Emma & Ben… Far From Home

13th – 18th March 2017

We were really looking forward to Singapore. We’ve both been before and really enjoyed our time there, and although we always like to visit new places, the knowledge of what we were going to find when we landed gave us a bit of a breather from having to scour through travel blogs and guidebooks. 

It’s been 5 years since we last visited so going back gave us the opportunity to see some of the new sights like the Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay (they didn’t disappoint!). 

One of the benefits of travelling to Singapore is that it is very easy to explore. The public transport is very efficient, reliable and fairly cheap. On arrival at Singapore Airport, we made our way to the MRT Station which is located underneath Terminals 2 or 3 and decided to purchase tourist passes. The passes cover unlimited travel on the trains and buses. We definitely recommend doing this as it saved us the hassle of topping up travel cards and they are good value. 
Other things we we did during our stay which we would recommend:

Visited the Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay – we enjoyed this part of the city so much that we went back twice (once in the day and then again at night)

Watched the light show at Gardens by the Bay – they have 2 evening showings where they light up the Supertrees to music. It was very impressive! Even better for us was that during the time we where there, the gardens were lit up with giant dinosaurs which were part of a children’s festival. Ben is a massive dinosaur fan so perfect for him! (I think mom would have preferred them not to have been there, they did intrude on the scene slightly!) 

Watched the free light show at Marina Bay – another freebie and just as impressive 

Visited Orchard Road to have a mooch around the Malls – great for escaping the mid day heat and being awed by the scale (even if we got lost trying to navigate our way through one mall to the next), it’s also good for stocking up on items
If you do decide to visit Orchard Road, we would also recommend visiting Emerald Hill Road which is just off Orchard Road by Somerset Station, this street still has some quaint terrace buildings which offer quite a contrast next to all the modern shopping malls

River walk through the Quays – better to do this in the evening as this is when they come to life
Trip to Haji Lane – lots of boutique shops and a nice place to stop for lunch 
Trip to the iconic Raffles Hotel – we blew the backpacking budget and treated ourselves to famous Singapore Slings – totally worth it! We love how they still hold up the tradition of throwing peanut shells onto the floor 

One of the disadvantages of Singapore is that it is very expensive, especially compared to other South East Asian cities. This can make it pretty tricky for travellers on a tight budget, but there are ways to cut down costs:
-Stick to local food – there are lots of great Hawker Stalls where you can get a very tasty meal cheaply 

-lots of the museums have certain times when you can visit for free (although we didn’t have time to do this so we can’t recommend any) 

-lots of good outdoor spaces to explore and chill for free, examples are the Botanical Gardens or Fort Canning Park – you can easily fill an afternoon wandering round 

Singapore was where mom sadly said goodbye to travelling with us. We hope she enjoyed her time and we didn’t wear her out trying to see so much of Malaysia and Singapore! (Mom thank you so much for coming to see us).

Our time as just the 2 of us was short lived as one of my friends from Keele University now lives and works in Singapore so we had the chance for a long awaited reunion. 

Sammie and Phil – thank you for being such great hosts! 

Our second visit to Singapore didn’t disappoint. I think Myanmar might be a bit of a cultural shock in comparison though…

(Posted by Em)