Short but sweet stop in Singapore

Hello again!

I know what you’re thinking, back again so soon?! Don’t worry, my blog posts won’t usually be this frequent, usually just once a week but I’ve had a bit of time on my hands with all the flights so I thought I’d update you on our 30 hours in Singapore!

What did I think?

Having been here before on a school trip in 2015 I knew what to expect—a very green, clean and modern city however I had forgotten the extent of the trees, flowers, shrubs etc that decorate the entire city. From the moment you leave the airport all you can see is beautiful greenery surrounded by incredible high-rise buildings which are modern and eye catching. If you haven’t been, take my word for it, Singapore is a beautiful city.

When we arrived we made our way through immigration, collected our luggage and headed to the airport shuttle bus – the bus took us door to door to our hotel for only $9 (Singapore dollars). I would definitely recommend doing this, it was cheap, easy, only a short wait and not too many drop offs before ours. The other option would be a taxi which we did take on our return, this was only $1.35 more between the two of us so depending on how many of you there are and how much time you have a taxi may be a better option.

We stayed in the Conrad near the Suntec City complex which is right in the centre of Singapore. Zoe’s mum kindly paid for our hotel (thanks Alison!!) and it was greatly appreciated as we were both absolutely shattered when we arrived! The hotel was very luxurious and we had a great view from our room of the Fountain of Wealth which lit up at night and was mesmerising to watch.

Zoe and I had the full intention to head out in the evening and start exploring however… a five minute lie on the bed (never a good idea) turned into a full blown nap, room service and an early night. We are excused due to the lengthy time we had been travelling for!

The next day, feeling very refreshed (thanks to our early night), we ate breakfast in the hotel, checked out and were on our way by 10:30. The sun was up and the heat was glorious, definitely a great change from the cold in Newcastle! Over excited by our first day, we both made the mistake of not wearing enough sun cream and ended up with slightly pink shoulders and noses.

Overwhelmed by the heat we took advantage of the fact I needed a charging wire and we headed to the air conditioned luxury of the Suntec City shopping mall. The complex is huge and seems to have hundreds of shops and restaurants. The Singaporeans must love to shop because only a 15 minute walk away there is the Marina Bay shopping mall which seems equally as big but with more high end brands.

Having cooled down a bit from wandering around the mall we walked over to the Marina Bay Sands complex where we came across multiple view points of the city before heading to the hotel, it’s huge! I can see the appeal of staying at this hotel because of the unique amenities that comes with it (mainly the infinity pool at the top of the hotel) but the queue for check in was huge and there are masses of people wandering around so bear this in mind if you’re considering a stay here.

Under multiple recommendations we headed to the skybar, Ce La Vie, where you pay $20pp towards your bar tab. Alternatively you can pay to head up to the observation deck but doing it this way saves money and you can admire the same views whilst sipping on a cocktail of choice – whats not to love!

On finishing our drinks we headed to the Gardens by the Bay. I would really recommend this, you walk amongst the super trees which are (you guessed it) tall tree-like sculptures— they are stunning. We paid to go up to the observation/bar in the tallest tree but reflecting back I wouldn’t recommend doing this – the bar wasn’t set up at the top so you have to sit inside and on top of this the atmosphere was nothing special. I presume this would be different at night time. I hate to admit it but part of me regrets passing out when we got to Singapore and not going to the bay in the dark as I think it would be spectacular to see all of the trees light up.

The gardens by the bay also has two conservatories, one is the Cloud Forest and one is the Flower Dome. There is a vast array of tropical plants, flowers, cacti in both and there are some really pretty displays. When walking through beware of the mass of photo shoots going on – it seems to some people every flower is worth a selfie/pose with. If you can only do one conservatory the Cloud Forest is definitely better as it features a huge waterfall which you get a lift up to the top of and walk all the way down.

Our day was soon coming to an end so we quickly walked back towards our hotel and grabbed a bite to eat at the Streats café which had all sorts of Asian food, it was delicious.

We returned to the airport for 6:30pm, swiftly checked in and got through security. We headed straight to the bar where we had our first iconic Singapore sling cocktail – when in Rome, eh?!

Our stopover in Singapore was short but sweet. I’d really love to come again and stay a little longer to properly check it out. I’m very glad our travel agent suggested we had a night here to take a break from the flights – we had a great time!