Walking around Singapore is like moving through a real life template for how to
design the perfect city. I mean, just look at its arrival terminal, Heathrow airport this is not.
So for the tourist, this means perfectly planned out panoramas, accessible food markets that that
have something for everyone, a plethora of diverse neighbourhoods that beg to be explored,
and lots and lots of shopping. Which, even if you aren’t into, I promise, the air conditioning
alone is worth the brief escape from Singapores thick humidity. That is of course, when it isn’t
absolutely pouring it down, but, should you even be that concerned by its frequent rainy days?
In total, we spent an entire week here, but in this video, we’ll show you what the best
3 full days might look like and why, like us, you’re probably gonna love Singapore.
Admittedly, it does all come at a high price, such as this cocktail,
costing an eye watering 39 Singaporean Dollars, and we’ll not only be sharing
the must visit attractions, but also how to save a decent chunk of money whilst doing it.
If you’re new here, then welcome. We make helpful travel movies from around the world, hoping you
might just find your next holiday inspiration.
This is Suitcase Monkey, spending 3 slightly sweaty days in Singapore.
The first day, will be our most jam packed. We were staying in Bugis, a great location that
was very accessible to everywhere we’d later be visiting. For booking the hotel itself,
our criteria was best rated, private, central, and relatively low cost and
we were really happy with what we got, despite its tiny size. We were basically just sleeping
here so the friendly staff, cleanliness and location ultimately won through.
Walking around Singapore, it’s impossible not to be immediately taken by its diverse,
impressive architecture. Despite much of the city centre being the epitome of
human design, I love how nature never gets forgotten, rounding off its sharp edges.
But amongst all the sky scrapers, there’s still plenty of heart and
life to be found. One such easy recommendations is Kampong Glam,
one of Singapores oldest urban quarters and a short walk from our hotel…
It’s history is a gentle mix of people, Arab, Malay, Indonesian,
where old traditions now blend with a trendy lifestyle that caters well to visitors.
A few years after Singapore became an important trading post for the British
Empire, districts such as this one and Chinatown which we’ll see later,
were officially laid out from the 1820s. Hoping that some town planning would bring
an order to the colony. After officially becoming a state of Malaysia in 1963,
the partnership soured after 2 years turning Singapore into the independent nation it is today.
With all this growth, as well as building upwards,
Singapore has also been building out. A mammoth 25% of the entire country as
it sits today has been reclaimed from its surrounding waters. Nowhere is this better
displayed than Bay South, specifically Marina Bay Sands and Gardens by the Bay.
Considering they only opened in 2010 and 2012 respectively, it’s rare for national landmarks
to become this recognisable so quickly. But, I remember first seeing these iconic Supertrees,
as their known, and it immediately putting Singapore on my radar. And, even with the
anticipation, I will say with confidence, that walking around them in person did not disappoint.
There really is something so futuristic, yet majestic that immediately pulls you in…
So what exactly puts the Super into these Trees? Well, some of them are
laced with cells to harvest solar energy much like the real thing,
and some act as giant exhaust pipes. This allows the release of moisture and
heat away from the nearby conservatories, helping their own management of energy.
Although you can still get much of the experience by walking underneath for free, we paid extra
to walk the Skyway, which for us, was worth it, but not essential. In a couple of weeks,
I’ll follow up this vlog with a more practical travel tips video where I’ll go through the pros
and cons to the numerous ticket options and booking practicalities throughout Singapore.
Gardens by the Bay is more than just its Supertrees: Enter: The Flower Dome
and Cloud Forest. The Flower Dome is the largest glass greenhouse in the world,
and spread over 3 whole acres, showcases flowers and plants from across the world…
Fighting every urge I had to cover the plants with gravel,
we next moved on to the arguably more impressive, Cloud Forest.
Featuring the worlds tallest indoor waterfall, its climate and unique
plants replicate a real life tropical mountain 2,000 meters above sea level,
but all playfully presented as fantasy…
Despite this bold presentation and connection with Avatar,
it never strays too far from its essence of simply being an exotic botanical garden.
But , for every collection of tropical plants, there’ll also be a fun interactive element,
like this one, where you can explore the cloudy skies, and, look a bit of a tit whilst doing it.
As you might have guessed, after the hotel, attraction tickets are the next
biggest expense in Singapore. So we wanted to show you how we saved a third of the cost,
through using the sponsor of this video, Get Your Guide.
Here’s the standard entry price for some of the attractions we visited and
this was the cost through Get Your Guide, a meaningful saving in all.
To do this, there are two types of pass available
and both allow entry to 40 plus of the most popular attractions.
The first pass is the explorer, which is the one we booked. This is best if you
don’t want to commit to too many attractions, or want to spread them out. With this option,
you can book anywhere from 2 to 7 attractions. Of the 7 we visited,
we needed to book 2 of them in advance, one of them a week before, the other a few days before,
but the rest were all just walk ups and our digital tickets were scanned from our phone.
If you really want the most bang for your buck though, there’s also the
all inclusive pass. This is best if you want to explore as much as possible over
a certain number of consecutive days and it also includes entry to Universal Studios.
I’ve made a single PDF guide with links to our hotel and all attractions visited in one place,
which not only support the channel but will also help you planning a trip here.
We next made our way to the magnificently grand Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Some say its unique
design represents a boat gliding on the water, it certainly does. But it also looks like your
dad’s right slipper balancing precariously on top of 3 slightly squeezed cereal boxes.
Its observation deck sits 57 floors on top. It’s the world's largest public cantilevered platform,
overhanging the north tower by 200 feet with unobscured views of the city below…
It is worth noting that the infinity pool and Crazy Rich Asians filming location is
for hotel guests only. So, you’ll be left, staring at what your life would’ve be like,
if only you’d made better choices… If you’re visiting in the morning or mid afternoon, you
can join the relatively short queue for entry, but you’ll need to book in advance for the evening.
Inside Marina Bay Sands, or, more accurately underneath and along its connected Mall,
you’ll find a casino, luxury shopping,
fancy dining, canals, theatres and its worth a wander out of curiosity alone.
We found the Mall food court here to be a solid option. It is pretty busy but there
is a heap of variety and for Singapore, at a pretty reasonable price for our evening meal.
As a massive fan of satay, I think this was my first of 4 similar orders to come,
and these Popiah were great too. Like a soft spring roll filled with meat and veg…
If you only had one evening in Singapore, it should be along the various shores
of Marina Bay as you’re literally spoilt for choice and its all free.
The Garden Rhapsody is held twice nightly, lasting 15 minutes and is
definitely recommended. If you want a seat, it’s advisable to get there about 30 minutes early,
but there’s still plenty of standing room if you make it just on time.
After a pleasant 20 minute walk, we arrived at Spectra,
a light water show held right in the middle of the Bay…
If you want to take yourself even further along the waters edge,
there’s an easy hour long stroll in front of you, with a mixture of city vistas and nightlife…
This first day will be the busiest, but tomorrow, we’d be sampling a more local flavour.
For the morning, we’d booked ourselves onto a local hawker food tour around the must visit
area of Chinatown, and as luck would have it, so had 2 other Suitcase Monkey subscribers.
Singaporean food is largely a combination of Chinese, Malay and Indian cuisines,
and across the country, there are 120 hawker food centres, holding 13,000 stalls in all…
…The most surprising number of all though is that 40 of these stalls have been recommended
by the Michelin Guide serving dishes such as this curry chicken noodle.
Other foods to highlight here was this chicken rice,
which although Chinese in origin, has become somewhat of a Singaporean national dish.
This Pandan cake was great too, a light fluffy sponge that felt sweet, but was so airy,
never became overbearing. For drinks, always be on the lookout for Sugarcane. Its juice is extracted
from squeezing the cane through a machine and is incredibly refreshing on a hot humid day.
Speaking of thirst, we next made our way to Raffles. Named after Sir Thomas
Stamford Raffles, considered the founder of modern day Singapore,
this colonial style hotel was established in the late 1800s as the place to be seen.
Back in those days, when men were men and things were even more uneven,
etiquette dictated that ladies couldn’t consume alcohol in public. Because,
when you think about it, why should they?! So in 1915, to entice the females,
a savvy bartender, at this very location created The original Singapore Sling
cocktail. A drink that looked suitable for a delicate lady, but was actually gin, Liqueur,
pineapple and lime juice. It also had the added bonus of making the men seem more interesting.
There’s also one other tradition here that still remains welcome, and that is this…
Throwing your nuts on the floor is pretty liberating. In a country
known for its strict rules, this is the only place in Singapore,
where littering is accepted, and that’s why I was taking every opportunity to enjoy myself.
I did see this guy though, who was either really trying to get
his moneys worth or was a squirrel in a past life.
I entered the Long Bar with zero expectations, and then actually really enjoyed our time here.
Visually, the decor put you back in time really well, a soft jazzy piano ballad sets the mood,
and the Singapore Sling itself was enjoyable. Despite the 20 minute wait, once inside,
it wasn’t crowded and there was no sense of the urgency to leave. If you’re paying full
price for it, I might skip it, but since it was included in the explorer pass,
it was a unique attraction I’m glad we got to experience. Especially for this.
Just 3 stops up the North South Line and we arrived at Orchard Road, Singapores shoppers
paradise. I’m not usually a Mall guy, but they’re so integrated into life here,
you’re missing on a small local aspect if you don’t get lost once at least once.
Orchard Road is the most straight forward concentration of shops,
but we also personally enjoyed Raffles City and Suntec City Malls,
but that was likely since they were close to our hotel.
Food courts are usually found on the lower floors and never disappointed
us for a relatively low cost lunch and even a few cheeky evening meals…
For the last of our 3 day suggested itinerary,
we’re going to be going all out on some on Singapores largest attractions…
This is Sentosa Island. As a former British military base and Japanese prisoner of war camp,
it clearly has all the makings for fun times. Almost 5 square kilometres in size,
it’s a quick monorail ride from the main island and immediately transports you to another world.
There’s a couple of beaches, a casino, tonnes of individual adrenalin rides,
2 golf courses, a Madame Tussauds, a cable car and most surprisingly, a Universal Studios.
There is a slight chance I’ll be releasing a Complete Guide to beating the queues and winning
at Universal Studios Singapore, so do let me know if that’s of interest. If I do release it, it’ll
most probably be on our companion YouTube channel - Carry On Monkey, which is, if you can believe
it, an even more light hearted look at travel around the world, and currently 9 videos deep.
There is one thing I wanted to note here though; this is not Universal Studios, Florida. Although
it still has many aspects that are fitting for that level of theme park, comparatively,
it is pretty small, and with some pre planning, very possible to experience all major thrill rides
in a couple of hours. Unless of course you have children slowing you down, cramping your style.
Since Universal only opens at 10am, beforehand, it is possible to sneak in
an hour long trip to the SEA Aquarium next door. Now the second largest in the world,
this aquarium holds 12 million gallons of water, 100,000 animals and 800 species to keep you busy…
After soaking in everything we could from Sentosa Island,
we took our longest train journey yet, to one of Singapores most popular attractions.
The Night Safari is a first of its kind. Unlike a traditional zoo which struggles with showcasing
nocturnal animals during their day time opening hours, this is an open air tropical forest,
open from 7pm to midnight. Now, do bear in mind, your eyes are much better than my camera so
these pictures do a slight injustice to the actual experience. But, you can explore all
this through a 40 minute tram ride along with 4 walking trails to take things at a slower pace.
Of the 100 plus specifies found here, around 40% are on the threatened or endangered list.
Although I’m not usually a fan of zoos, this is done in a way, that although it is definitely a
zoo in disguise, the illusion created does make you feel you’re at a safari; gone are the bars
and cages, instead using cattle grids, plants and water moats. Adding the artificial moonlight to
Singapores humid skies, and vocal purring insects, you almost forget where you are…
As mentioned at the start of this video, if you were paying attention,
we were actually in Singapore for a full week and you’ve just seen what we would recommend
for a typical stay. To see what we’d suggest for a 4th day, along with questions answered
around public transport, booking tickets, and just how to get the most out of any visit here,
do check out part 2 of this video which I’ll link here once complete. Again,
I’ve put all attractions, our hotel and general info in one PDF guide which you
can use to plan your own trip and thank you to Get Your Guide for making this video possible.
Please give this video a like below if you’ve gotten this far,
subscribe for more travels such as this one, and as ever, thanks for watching Suitcase Monkey. :)