Leaving Singapore on an early airplane heading to Indonesia, I look back to all the amazing new experiences I just had!
Arriving at Singapore I had no idea what to expect, I knew it was known for its technology and futuristic vibe, but not much else. It turns out this country left me pretty impressed!
When we arrived at Changi Airport we didn’t made our way out immediately. Being the best airport worldwide we had to take our time exploring it, starting with the Jewel Waterfall. A mini jungle in the middle of the airport has one of the most beautiful man-made waterfalls I’ve ever seen. By night it even has a light show with music worth staying there late for. This was one of many other light shows we were going to witness in this country.
After the waterfall we went in search of the Kinetic Raindrops, which turned out to be one of my favourite things to see in the airport. They move in such perfect synchronicity, it’s mesmerizing to see!
In the city center the first thing to do was to walk along Marina Bay and look at the Singapore skyline. Looking at the city across the water you can get a glimpse at the ArtScience Museum, the Marina Bay Sands Hotel (with its instagram famous infinity pool), the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, the Helix Bridge and the Merlion, as well as some of the tallest buildings in Singapore.
Crossing the Helix Bridge, you can enter the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, proclaimed one of the most amazing shopping centers in the world. It is truly beautiful, you wouldn’t expect a shopping center to be beautiful, but this is! It even has a gondola ride on the lowest floor, crazy right!?! Rather than going shopping, we entered because of the AC. Outside it was so hot, that we kept looking for places to cool down, between visiting spot and visiting spot!
The ArtScience Museum, in the form of an abstract lotus flower, is also a good spot to cool down and enjoy a futuristic exposition. We entered Future World and although it was interesting, I would rather recommend it for visitors who have kids, they will have the best time in there seeing their drawings coming to life on an animated screen and playing with an interactive projection room. Floating utopias would probably have been a better option for us.
As we were traveling on a budget, we searched up a Hawker center to eat. The hawker culture is present in Singapore since the mid 1800’s. Even if you aren’t on a tight budget, you should definitely visit one of these centers. There are barely tourists in there and the variety of food is impressive. It’s a real taste of Singaporean culture.
We finished our day with a visit to the famous Chinatown. There we strolled through the many shops and stalls selling all kinds of trinkets, my favorite being the finely crafted fans and chopsticks. There’s also the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. It’s full of Buddha statues and so shiny!
We were really interested to know more about Singapore’s history and so we headed to the Singapore City Gallery. They have a 3D map with a projection that shows you where things lie in the little island, while they give you information on a screen about what you’re seeing on the map!
It’s impressing how just 50 years ago Singapore was nothing like today. 1965 they became independent from Malaysia and in the years following they started to make plans to give all their citizens housing. In 1971 they made the infrastructure, with the help of the UNO and drew out how the city would be organized, with roads, public transport, airport and much more. They took away land from the sea to create Marina Bay. Lee Kuan Yew was the prime minister behind many of this development ideas. He was also the one who decided Singapore should thrive to be a green city and started planting trees everywhere. So you see, the city planned towards the future what made Singapore what it is today.
Getting out of the Gallery, I saw Singapore with different eyes. I had a new respect for it and admired everything I saw, because of the hard work it took to create it.
With that newly found awe, we made our way to Gardens by the Bay. To get there, we crossed through Marina Bay Sands Hotel. The interior is really modern and beautiful, it gives you a taste of the elegance that is beheld in every room of that building.
The Gradens by the Bay are huge and have different sections. You can pay to enter the multiple attractions they have there, from flower domes to cloud forests. (I leave you the link here to get more information, no affiliate link, just leaving it for information: https://www.gardensbythebay.com.sg/en/attractions.html). We went to the Sun Pavilion (free) and the Supertree Grove and OCBC Skyway ($8 each). We got an impressive view from the city and later on we watched the lightshow with music they cast at the grove at 7:45pm and 8:45pm. Stay until it´s dark, there isn´t only the show, but the gardens are light at night, and it looks quiet different than at day!
Having so many buildings, Singapore has a lot of spots to choose from for a panoramic view, the Marina Bay Sands Hotel being among the most touristy ones. We don´t like being squashed between tourists, so we opted for going to a quieter place. The Pinnacle was the perfect place to get a complete view of the city. It´s a complex of residential buildings, they charge you $5 to go to the 50th floor, up to their terrace and enjoy the view! The best part is there were only a few other people, so we had the skybridge almost to ourselves.
We actually went back to Marina Bay quiet a few times. One of them was to see the Merlion. The lion-fish fountain-statue is the image of Singapore. The fishtail is symbol for the fishertown-past of Singapore and the lion represents the name of the city: when the prince Sang Nila Utama rediscovered Singapore in the XI century, he found a lion and changed the name of the country, Temasek, to Singapura (Singa for lion and pura for city). The Ministery for Tourism designed the Merlion in 1964 to be the image and symbol of the city.
Our last trip took us to the rainforest that lies in the middle of the city. Can you imagine that, a jungle in the middle of one of the most modern cities in the world, no? Me neither. But it´s true and it´s impressive. When you are there, you could almost forget, that you are actually in the heart of Singapore. We chose a trail that would take us around 4 hours to accomplish. It took us through a treetop walk and led us through a family of monkeys.
We knew we had to be careful around them, they are known for pickpocketing and getting aggressive if they feel threatened. We were a little bit scared at first, but soon found out, that the monkeys there were rather calm. That is, because nobody feeds them, one of the causes of their aggressivity, so if you go don´t dream of giving them something to eat, they can manage to find food for themselves. And also keep your distance, it is true they most likely won´t attack you, but still, be respectful and let them have their space to feel comfortable. If you follow these rules, you are free to enjoy watching them getting about their business. And if you are lucky, like we were, you might even see a baby monkey!
This day in the rainforest was one of the ones we enjoyed the most staying in Singapore. We lost our flight to Indonesia that day, but hey, at least we did something that made up for it! Yep, we forgot about our flight, but that´s another story.
Singapore is really worth visiting, even if you aren´t a fan of cities like me. The story behind it will blow your mind and the beauty beheld in it is one to admire!
