This post will be dedicated to my impressions of Singapore and the places I have visited during my trip to this unique country/city. I have covered the main and the most famous attraction of Singapore in a separate post, so this post will focus on everything buy the Gardens by the Bay. If you want to read about Gardens by the Bay, click here.
Based on my experience, Singapore is a city of contrasts. It can be either very expensive or very cheap, depending on the places you go and the activities you choose to do. Having spent some time in Singapore, I have not seen too much of a middle ground. You either eat as a local and get an amazing meal for an equivalent of $5 USD or you go to a restaurant and spend significantly more. One of the biggest surprises to me was the price of alcohol. I could not quite understand what was the logic behind the alcohol prices, but a European brand of beer at a restaurant would cost you on average around $12 USD. Granted, there are cheaper options available such as Asian brands of beer, but I have not seen a bottle of beer cheaper than $7 USD anywhere and that was primarily during the happy hours. Once, I ended up paying around $16 USD for a pint of Stella Artois...
The very first thing I want to mention when talking about Singapore is that it is incredibly humid and hot. You need to be okay with the idea that you will always be sweating. Obviously the climate makes it very hard to enjoy your day when you are dressed in business casual and going to work. Even on my days off when I was wearing shorts and t-shirts I felt sticky and grossed out because I was constantly sweating.
The second thing that I would like to mention is that Singapore has weird rules. One of them is that chewing gum is prohibited by law. Someone told me that the reason for that law was because people were discarding of gum by spitting it out and it created an issue, however, I find it interesting that Singapore decided to outlaw it all together. Another law that I found interesting is that there are certain districts in Singapore that do now allow smoking unless you are in the designated smoking area. So even if you are outside, you might not be allowed to smoke because you are in a district that does not allow smoking outside of designated areas.
But now let's actually talk about the positives! Singapore is a very safe city with incredibly low level of crime. I have never felt as comfortable walking around the city at night and having an expensive camera on my shoulder as I did in Singapore. Even when I was in the areas that did not look aesthetically pleasant to the eye I did not feel threatened or felt vulnerable because I was in the unknown city. What is funny is that in the two weeks that I spent there I have seen a police car twice! So I do not know why the crime is that low in Singapore but the city definitely gives out a vibe of safety.
Another thing worth mentioning is, of course, crazy architecture. Singapore's downtown is rather large and it features a variety of skyscrapers, hotels, and other buildings with interesting and crazy designs. Nothing beats the Gardens by the Bay complex described in the previous post, but the famous Marina Bay Sands complex that features three high-rises connected by the observation deck up top comes pretty close! I would definitely recommend going up to the observation deck at night and enjoy a beautiful view of the city as it lights up.
One of the first places in the city that I have visited was Chinatown. Singapore's Chinatown is not too massive, but it is not small either, spanning multiple blocks in each direction. Having been to many Chinatowns around the globe, in the grand scheme Singapore's Chinatown is no different. The area is filled with multiple souvenir and clothing stands as well as numerous cafes with cheap food. As you walk around you get called to the tents and shops to come check out the wares. I will say that I did all of my souvenir shopping in Chinatown as the ability to haggle and lower down the initial asking price is priceless! I did, however, still feel that I was the one who got the short end of a stick even though I negotiated a price lower than the original.
One thing that I liked about Singapore's Chinatown is that there were multiple places of worship within walking distance. Just by walking around for 15 minutes I saw Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu places. The two temples that I would like to mention separately are the Buddha Tooth Relic and Sri Mariamman temples that are open for visitors and allow free entrance for tourists and even allows taking photos inside. These are active temples and as I was walking around them I saw people praying and coming for different spiritual services. You can see the photos of these beautiful temples below along with the photos of Masjid Sultan mosque located on Arab Street, a muslim district of Singapore. Overall, Singapore is a melting pot of various religions. Not having a predominant religion helped shape the city into a diverse mix of culture and ethnicities which showed in the overall structure of the city.
I was staying in the hotel across from Sentosa Island, or commonly referred to as simply Sentosa. "Sentosa" translates as "peace and tranquility" from Malay language and this island in the southern part of the city has been used as a military base and a prisoner-of-war camp prior to becoming an entertainment destination. Now Sentosa is known as home to Universal Studios, beaches, resorts, restaurants and a casino. Sentosa also features a southernmost point of continental Asia, or so they claim!
Sentosa is a great place to visit if you want to enjoy a beach, grab some food and just enjoy your weekend. It gets pretty packed at the island as it is a very popular destination among the locals, as well as the tourists. Once the sun sets over the horizon you can head to the restaurant zone and grab some dinner before heading to the casino.
Casino is a completely separate topic that I would like to cover so that you don't make the same mistake that I did. I did not go to a casino on Sentosa Island as I made a mistake of going to a casino near Marina Bay Sands a couple of nights earlier. Casinos in Singapore are very different from those in the US. Interestingly enough, the entrance is free for tourists (people holding passports other than Singaporean) while locals have to pay $150 local dollars (approximately $120 USD) just to get in! Once you get in, forget about being served free alcoholic drinks. You can get some non-alcoholic beverages but that's about it. Furthermore, the only games I could find in the casino were against the house/dealer. So if you want to play some Texas Hold 'Em against other casino patrons, you are out of luck. Another thing that sets Singapore casinos apart from its Las Vegas counterparts is the bet amounts. Maybe I visited an upscale casino, but the lowest blackjack bet in the whole casino was $25 Singapore dollars. Needless to say, I went through my allocated budget of $100 Singapore dollars in a matter of minutes.
So if you are looking to visit casinos in Singapore, think twice! Interesting experience, but definitely not the same as Vegas...
Singapore is a very green city. Government ensured that the architecture of the city does not interfere with the green zones and that the nature is preserved. That is why there are many beautiful parks and gardens throughout the city. One of the bigger gardens are the botanical gardens that also feature the orchid garden. While botanical gardens are free, you do need to pay a small fee to enter the orchid exhibition. I do not remember how expensive it was to get in, but it was somewhere around $10 USD at most. Botanical gardens are 160 years old and have been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. What is interesting is that only parts of the gardens have been included by UNESCO as the World Heritage Sites, so there are certain areas inside of the gardens that were not included. I wonder what was the reason for that...
The gardens are enormous in size, spanning 82 hectares (approximately 203 acres) and featuring more than 10,000 species of flora. Besides different types of trees and plants, there are waterfalls, cafes and playground zones within the gardens which makes it a cool place to spend an afternoon or a weekend at.
The national orchid garden located within the botanical gardens is home to the largest orchid collection of 1,200 species and 2,000 hybrids (according to Wikipedia, I did not personally count those). What I will say is that the entrance fee is definitely worth it. I am not a big fan of flora, plants, or trees, but even I found this place to be really cool, with interesting floral exhibitions and designs. You can see some of the photos taken inside of the orchid garden below.
I also visited another park in the city near the MacRitchie Reservoir because I have read that there are monkey roaming around in the wild. Intrigued I went to the trail in the search of the monkeys and found the whole family in one of the trees. Unfortunately, they were not too playful as they just sat in the tree messing around with each other. There were multiple signs around the trail saying not to mess with monkeys and not engage them, so I felt a little scared trying to antagonize them because apparently these monkeys can get pretty aggressive. So I had to settle for admiring them from afar and snapping few photos.
In conclusion, Singapore is a really unique city. Given the influences of various cultures which surround the city, Singapore is a hotpot of old and new, cheap and expensive, hot and ... well, nope, unfortunately there are no cold places there! There is no wonder that tourists flow to the city in search of new experiences. I wish the weather was a little cooler so that you could enjoy the city more, but it would be too perfect, wouldn't it! Not sure if I would ever make the trip back there again, or if I could live there, but being able to see and experience what Singapore has to offer is definitely a unique experience that I am glad I was able to enjoy!
