During our 8 week trip to SE Asia, Singapore was on our list to check out, but we knew we wanted it to be a shorter stint there. After looking at flights from Bali to Bangkok, we found we could explore Singapore on a 24 hour layover! We thought this would be the perfect option for us to get to do what we wanted there, and not have to pay for an extra flight.

Singapore is definitely the most expensive city we visited while on our trip, so this was another reason we wanted to keep the stay shorter.

Leaving and Getting To the Airport

As with most airports, you have a few options here. We went with the most convenient and fastest option of “Grab” (like Uber). We chose this because of our limited time there, and I (Adam) was not feeling very well. So, the last thing I wanted to do was deal with public transportation.

There are definitely options for public transportation, and they seem pretty solid and straightforward. Once again, as with most airports, public transportation will be the slower, but cheaper option compared to taxi/Uber/Grab/etc…

• City Shuttle leaving every 30 minutes to downtown (~$7.30 USD)
• MRT/Train
• Bus
• Grab, taxi, private hire vehicle

One thing that made getting to/from the airport, was that we only had backpacks with us. Check out our post on how we packed for 8 weeks in our backpacks here.

Here is a great resource for more info on the busses and trains: Leaving the Airport

What We Saw…

The Airport

It is a beautiful airport. The water fall thing is really cool. It is absolutely massive, and there is essentially a huge mall there too. They have airport tours, which we hear is a great way to see everything. But, we wanted to see more of the city so we left rather quickly.

Tiong Bahru Market

Our priority while in Singapore was to eat food at the hawker stalls (Bourdain, Somebody Feed Phil), check out the Gardens By The Bay, and try to get to the rooftop of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel (the big boat in the air looking thing).

Coming off of our awesome 2-3 weeks in Bali, we were a bit rundown and tired, and I was not feeling my best. But, we both knew we only had 24 hours here, and we needed to check the city out. So, we rallied the best we could.

Our first stop was 7/11 to find the Singapore version of DayQuil. Then we were off the the Tiong Bahru Market to visit the hawker stalls and get some food. We took Bourdain and Phil’s advice and went to Hong Heng Fried Sotong Prawn Mee and got something. They spoke minimal English, so it was just enough to order by pointing and saying how much money for the size of it. But, they were very nice and helpful, and it all worked out great.

Next we stopped at Jian Bo Shui Kueh to get Chwee Kueh (steamed rice cakes and preserved pickle paste that is fried in lard). They were both very good, and worth the trip. It was pretty cheap overall, and cash only.

There were a bunch of other hawker stalls there, and most of them looked like they were pretty good.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel Rooftop

Unfortunately, we did not make it up here. We headed over there after the market, and we missed the cutoff to go up on the rooftop without a reservation by 10-15 minutes. We had looked ahead, and saw you did not need a reservation to go up, but I suppose you do after a certain time. So, try to plan ahead and make a reservation, or go earlier in the day. It looks like it is an awesome view for sure.

Gardens By The Bay

This area is near the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. So, we just walked our way over there after we were denied entrance. It is a really beautiful area, and there is a great view of the hotel. We wanted to check out the Cloud Forest Botanical Gardens, but it was too expensive (~$50USD each) for how much we wanted to go in there. Instead, we wandered around the area, and checked out whatever was free. The Supertree Grove was really neat to see, especially as it got dark.

As we made our way through, we did want to get a view of everything from higher up. We found the Supertree Observatory that has an observation deck, and was only ~$10USD each. So, we ended up going up there to check it out, and I would say it was worth it. It has a beautiful view of everything, and there is even a bar for some cocktails up there.

As we made our way back down, we were trying to kill a bit of time before the light show that plays through the Supertree Grove at night. You could tell it was coming up because there were a ton of people coming in and lining up to watch. It was pretty neat, but we ended up leaving early because we were over it and wanted to beat some of the crowds.

Overall, definitely worth checking out if you are there.

Haji Lane

Haji Lane is a narrow, vibrant street with a bunch of restaurants and art. It was pretty crowded, but there still seemed to be enough room to not feel crammed. We did not spend too much time here since we were already a bit tired from travel and not feeling well. But if we had more energy/time we would for sure have stopped for a drink or two.

Summary

Singapore was a pretty cool city. It is not real big, but a lot going on. It is expensive for sure, but can be done cheaper if needed. Singapore is probably not a place we need to go back to, other than a layover in the airport.

Reach out to us if you have any questions, and follow us on Instagram @acoupleoftravelingpts

EA

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