by, but they are mainly fresh food grocery stores perhaps selling little trinkets at the front for tourists. For the most part it wasn’t anything special.
Gardens by the Bay
I took the rest of the afternoon to recover from my heat exhaustion best I could in the hostel. By the time I got up and ready for my nighttime adventures, it was already dark! But becoming the savvy Singapore traveler, I knew now this didn’t stop Singapore heat, and made sure to carry lots of water with me.
I walked through the Gardens by the Bay and was mesmerized by the beauty of all the manmade constructs looking ethereal but still like they were meant to be there all along. A good comparison, in my mind, is how it would feel like to be inside the world of Avatar, the movie with the blue people.
I made it to the base of the “trees” right in time for one of their light and sound shows. I tried to capture some of it but you must go see this for yourself. There is also an option to walk next to the trees (as you can see some people doing in the video) but I didn’t have the time or want to spend the money to do it.
And besides, the view was pretty spectacular for free on the ground.
Cloud Forest – Nighttime
Once the show was over, I made my way to the Cloud forest one last time before it shut for the night.
It looked like I had arrived in a completely different attraction. They add mist in the nighttime to create a beautiful effect with the lights and it cooled you off from the outside air.
Singapore Nighttime Zoo Safari
Last, but definitely not least, was the Singapore Nighttime Zoo Safari. The Singapore zoo is on the outskirts of the city and if I had more time I would’ve loved to come during the day because they have pandas in one of the exhibits!
It took a long time to get to and was only accessible by bus, which took over an hour and I had to make a strange stop to switch busses in the middle of the highway. That’s right; there was a bus stop just in the middle of the highway where I was waiting by myself at 10pm at night, again, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HIGHWAY.
Despite feeling very, very afraid in this situation, nothing bad happened, which goes back to Singapore’s low crime rates, and I made it safely to the night Safari.
I arrived and there were different train options for different languages, so I obviously picked the English line. While the line for some of the other languages were extremely long, mine only took 5 minutes before I was boarding an almost empty cart procession and was off to the safari!
This was such a one-of-a-kind experience, being in the same exhibits as all the animals, keeping the dangerous ones afar by digging out large “rivers” between the animals and the road.
On the way back, despite the public transportation being safe, I decided to take an expensive taxi home. It did cost me $60, but it was also 1:30AM and I didn’t much like the thought of waiting in the middle of the highway again for my bus home.
Day 3: Homeward Bound
And just like that, my day in Singapore was over and now I am bound for home!
Singapore is so unique and if it wasn’t quite so hot I would say you could easily do everything I did in one, albeit long, day. However, because you can’t miraculously change the weather, I would recommend doing this trip in at least two days. There aren’t many other major attractions to see other than what I listed, but it would’ve bene nice to have spent a bit longer at each and not gotten heat exhaustion halfway through the day.
Thanks for reading xx
