… really humid. Like, shockingly hot and muggy.
Singapore was never really on the list of places that I was dying to see. It was another Asian city, that I probably hadn’t heard enough about. Living in Sydney, Singapore comes up a lot in conversation, at least in the advertising industry. Many offices are based in Singapore of have a Southeast Asian counterpart nestled in the big island city.
It ended up as a stop on our much anticipated trip to Thailand (happy birthday to me!) because our Singapore-based budget airline has a standard layover there, regardless of your destination. In the effort of saving as much money as possible, our layover was particularly long; 24 hours. I’m typically quite a laid back traveler in the sense that I like to take my time around a place, I like to rest up to make sure that I make the most of my days and I tend to really weigh up options about what highlights I want to see and which I can let fall by the wayside, until next time. Unfortunately, with only about 12 hours or less total to see a city, time isn’t a luxury. Just one of the reasons I was so lucky to have Jenn as my travel buddy. A very driven and spontaneous traveller, from the gate she was ticking off things that we could realistically squeeze in on our one night and one day in the city.
After arriving in our fairly posh hotel (I was chuffed to find a personal greeting on the TV screen) we headed off for the first order of business; Chili Crab.
It was quite late for dinner (around 9:30pm) but we did manage to snag a table at the well-known No Signboard Seafood Restaurant. When the crab arrived, nearly in 4 whole pieces swimming in a vat of creamy, spicy sauce, I think Jenn and I were both at a slight loss. We looked quizzically at the crab, unsure of how to approach it. In the end we just went all in, I think we may be the reason the restaurant will reconsider it’s use of white silky table cloths throughout the restaurant. The waiters kept coming back, offering more napkins, I think secretly they were just getting a good laugh out of these two messy, white girls.
After dinner we attempted to hit up the highest bar in the city, but upon learning that there was a $30 cover charge (and surely $20+ cocktails at the top), we wrote it off for an early knock-off.
Fresh the following morning, we were up bright and early (thanks to the tricky little time change) and out the door. We trekked down through Clarke Quay and found ourselves hopscotching through a stream of marathon runners before finally peeling away to head toward Marina Bay and all the action of the tourist attractions.
We glavanted through the Marina, to the Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands and then over to Raffles Hotel.
We managed to squeeze in two coffees and two cocktails through the day as well, so not half bad!
The highlights of the day were sitting atop the Marina Bay Sands cruise boat-esque top deck, sipping a $20 cocktail as the much appreciated wind whipped around us. The Marina Bay Sands is massive and bustling inside, like a shopping center at Christmas. It was very interesting how integrated the hotel was with the shops, walking out of your room in the morning you would be looking down into the chaos of early morning shoppers and tourists snapping pictures.
Our last stop on the tour of Singapore was The Old Raffles Hotel, probably my favorite thing in Singapore, it may have been because it was the end of the long day of walking, but I really enjoyed the feel of the hotel. Like an old colonial British holiday resort with white pillars and walls and palms growing in every corner.
When we finally worked our way through the maze into the famously known Long Bar and settled in for a Singapore Sling, I was completely content with the success of our one day stint in Singapore.
Jenn and I raised our respective Singapore Slings to good times and flexible traveling and we were ready to set off on the bigger adventure… cue Bangkok.
