After our short stay in Bangkok during my South East Asia trip in 2009, we decided it would be best to fly in and out of Thailand to extend our visas (we crossed the border to Thailand by bus from Cambodia which meant that our visa would only be valid for 15 days rather than 30 days). We considered a few destinations, Myanmar, Vietnam, but ultimately we decided to visit Singapore for five days.

We flew early in the morning from Bangkok to Singapore by AirAsia. Upon arrival we found out Singapore would be an excessively expensive destination, especially considering the budget we had planned out for this entire five-week journey. Singapore would just about triple our daily expenses. Straightaway we rebooked our trip to only last two full days and two half days because we would be out-of-pocket halfway during our trip otherwise.

Upon arrival in the evening we traveled by Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) metro to our hostel. The hostel was located outside the center of the town which was easily reachable by metro. Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the hostel but it was a very nice place and it looked like a townhouse. Traveling by MRT in Singapore is incredibly convenient, but I missed the freedom of traveling by tuk-tuk. Suddenly we had to (Europe-style) plan where we wanted to be at what time of the day, which didn’t really suit our traveling style for this trip.

Orchard Road

After the check-in to the hostel, we traveled to Orchard Road, a 2.2km long street full of shops and restaurants. We thought we would be able to find a cheap dinner there, but unfortunately this was not the case. Compared to Europe the prices were cheap (4 euro for a main meal) but compared to South East Asia we were spending so much more than expected. That having been said Orchard Road is wonderful and on another trip with another budget I would certainly love to explore it more.

Singapore Zoo

On our first full day in Singapore, one of my friends and I decided to visit Singapore Zoo. I was super excited about this zoo and it did not let me down. People that know me personally know how much I love animals. Lemurs in particular and this zoo had a kind of free-run zone for lemurs and other animals (bats, birds, etc.). I happily jumped on the occasion to surround myself with my favourite animals.

The zoo as a whole looked very good, very neat and the animals’ enclosures looked great and so did the animals. In Singapore they certainly like to treat their animals well (unlike Shanghai Zoo which I visited a few years ago). The animals live in enclosures that resemble their natural habitat, for example the Orangutans live in tree top enclosures where they have a lot of freedom to roam around (of course this freedom is restricted but as zoos go this one is good). The enclosure was actually home to a scientist who studied the animals’ behavior for six months.

We also visited the Splash Safari Show which was “hosted” by Andre the Californian Sea Lion. During the show the presenter informed the audience about the life of aquatic animals. It was very informative and fun because of the tricks of the sea lion. At the end we could collect a kiss from Andre the Sea Lion and subsequently buy the photo from the Kodak stand. When in Rome…

There was actually a lot more to see in this zoo and a lot more tours to do which cannot be covered in a day. The zoo hosts a nightlife tour and a tree top tour, to only name a few. It would be great to visit this place again, especially since my last visit was in 2009. I would like to see if anything has changed and I would love to do some more tours including the nightlife one.

Clarke Quay

In the evening my friends and I were reunited again and had drinks at Clarke Quay; a gorgeous nightlife area by the water in Singapore. I loved walking around in the area, and if I would live in Singapore this would be my favourite haunt, but for this trip it was way out of budget so we only enjoyed one drink at Hooters we left the area again to call it an early night.

Chinatown & Little India

Due to the fact that there are so many different nationalities living in Singapore (official languages are Mandarin, English, Malay and Tamil and you will find everything translated in all these languages), each culture has its own neighbourhood. We explored two of these on the second day of our stay in Singapore, Chinatown and Little India. In Chinatown there are a lot of small markets selling overpriced items (overpriced seems to be the key word in Singapore) and a lot of nice restaurants. In the evening we visited Little India, which according to the guidebooks would be the cheapest area in Singapore. This is probably true for Singapore but it still doesn’t come close to the prices in the rest of South East Asia. However, it does seem like you’re stepping out of the MRT straight into India (in 2009 I had never visited India, but I pictured this would be what visiting India would be like), only a cleaner version. We were shocked by the massive amount of men just walking along the streets. Hundreds of hundreds of people were just walking about; only men. To this day I have no idea why… Maybe they had just returned from prayer time, who knows…

Sentosa

The last half day was spent on Sentosa Beach. To get there we took the Sentosa Express from VivoCity which is a great way to see more of the area from above. Back in 2009 we mainly saw construction sites but judging by Sentosa’s website I think this area will have a lot more activities than it did back in the day. It looks great now and I would love to revisit it. When we were there the beach was empty. We didn’t take the time to relax on the beach as we only had half a day so we went up a hill by ski lift and down by luge. The ski lift hosts a nice view over the city/country but the luge is very unspectacular. I guess it’s an activity better suited for children.

Conclusion

All in all I had a good three day stint of exploring Singapore. We visited Orchard Road, Chinatown, Little India and Sentosa. I would love to go back and enjoy more of the city. The enjoyment factor was missing due to the insanely high prices compare to South East Asia. It’s best to skip Singapore if you’re planning to backpack through South East Asia, but if you plan to spend a little more money it would be very worthwhile to check this place out. When you’re visiting Singapore you have to be a bit careful of your behavior because almost every movement you make could trigger a fine. A local told me when I photographed the sign: “Welcome to Singapore, it’s a fine city.”

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