Exploring Singapore

After a rainy first full day we were pleased to see that our next day in Singapore was overcast but dry, and that we woke up slightly closer to the right time zone too.

After visiting a nearby supermarket the night before we had the means for breakfast in our room before heading out again. This time we decided we’d tackle the Gardens by the Bay. We caught the train in and started at the pump house, which is exactly what it says – part of the water facilities for the city. But, it does have fantastic views from the roof of all the massive ships out at sea and the tall buildings of the city in the other direction.

After that, we meandered our way through the gardens looking at things as we went such as some enormous fish from the Amazon, a whole heap of different cacti, and other lovely little areas full of tropical plants. We considered doing a couple of the paid experiences there but decided not to as there seemed to be plenty to do without it.

So instead, we wandered down through the Chinese garden to the ‘barky boat racetrack’ (Bluey fans will know), and the kids had a couple of races down them with leaves. After a walk around another lake we found ourselves at another train station, where we jumped back on and headed up to Arab St.

This area has a pretty impressive mosque and some great Middle Eastern restaurants. It was also where a lot of good souvenir shops are so the kids got a hat each and I got a bag and some chocolate.

After wandering around for a bit looking at the shops, the old buildings and the murals, Jim chose a nice Lebanese restaurant for lunch where we had some delicious bread (cheese and zatar), Jim had a souvlaki and I had a falafel salad.

With plenty of food on board it was time to make our way back to our hotel for a bit of a break before the night session, which was back at the gardens!

Not really needing dinner, we grabbed a couple of things from the bakery on the way back to the train, which took us back to the gardens. Normally the light/sound show is free, but there’s currently a Christmas show on so it was paid ($10 each). We duly paid that and found our spot with the masses. We think a few of the ‘supertrees’ that display the lights in the show weren’t working, which make the light show a bit underwhelming. But it was fun walking around looking at the Christmas stuff, and they did have a fake snowstorm, so the kids can say the saw snow in Singapore which I would think is pretty rare!

We got home pretty late, so had a sleep in this morning and didn’t get out the door until after 9am. The later starts have been quite good as the Ashes is currently on in Adelaide, so we can listen to a bit of it in the morning before we head out as it starts at 7am our time.

This time we were headed for Sentosa Island, which I had been to 25 years ago. We caught the train to the Harbour Front where we then got on a monorail for the short trip over to the island. We went straight to the end to the beach, where the kids and Jim had a swim. It didn’t last long as Hamish saw a little shark and Jim reckoned there were some sea lice biting him, but it cooled them off while I had some quality time reading my book.

By then it was lunchtime (everything seems to revolve around feeding little people!), so we went to the closest option which were some foodtrucks nearby. We all had burgers and chips, and both Jim and I think it is the first time we’ve had a burger in Asia (and hopefully will be the last).

Next we popped over to a tiny little island via a small swing bridge where we could get a great view of all the ships in the strait. The industry going on there is quite phenomenal. This island also marks the southernmost point of mainland South East Asia – perhaps a bit of a stretch by just adding bridges to make things longer but we still took the obligatory photo.

As we were leaving the hotel to head out to Sentosa Island, I spotted a sign on the desk at the hotel where you could get a couple of the attractions at Sentosa Island for free, so we both signed up and got four tickets. Two of the options were mini golf and ‘build your own perfume’ so we split up so both kids could do the activity of their choice. I had a fun hour or so with Heidi as we built our own perfume scents based on our personality tests (the results of which were quite different for each of us), while the boys posted some well over par scores for the mini putt course.

We then all met up again to do the other free activity, which was the Helix ride. This was a ride that went straight up (and very slowly, which suits me), and the view at the top was quite spectacular. We all really enjoyed that, and it even came with a free drink! So it was worth our while spending a few minutes in the hotel signing up for their freebies.

Sentosa Island has changed significantly since I was last there 25 years ago. It’s very much designed to get you to spend lots of money in the resorts and on the attractions (such as Universal Studios), but there is plenty for any budget really and we had a nice day there.

We picked up some dinner on the way home and had it in our room (first night in so far!), and now Jim has popped down the street to the laundromat to sort out a bit of washing.

We’ve got the best part of the day here tomorrow so we’ll do a little more exploring, before making our way back to Changi for our flight up to Bangkok.

Both kids are keen to come back to Singapore, and we’ve enjoyed our time here too, so it’s been a successful start to the trip!