Singapore Slinging

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We disembarked from our cruise in Singapore and opted to spend 2 nights here before travelling home. A great way to end our trip.

We dropped our bags at our hotel, bought a 2 day subway pass and headed immediately to The Gardens By The Bay. We arrived around mid day and decided to do the indoor options first to escape the heat for a bit ( FYI Singapore is 137 km from the equator. It’s hot!).

While there’s lots to explore in this park we started with the Cloud Forest and Garden Dome. Both are monstrous indoor greenhouses that are very cool (both figuratively and physically); they showcased vegetation from all over the world; everything from Cactuses to Orchids to Baobab trees to Venus Fly Traps. We then wandered among the enormous outdoor grounds until it was time for another break from the heat. Luckily right next to the Gardens is the Marina Bay Sands Hotel which is instantly recognizable by its spaceship-like rooftop and is noted for its giant rooftop oasis. CE La Vi is one of those “oasis” features and is a beautiful roof top bar that is open to the public (for a sizable cover charge). The bar is located on the 57th floor with stunning views on all 3 sides overlooking the city and harbour.

After settling the bill we decided on a more economical meal; we've now been travelling through Asia for 2+ weeks so we felt confident to strike unsupervised and have a street food dinner. After all, Singapore is famous for it. There are numerous street food areas called “Hawker Markets”. We settled on a famous one in Chinatown and it did not disappoint. We sat at communal tables (with tourists and locals) drinking beer and eating various proteins on rice and noodles; it was a great start to the evening. After dinner it was back to Gardens By The Bay where we caught the nightly lights and music show in the Super Trees and then wandered in among the various light installations; it was all quite magical and a fine end to a jam packed day.

The next morning we started with a visit to the Botanical Gardens. This is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and well worth the visit. It is quite different from the Gardens By The Bay, and you feel as though you’ve left the city to explore a giant tropical park. Singapore is definitely a green city and proudly so.

After a morning of walking we had earned a hearty lunch so we headed to Little India in search of some tasty food. This time we ate at a restaurant called The Banana Leaf Apolo where we enjoyed a Tiger beer and our various delicious Indian dishes were scooped onto a giant Banana Leaf that served as our plate. Compostable and Genius!

After a bit more exploring in Little India it was off to the waterfront to enjoy wandering its boardwalk. This area gave us more beautiful views of the city. We were able to track down Singapore's iconic Merlion fountain (Singapore is the Lion city), snap some pictures and then we encountered something we haven’t had a lot of on this holiday. Rain. This provided us with the perfect timing to finally go see what else Singapore is famous for; The Singapore Sling. The history of this drink is interesting. It was considered unladylike for women to drink gin and whisky etc so in 1915 a bartender at Raffles Hotel came up with a cocktail that contained the alcohol the ladies wanted but In a pink and fruity format that allowed them to continue to be ladies.

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Although the Raffles “Long Bar” has been relocated and renovated a few times within the hotel it still seems to transport you back in time. The ambiance was nostalgic although the bill was definitely modern and pricey, but worth every dollar.

We explored Chinatown a bit more before making our way to Bugis Market for our final dinner at a well known street restaurant know as “Fattys”. This place was extremely busy so we ended up being seated with 2 German pilots who visited the city regularly and were very familiar with the menu. They made an excellent recommendation for our order and we learned all about Cargo piloting which made our last meal in Singapore a superb one.





After some of the poorer countries we visited along the way of our vacation Singapore came with a bit of sticker shock. But their costs were not that far off what we pay for many things in Canada. Singapore is definitely a place you should put on your bucket list. The people are friendly, the city is safe and the sights should not be missed.

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