Activity Summary
Saturday 22nd October - Day 51
Travel to Singapore
Holland Village
Evening walk through SG
Fort Canning Park
Merlion Park
Sunday 23rd October - Day 52
Marina Bay Sands mall
Gardens by the Bay
OCBC Skyway
Cloud forest
Flower dome
The Meadow
Chinatown
Lau Pa Sat
Spectra evening lightshow
Gardens by the Bay evening lightshow
Monday 24th October - Day 53
Nicola birthday!
Botanical gardens
11 course tasting menu @ Tippling Club
Chinatown
Bukit Chermin boardwalk
Labrador Nature reserve
Dinner at Super Loco at Customs House
Little India
Tuesday 25th October - Day 54
Singapore Zoo
River Wonders
Night safari
Wednesday 26th October - Day 55
The Jewel mall
Travel to Surabaya (Indonesia)
Summary
Clean, easy to travel and plenty to do. 4 days was plenty of time to spend in Singapore with a good mix of free and paid things to do. As expected, our daily budget was doubled to accommodate the dramatic increases in food and activities but we were very fortunate to save hundreds on free accommodation.
Accommodation
James & Molly’s house (friends of Nicola’s dad) - 4 nights
We were incredibly fortunate and very grateful to James and Molly for allowing us to stay with them (based in Holland V) which in turn saved us a whole lot of dough and it was an unbelievably comfortable place to stay. Certainly the best place we have stayed in and expect will continue to be so over the rest our trip! We were able to get anywhere we needed in SG using the metro and busses. Thanks again!
Travel
TO
Hostel -> [grab] -> bus terminal -> [coach] -> Malaysian border -> [passport checks] -> Coach to Singapore border -> [passport checks] -> At Woodlands post border, public transport to homestay
Diary
We had booked as early a coach as we could in order to get to our homestay in Singapore by 4pm. Fortunately Grab worked perfectly fine in the morning (there always is an element of what if) and got to the bus terminal at a decent time. Again we had to print our online tickets at the only open counter which theoretically would have made it easy but this was complete guesswork given there were no staff knocking around and we had to rely on the kindness of strangers to confirm this. We ended up being a go to for all the other travellers who were just as clueless. With tickets in hand we scanned through the first turnstile and then again at the platform once the coach arrived - two others didn’t get the print memo and were turned away at the coach gate; we have no idea whether they made it on the coach but we guess not.
The coach ride was short to the border (by prior journeys standards) where we dismounted with all our gear, stamped out of Malaysia and went cluelessly wandering around trying to find the coach, made more dramatic with the disclosure that the coach will not wait longer than 20 minutes and they have absolutely no idea who or how many people are on board. A correct finger in air guess of area A greeted us with the big red coach. One guy just about made the coach post doors closing and us reversing - we were really not far off that happening to us. Turns out we would have been ok as the drive down to the SG border wasn’t very long but would have been a pain in ass to walk it. Similar dismount here, queue at passport control and no drama getting through (the online entry form was filled in the night before and didn’t need to refer to anything).
This time we didn’t get back on the coach, now at an area called Woodlands, as it would have just taken us further away from our homestay. We asked the bus terminal guy where we were going who frantically told us to jump on a bus trying to pull out. At this point we had zero SG dollars so were very happy to be greeted by modern technology for the first time in a while and contactless bank card public transport for the bus and metros to getover to Holland V / Dover station. [Luke opinion piece: I absolutely hate being rushed into doing anything before I understand the plan, what needs to happen and know clearly what I need to do. Blindly following without this or rushing around drives me insane. The lack of internet, clear plan and us running around like headless chickens caused me a great deal of anxiety so was happy to slow down for 5 minutes once we got to a metro].
After quite a healthy SG public transport journey and 10 minute walk the other end with our big bags we arrived at James and Molly’s house, who are friends of Nicola’s dad and had very very kindly allowed us to stay with them. They were lovely and the house was incredible. We had a room downstairs with two unbelievably comfortable single beds with en-suite so could not have asked for more. It will very much likely be the nicest place we will stay on our trip by a country mile.
Our afternoon consisted of having a chat with Molly who gave us a great orange fruit, sake and sparkling water concoction prepared on the fly and heading over to Holland Village for food. The pizza express didn’t compare to the UK (again).
Revitalised somewhat, our early evening was spent walking from Orchard through to Fort Canning Park until sunset. The streets of Singapore took us aback with just how clean and modern it all is. It makes London look like child’s play.
We continued walking through SG and over in the direction of Marina Bay finishing with the Merlion statue & park and Jubilee bridge before calling it.
In no rush, we took our time surfacing and went out for brunch with Molly and her daughter Jade. Luke loves being taken for food to suggested places and told what to order and was not disappointed with the prawn and pork rice noodles pancake wraps (the best description he could come up with). We were dropped at the metro and took off back to Marina Bay, via a mall to get a Singapore SIM card. Luke sadly had spent a small fortune (£100) on data the day before by a) moronically not checking whether SG was part of his allowed contract and b) getting duped by the wording in his contract and lack of O2 contact about terms. Fortunately he managed to argue this down and share the costs 50/50 but has learnt a pretty harsh lesson.
Our day plan was to visit the Gardens by Bay, so on our way there went through the Marina Bay Sands mall. The thing is ridiculous. It has a bleeding waterway through it and basically all the rich people brands you could ever want. But then again the boat hotel above it harbours a shed ton of wealth so wasn’t surprising. Not a lifestyle we expect to ever live however.
At the gardens we walked straight to the OCBC Skyway, fearing the rain and closure, which is a nice walkway in the super tree grove which gives great views of the city and the gardens.
Next we walked through the cloud forest dome (always happy to be greeted with a room housing a UK climate) which had a vast amount of greenery and winding walkway throughout.
Needing a break we grabbed a snack from Shakeshack but immediately regretted not getting a burger as they looked incredible. Last of the ticketed items was the flower dome which was pretty but far too many people trying to take pictures of their significant others in populated walkways. ‘Do it for the gram’ should really come with an asterisk *unless it’s fucking annoying in which case just stop you moron*.
The last part of the gardens we walked through was the meadows which had an odd giant statue of a kid with his peewee out, some garden hedge animals and what looked like a dance festival just starting. The festival DJ however had managed to butcher darude sandstorm so were not hopeful of its calibre going forward.
Still reasonably early we walked through Chinatown but quickly realised we were shattered and had to grab a beer (for Luke anyway - he really hasn’t drunk much at all anymore since leaving Thailand because he’d be so broke and that Malaysian alcohol tax bites).
Big Pete (Nicola’s dad) gave us a great suggestion for a food market called Lau Pa Sat, a collection of small food vendors under one roof at very reasonable prices for SG (between $5-$10). Nicola got some serious food envy of Luke’s monster Indian plate when her falafel didn’t cut the mustard. We really regretted not going here again the night after.
Now dark we wanted to go back over to the Gardens for the night show ‘Garden Rhapsody’ and inadvertently finding out there was a fountain light show outside the Marina Bay Sands. A well timed visit to the fountain first was followed by the Gardens. We sat at the lower deck for the Spectra lightshow which was very cool and ended up getting fairly wet - Luke’s eye infection meant he was representing the spectacle crew and these have their drawbacks when soaked.
Then back off to the super trees for the next light show we ended up lying on the floor at the base of the gardens towers to watch the show, using the backpack as a pillow.
Happy birthday to Nicola! 28 years young and the second birthday for us to celebrate on our travels. Although Luke’s hasn’t ACTUALLY yet been celebrated so that’s with Nicola to sort in New Zealand at some point.
We had the morning to explore a little so went over to the botanical gardens as it was on the way in to town. We had read and noticed there are signs warning of giant river otters so naturally we tried our hardest to find these pottering around but were sadly disappointed.
Luke had booked a table at the Tippling Club for an 11 course tasting lunch menu. This was a surprise and Luke thought he was pretty clear on the vibe and expectations when he said it was a bit fancier (to the point he had to pack trousers in his day bag rather than wear his scratty travel shorts) and that we were going for lunch. Nicola however didn’t put two and two together, made a hangry decision to get a monster wrap from 7-11 for breakfast at 11am and therefore by the time lunch came around she wasn’t all that hungry. Luke on the other hand deliberately didn’t eat anything. Amateur hour.
The lunch was great. Luke loves a tasting menu (one of his recently found favourite pass times is going for fancy dinners with Tommy without Nicola) so was incredibly happy with his decision and Nicola also very much enjoyed the food. A few dishes she wasn’t overly keen on but Luke was happy to lap them up. After two months of more or less Street food, a taste of the finer things in life was a refreshing break (although coming with a rather significant cost to Luke’s purse he had already emotionally prepared for). Sensible idea was to skip the wine pairing and settle for water and a coke…
Well fed we got a fridge magnet from Chinatown before heading over to Bukit Chermin boardwalk and the Labrador nature reserve. We did make our way over to the cable car but could not justify the $30 cost each to get to Sentosa island so binned that idea. After 3 days of walking about 16km each day and the map of the nature reserve pushing Nicola to her absolute limits of what is acceptable cartography (she got REALLY angry when paths were closed) we decided we needed some chill so went over to the Marina for a drink. Turns out the area we chose was a rubbish sports bar strip and looked much nicer at night from the opposite side of the river but gave us the sugar we needed.
Wandering around to kill some time before dinner we stumbled across a free live gig in an open air stage on the north side of the merina bay so spent some time listening this. We appreciate how many free things there are to do in SG, minus the fact the paid things are hella spenny.
Luke booked a restaurant called Super Loco after doing some research for a food spot with a view, which is located at Custom House overlooking the bay. Sadly there was a lot of lightning strikes throughout the music performance which prompted the restaurant to move our table inside. Luke was very unhappy with this and made more so that the food was expensive, not really worth it and it didn’t even bloody rain. Seething, we left in a hurry and went over to Little India to see what was left of the Deepavali celebrations. There wasn’t much to see bar street lights and very crowded streets so we didn’t spend much time here before going home. What struck us was the male to female ratio which seemed to be about 100:1.
As a thank you to James and Molly our morning consisted of going over to Holland Village to get some breakfast and flowers. After the spending of the day before a 7-11 wrap did us just fine and were fortunate enough to find a florist to prepare a nice bouquet (although this was very difficult to find and in the heat was killer).
We returned back to the house to give Molly the flowers and then took off to the zoo. The zoo was massive and had a large array of animals that we had never heard of or seen before (the binturong being a particular favourite of Nicola) so was an enjoyable experience. A lot of walking around again. The zoo is split between the usual land based animals and a ‘river’ section which triggered fangirl Nicola (much alike to a Harry Styles super fan seeing the heartthrob in person) over the fact it was educating people about the evils of hydropower, dams and pollution and could continue Luke’s lifelong lessons in all things water environment related.
We timed our zoo KFC dinner perfectly, getting pretty much the last food orders before they shut as we waited for the night Safari to begin. This invoked a slightly rainy walk around the noctornal animals and a buggy train tour round the rest of the park.
Big ol animal day. We enjoyed that there were very different animals than in European zoos (lots more SE Asian ones).
We would be leaving Singapore today and flying to Surabaya in Indonesia. The reason we chose this place was because it had the cheapest flight, gave us the ability to get a visa on arrival and we could get a train to Yogyakarta easily enough.
Our flight wasn’t until 3.30pm and we weren’t driven by a check out time so could faff around in the morning before getting the metro over to the airport. We got there a little early as we wanted to check out the Jewel shopping mall. If we had more time and found the area for bag storage potentially we would have explored a bit more but seeing the over the top water feature in the middle of the mall was pretty epic and all we needed.
A little difficulty finding the terminal ensued then slightly more difficulty trying to bag drop Luke’s Osprey bag as his straps managed to break one of the machines. Second attempt was successful after being babysat by an attendant and we were through what we thought was going to be security. Turns out these bag checks are done right at the gate before boarding the plane which we aren’t a big fan of. The stress of trying to get through bag searches at Heathrow when busy sucks and we both much prefer getting this done early so we can veg out at the nearest fast food joint. Perk however is that this bag check was much quicker as the 6 potential scanners is now 26.
On the relatively empty plane it was bye bye Singapore and hello Surabaya and Indonesia. Nicola’s first new country on the trip.
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