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Indian Food
6£ per person in a nice Indian restaurant. The food was delicious. We arrived to Singapore after crossing 2 border checkings, one Malaysian and one upon entering Singapore. The crossing is called Woodlands, which reminded me about a South Park episode about Woddlands creatures. Those who saw it will know what I am talking about (blood ****, blood **** 😊).
Polona was quite worried, as we were told that the Singaporeans could give us a hard time at the border due to the amount of the meds we are travelling with, but they didn’t even check our backpacks, apart from the usual X-ray check.
Arriving to Singapore, we were dropped off, what seemed to be, quite on the outskirts of the city, next to a big shopping mall. We were told that the bus stop is just upfront and while trying to figure out which bus to take we were helped by a kind local lady and were directed to the MRT station (Singapore over and underground train system), which is the easiest means of transport around Singapore.
We got our tickets from a machine at the station and got a plastic electronic card, even for a single journey. You can refund the card at any
Little India
Quick shot at the vegi stall machine in 30 days after purchase and get a refund in an amount of one Singaporean dollar (50p). Environmentally friendly!
When changing at one of the stops we looked a bit lost and a friendly local, with perfect English, helped us out, not only by giving us directions, but actually taking us to the line that we needed to take in order to arrive to Little India, where we had booked our hostel (following recommendations; thanks Janto!) Arriving at
Ali’s nest we were welcomed by a really nice owner (you guessed it, Ali), who
transformed a family house into a mini hostel, which was quite cosy and clean. And very reasonably priced. As we had limited time to spend in Singapore, we took a shower and immediately rushed back out.
We read about a local restaurant that was a “must visit”, and as we were starving, and as the restaurant was just a few minutes walk away, it was our first destination. When we arrived the place looked really nice (read: outside our budget range) but thought, “what the hell” and sat down and ordered food. I think that for the first time on our trip we got
our food
at the same time (in Malaysia they serve you food when its ready, it can happen that you get your mains well before your starters). While eating, a local couple in late 30’s started chatting to us, breaking the ice with a question “isn’t the this food to spicy for you?”; it was not. They gave us a few tips about Singapore and explained how it is to live in the city. Apparently working till very late hours (being at home at 7pm is a luxury) is very common and loads of people have hired help from places like Indonesia,
Sri Lanka or Philippines to help with the household chores and to baby-sit the children. She mentioned that the quality of life is great, but it’s very hard seeing your children are being raised by a stranger (a bit more about that later on). We finished our meal (the best Indian meal of my life) and paid the bill. And total was around 12£; 6£ per person in a nice restaurant, can’t complain.
We then walked through little India and just kept on walking until we eventually got to the river, an area called Clarke Quay. It’s a river
MRT
You only need to pay if you are taller than the little girl bank full of bars and restaurants. It really looks amazing and we just walked around for a while enjoying the sites.
By this point we both absolutely loved the city and started calling it “our next home”, joking around what we would do and where Polona could run around, as we saw loads of late night joggers.
On the way home we followed Ali’s advice and stopped at Mustafa Centre to stock up on water and some snacks. The place sells
everything and I was checking out some hiking shoes as my trainers were starting (if you ask Polona it already happened) to fall apart and super gluing them back together didn’t do the trick. This would be a great place for shop-crazy-people as prices are much lower than in Europe (a pair of Merell or Colombia hiking boots can be bought between £50 and £70). We decided to come back before we leave the city.
Day 2 The next day we visited Singapore ZOO. You can actually visit three different parks: the ZOO, the Night ZOO and the Bird Park. I was considering visiting both, the day and night ZOO but decided that one will
Mustafa Center
This is 0.000001% of things you can get here. be enough as our time was limited.
Straight after entering the ZOO you can see a big difference from other ZOOs. Loads of animals are freely wandering around. There were monkeys and birds in areas where they can easily leave the ZOO, I guess they are quite happy. Quickly we got to the main attraction, the white tigers. We were observing them for ages and learning about them from all the graphic and video material around. Even these materials are so much better than at other ZOOs. Loads of facts and trivia displayed in very engaging ways. We actually came back to the tigers a few hours later to see the feeding (check out the video). In
the first 3 or so hours since arriving we only saw about a quarter of the whole place, if that.
After that we got caught by a shower storm which lasted for a good hour. This has happened so many times since we started our trip that we are now very good in finding a roof and just waiting and waiting for the rain to stop.
We carried on, seeing and reading about animals such as baboons, orang-utans, komoda dragons,
The Navigator
Walking around Singapore is really easy, as long as you have a map. white rynos, I could go on and on. I just love ZOOs and I have to say that this was the best one I have visited so far (followed by Berlin).
We finished our visit with a Splash show, a show involving a sea lion named Phillip (as we were looking for the name, we realised we were "ripped of"- seeing the Splash show, we only saw Phillip, and on their official site it says there should be penguins, pelicans...Hmmm. Demand a refund?) . During this show we saw firsthand how some families (definitely not saying all of them!) use their hired help. We noticed a couple of parents with their two kids and a nanny seating behind them, with a fan in her hands cooling down the kids. At a snap of father’s fingers she was re-doing the kids pony-tails and mom only had to make a gesture and she was giving the kids water. Later on we saw the same family walking on one side of the path and the nanny behind them pulling a trolley full of stuff. Great “family time”, bringing a nanny to the ZOO with you, to do all the things the parents
SMRT
Or you can just use the Mass Rapid Transit. SMRT in Slovenian means death, so we had quite a laugh. should be doing.
After spending a big part of the day in the ZOO it was time to get some proper food. We stopped at a food court, close to the train station, which was filled with locals. We grabbed our trays, a bowl and followed the action of the woman in-front of us, adding whatever seemed nice into a plastic cup. It all went reasonably well until we got to the cash register and were asked “what do you want”. I handed our tray over, as to say: this is what we want. The woman repeated her question and we were even more confused. Then an old lady standing next to us repeated with a very, very slowly “what - do - you - want” and I just looked at the lady behind the stall and said “whatever is good”. We learned later
that you are supposed to fill the cup with at least 7 items and then you can add noodles, soup or rice to those items. Ohh well, live and learn and feel like an idiot during the process.
We finished the day in Asian Civilisation Museum (admission is free every Friday after 6pm). Even
White tigers
White tigers at the Singapore ZOO the museums are amazing in Singapore. Once again we ended the day saying that we could (should) live and work here in the future.
Day 3 On our last full day in Singapore we walked to Bugis street (largest out-side shopping area in Singapore) and walked around a bit. As it was a weekend the streets were packed with people, making it very hard to walk around at any kind of pace. We headed over to Chinatown and came, to find even more shopping centres and stalls and wanted to get away but then got across a really impressing Buddhist temple. It was filled with thousands and thousands of small (and some big statues) and in the main hall you could see monks and followers chanting away (see video). It was quite a sight. We then walked towards the marina, past Thian Hock Keng Temple and Amoy street, an area of the city where immigrants from China used to move to years ago.
It was time for some food and we headed over to Lau Pa Sat, the most famous and vibrant food court. To be honest it was quite empty, it seems it’s more of a
week thing (with loads of business building around) or an evening thing. We decided to try fish head curry and some chilli crab. That didn't really happen. After we finally found a place which served these two dishes they took me to a tank to pick my own crab. After I saw their claws tied up and them moving around I could not make myself order one (hypocritical, I know!), so we decided to order only the fish head curry. Lucky you don't have to pick the fish you want to have. Once we finally managed to order the waiter told us it’s going to be about a 20 minute wait, as the staff are eating their dinner at the moment?!? We were starving so we decide to get some food somewhere else at the food court and try our luck with the curry later on. Polona went for the soup (as described above) as she now knew
how to order one, while I tried Hainanese chicken rice – another of Singaporean delicacies. While we were eating our meal “crab-people” were walking around the food court, trying to get some people to come to their place. Well, when we were
there you weren’t that eager, were you?
We then visited the Marina and if you ever go to Singapore that is a must see! The buildings and the whole area is just amazing. It really is jaw-dropping (check the panaroma pic above). The Merlion statue was being renovated so we only saw a smaller version of it, but it didn’t really matter.
Before heading back to the hostel we visited the Mustafa center one more time and so that I could buy a new pair of hiking shoes. We went to the shoe department only to learn they don;t have my size. The sales person recommended to us to go visit the shoe department at the Mustafa center?!? I though that this is the Mustafa center. And it was, but only a small part of it. A really small part of it and even by this point it was huge. So after walking between the aisles of clothes, cooking things, furniture, electronics we finally got to to the other shoe section. Even here they didn't have my size (or maybe I just wasn't sure, as my feet were killing me, after 4 full days of walking). But not
to worry, I ended up buying some Dunlop hiking shoes for 15£. I wore them a couple times since then and they are alright 😊
We headed back towards the hostel, had some Indian food (decided to skip the fish head curry as well) and headed back to our nest.
In conclusion We both really loved Singapore. Its a very modern city, with loads of new buildings. Most of the buildings are around 20 years old and it shows. Getting around is easy, either with SMRT (longest you will ever wait is 6 minutes, and that is at times when not many people are using the trains) or just walking as the streets are clearly marked.
The best part were the people. We got helped so many times by total strangers who saw us looking at the map or trying to figure something out. We didn't ask for help, they came around by themselves and offered us their help! Unbelievable. Something like this would never, never happen in London (there is a bigger chance of Arsenal winning a trophy next season than something like this to happen).
Singapore is also a city of fines. There
are many rules and people seem to follow them. It makes sense if you know that if you are caught eating or drinking on SMRT you will be fined 500$. Because of that the trains are clean and smell free. Now think about the London tube for a second. I know its harsh but I like this kind of system anyway. At the end of the day everybody profits.
SIngapore is probably the most expensive of the countries in the region but we still managed to get by on £25 per day. Finding a cheap hostel helped a lot. So did walking and not taking the trains all the time. We walked as you get a chance to see so much more, not in order to save money. If you are planning to use the trains much a tourist day pass ($8) is a good option. We bought it on our second day when going to the ZOO, as you need to use the train and a bus to get there. Same as in Malaysia, drinking alcohol will significantly increase your budget (a beer in Chinatown is about $5, while next to the river the going rate is $10++).
I would love to return to Singapore, there are a couple of places we haven't visited. Top of my list would be a museum about WW 2 prisoners of war during the Japanese invasion. We might pass by again on this trip for a day or two, otherwise we will surely visit it again in the future. Maybe, more than just visit it!
+++ More pics here+++
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