The Merlion City

Fiance and I decided to head out to Singapore for a short weekend trip. It’s one of those places that both of us have wanted to go to, but it’s one of those places where there’s not much to do to really validate a long vacation there (think Dubai).

We took a red eye flight from Shanghai and landed in Singapore about 6 am. We took a taxi directly to our first Hawker Center of choice, Amoy Food Center.

A hawker center in Singapore is an area where there are lots of different food vendors selling different food, anything from delicious laksa to fresh fruit juice. Singapore is known for their wide array of foods and numerous food centers. It has a huge array of nationalities that make up the Singapore culture. And it’s so close the equator, it’s always hot (and humid).

Our first meal, and breakfast, was delicious roti prata and fried noodles

After, we walked a little around Singapore at 7 am. it was SO hot

At 7 am, we walked passed drunk people sleeping in bars, people coming out what was obviously 1-night stands, and just general drunk people. It was pretty hilarious to watch. But at the same time, it was about 30C and it was too hot walking around with backpacks on.

So naturally, we jumped on a bike 🙂

Singapore’s grab-and-go bike is Anywheel. It’s just like Mobike in Shanghai, and any other bike-sharing app in the world. And it’s extremely cheap. It cost 50 singapore pennies per hour.

We biked for about 4 hours, riding through Orchard area (where you’ve got the big and expensive malls), riding down Nassim Road and seeing expansive expensive houses, riding down Holland road, seeing families and their kids playing soccer in Dempsey Hill, riding through Queenstown, and back to Tanjong Pagar area.

One of the best things was riding next to Tyersall Avenue. A month before our trip to Singapore, I had finished reading the entire ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ series (yes, i read all 3 of them). I was so infatuated with this and really wanted to go find some fancy houses down this street, but we didnt.

We then got a late breakfast at Maxwell Food Center and had some delicious noodles and black carrot cake. Interesting, Singapore carrot cake does not have any carrots in it, but is made with radish and rice noodles

We then walked a little the area. It was SO hot. Fiance and I were dying. At one point, we just went to a Starbucks so we could be in A/C.

For lunch, we went to Jumbo Seafood to get the famous Singapore Chili Crab

Turns out I am excellent at eating crab. Fiance was having such difficulty eating the crab, and I could get out meat easily. Yes, I did make somewhat of a mess, but I got ALL of the meat out. I even gave some to Fiance so he could eat.

We then got on the metro to go to our hotel, where I saw the best sign.

This is amazing. Durian smells awful. Anyone who’s been around durian can agree to this. It’s not a positive smell. So I love that it’s now allowed on the Singapore metro. More cities/countries take this on.

We then got to our hotel, the Marian Bay Sands.

This was the bottom floor of the hotel

It was so expansive and very just…wow.

We checked into our hotel room, which honestly was fine. I’ve been in much nicer hotel rooms in Asia for a lot cheaper price. I believe what people are really paying for at the Marina Bay Sands is a) the ability to say you’ve stayed there and b) go to the roof pool

That being say, it was pretty cool. This was the view from our hotel room

We had a view of the Sky Gardens!!!!

After checking in, we went to THE roof pool. SO SO SO SO SO COOL. The water was perfect, the view was so cool (i got to see the Merlion), an overall awesome experince

After spending a lot on money for drinks, we decided to go to another Hawker Center for Dinner. At a Hawker Center, you can get a full dish for ~5 Singapore dollars. At Marina Bay Sands and the adjoining mall, you can get a full dish for 30-40 Singapore dollars.

Soooooooooo…we headed to Old Airport Road Food Center (Anthony Bourdain has been here too!). And so we ate for very cheaply

The next day, we woke up early and spent all morning until we had to check out at the roof pool. Soooo nice

After checking out, we walked around the mall. We then went to the Sky Garden

It was cool, but we both agreed it would be cooler to see at night.

We then headed out to Haiji road. We walked around and grabbed drinks. We actually made a decision for our next trip to Laos while here. We booked and got our visas while at a brewery.

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As the sun went down, we headed to the Sky Gardens at night. It was totally worth it. It was beautiful

We then headed out to the Singapore airport, to check out the ridicolous airport: complete with butterfly garden and indoor waterfall.

Yes, this is at the airport.

It was so amazing, and absolutely unnecessary. At one point, there was a light, sound, and water pressure choreography with the waterfall. It was ridiculous and amazing. We got a red-eye flight back home to Shanghai

Overall, Singapore is really cool. There are LOTS of food (for cheap as well!) and a cool hotel. I believe the amount of time we spent in Singapore was enough, but I would have loved more time to bike and explore.

Only if it was so hot all the time…..