SEA 2023 (14/17) – Singapore: Itinerary

This was the third time Hong and I arrived in Singapore together. It was familiar to us and almost like a home away from home, but frankly that complacency got the best of us. I did not properly study my logistics ahead of time and expected to just roll through immigration like we owned the place. Oops that didn’t work. The entry form had gone online, which we would’ve much appreciated if we had just spent 30 minutes on the home computer prior to the trip. The airport did supply a number of tablets for this purpose, but there was a queue because we weren’t the only under-prepared visitors. Thank goodness to mobile data, we were able to scan the QR code and fill it out on my phone. The half-hour delay wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I was embarrassed feeling like an idiot who forgot that countries had borders.

Day 11

Walking out of that airport, we got into a cool taxi van with blue interior mood lighting. The $50 SGD fare was a sticker shock – while still not bad compared to the Bay Area, it was 3-4x higher than comparable service in Thailand, and an order of magnitude more expensive than songthaews.

A short ride later, we arrived at InterContinental Singapore at Bugis Junction. Not a diss to Nakaraj Princess but this was a far more comfortable hotel. We had exchanged Hong’s remaining IHG points balance for 3 nights here, and felt grateful that they agreed to let both our kids stay (most standard rooms in Asia had a capacity of 3, and the nearby Andaz was adamant about it being a hard limit). Stepping into this InterContinental was another “moving up in the world” moment. We had stayed nearby in prior visits and walked through Bugis quite a bit. We distinctively remember seeing this hotel and thinking that it wasn’t something we could afford. Nine years and several credit card applications later, how we saw travel had completely changed.

It was late at this point. Like, almost 10pm. But Zam Zam was still open for another 90 minutes! The kids were to find out what this halal restaurant meant to us as they followed us a few blocks to Arab Street for a late dinner. We didn’t eat a whole lot, but it was a great meal for nostalgia’s sake.

Day 12

Singapore was the first city on our trip where we did not have hotel breakfast included in the room rate… and we liked it that way, because why would we want hotel breakfast in Singapore?

Before walking the two blocks to reach our destination, we got distracted by a vending machine that freshly squeezed orange juice. The oranges were refrigerated so the juice came out cold, unlike our morning refreshment in Dubai.

Breakfast was at YY Kafei Dian. The latter part of the name was simply Chinese for “coffee shop”, and was synonymous with “kopitiam”. There was a dreadful long line, but we learned that it was for rice noodles take out dabao. We came for kaya toast, so we went to a separate counter to order. The breakfast combo included kaya toast in an Hawaiian roll, two hardly boiled runny eggs, and a kopi (coffee) or teh (tea). Hong and I found a deeper appreciation for kaya toast this time around than during our first visit, and Xuan fell in love with that stuff.

We continued toward CBD, crossed Singapore River, walked all the way around Marina Bay, stopping in a hotel for some AC, and sped through the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands (the mall). We were horrified to find the Merlion covered up for maintenance, but relieved to read that it was scheduled to reopen on our last day. We knew the Singaporeans took their time commitments seriously, so chances were good that Xuan and Ting still had a chance to see it.

I was impressed to find how small this downtown waterfront was, now that our kids were capable walkers as opposed to dead weight in a stroller. Since we wrapped up this part of town so quickly, we hurried along to Singapore Flyer, hoping to beat the crowd.

We didn’t love that in order to ride the gigantic Ferris wheel, we had to pay for and walk through Time Capsule, a Singaporean history museum at its base. It was mildly entertaining and educational. The AC was great, though.

When we reached the actual Ferris wheel, guests remained sparse and we had a whole pod to ourselves (like last time). The official website offered private capsules for $1,500 SGD, so it seemed like a steal that we got our private space for a mere admission price of $130 SGD.

After spending the 30 pleasant minutes in the air and an equal amount of time in the gift shop, we moved on to Little India. We had lunch at a very popular vegetarian restaurant called Komala Vilas, before shopping in Mustafa Centre. We tried looking for some camel milk so the kids can try it, but it was unfortunately out of stock.

While the Singapore MRT system itself was world-class, I thought it was relatively inconvenient for tourists to purchase tickets. The automated kiosks were no good for purchasing new EZ-Link cards or reloading them without a Singaporean bank account. There was no single-ride tickets. And EZ-Link offices were further away from the subway entrances than one might expect. If we had to deal with this system while running to the train station in Bangkok, we’d have missed our train.

From Little India, we walked a mile in the early afternoon heat back to our hotel, where the kids enjoyed the pool while Hong and I sipped on some unique beverages.

Before-dinner dessert took place at Nana’s Green Tea, just across the street from the hotel. It became the first dessert chain that we had visited in 4 different countries. I could taste my A1c rising with each spoon of the matcha parfait, but yum.

The post-dessert dinner was at Newton Food Centre. Lots of deja vu. We explained to the kids what we loved about Singaporean hawker centers, and ordered a bunch of dishes from our first visit. The char guay teow did not meet expectations, but the grilled stingray was far more delicious than what we remembered.

What followed was an even more embarrassing episode of under-preparedness than the immigration fiasco at the airport. We called a Grab car to Night Safari, aiming to get there at a good hour. Upon arrival, we learned that admission was restricted to people with timed entry reservations, and the next 1.5 hours of time slots that night had all been taken. We did not make a prior reservation so this trip was wasted, and we had to immediately find another car to head back to town. I was able to buy tickets for the next evening during that ride, so not all was lost. But that hour of joy ride to and from the zoo was a real silly waste of time and money.

We spent the rest of the day at Gardens by the Bay and the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands before walking back to the hotel.

Honorable mention: Hong got to check out this $$$$ saddle-shaped Dior bag up close.

Day 13

InterContinental Singapore was connected to Bugis Junction, a mall, which was connected via pedestrian bridge and underground tunnels to other malls. As such, we got plenty of exposure to stuff before even having to step out into the elements. This morning, we witnessed the setup of a partnership promotional event for Irvins (yummy but the most expensive chips ever) and Gudetama (the Sanrio egg character).

From there, we took 25 steps to Toast Box, a modern breakfast chain serving kaya toast, kopi, and teh.

After breakfast, we went to Sentosa, Singapore’s resort island. We came here mostly to recreate some memories, and were a little sad that its gigantic Merlion and some other facilities had been demolished.

One attraction in Sentosa was Palawan Island, the “Southernmost point of Continental Asia”. This cute little piece of islet was connected by a bridge to the Sentosa Island, which was connected by a bridge to the Singapore Island, which was connected by a bridge to Malaysia and therefore the rest of Continental Asia. This marketing proclamation failed pretty miserably, though, because a large chunk of Sentosa remained further south than Palawan Island.

The most incredible thing we found in Sentosa had to be a 7-Eleven in a trailer on the beach. It had two Slurpee machines, too, which was exactly what we needed.

Then we stopped by to check out Resorts World, which had a Singapore-themed LEGO store. We spent a good chunk of time here, admiring a fantasy model of Sentosa and a Merlion statue. It was a bummer that they didn’t sell any Singapore exclusive LEGO model (imagining a 500-piece LEGO Ideas Merlion).

Lunch took place right next door in “Malaysian Food Street”, a themed indoor hawker center. It gave off strong Vegas vibes with realistic looking facades of Peranakan store fronts, with exactly one vendor selling each type of famous street food. There was AC, which perhaps made it somewhat superior to the more legit hawker centers during lunch time. Its poorly designed and buggy digital ordering system really frustrated me, though.

After leaving Sentosa, we made a quick stop in Orchard Road – not for any high-end shopping, but instead for the other Nana’s Green Tea location. As opposed to the standard setup in a standalone cafe, this one had a large seating area in the middle of a mall. Compared to the other location, this place also had a more comprehensive menu including the black sesame parfait.

On the way to the SMRT, we stumbled upon a Mr. Bean counter in the underground walkaway. I remember being amazed by its watermelon soy milk at a random Chinatown location which ceased to exist. It brought me a lot of joy to come across another Mr. Bean, so I bought two cups of that stuff without hesitation.

After the kids got their dip in the pool, we had dinner at Lau Pa Sat. It was alright. We got there too early, before they blocked car traffic to make the most amazing satay in the street. Without it, Lau Pa Sat was merely an indoor hawker center where buses dropped off hundreds of tourists at a time. Unfortunately, we couldn’t defer dinner because we had that timed entry to Night Safari.

The Night Safari was a logistically challenging zoo. Timed entry aside, it was hard to take photos due to the low-light condition, and waiting over an hour in the dark for the tram ride could get frustrating. I would recommend skipping the tram and just walking the trails at your own pace, except that the two overlapped only partially and some of the coolest animals could only be seen from the tram.

The otherwise tolerable Disneyland-esque queuing turned into the absolutely worst experience thanks to the large family (in terms of both # of belly buttons and size of bellies) in line right behind us. The kids were entirely manner-less monkeys running all over the place despite the thousands of people in line around them. The adults were hardly any better. All of them regularly pushed forward to a point where they’d step on my flip flops and their bellies would hit my back. On a few occasions they also intentionally tried to cut in line by walking around us (yes, in the single file between ropes).

I volunteered to stay in the back to use my NYC-level passive aggression to protect my family, but the utter lack of success really got to me after a while. I pushed my elbow back to keep these people at bay, and several times had to poke the mom fairly deep into her chest. I held an umbrella and a GoPro as sticks to guard my personal space, but those people jammed into them so often that my hands got tired. After the (big) little girl kicked me so many times, I picked up my foot and put it back down, with force. Her foot had got to hurt for the next 5+ minutes but that was still not enough of a lesson to maintain distance! Arg! I even had to fully extend my arm a couple times to physically push back members of their family from cutting in line! Regardless, the sweaty skin contact, stepping on my shoes, and kicking my feet continued for the entire hour. I confronted the dad about him needing to stop breaking my shoe and, guess what? Within a minute his (big) little daughter stepped on me again. It was unbelievable… and what a shame that we had to spent more energy defending against assault than enjoying the zoo.

Nevertheless, the Night Safari was cool. It was a unique experience, and the kids considered it one of their favorite memories.

Day 14

With the Merlion reopen to the public, we did our obligatory visit between two kaya toast breakfasts (at Ya Kun and Toast Box). Then we went to the airport for a final hurrah… read about that in a separate post!

Southeast Asia 2023 – Index

1. Kicking Off 15 Intensely Fun Days in Thailand and Singapore
2. Attempting the Thai Language
3. Modes of Transportation
4. Bangkok: Grand Hyatt Erawan
5. Bangkok: Itinerary 1
6. Bangkok: Itinerary 2
7. Bangkok: Malls
8. Overnight Train to Chiang Mai
9. Chiang Mai: Itinerary
10. Chiang Mai: Elephants!!!
11. Chiang Rai: Itinerary
12. Wats in Thailand
13. Notable Eats in Thailand
14. Singapore: Itinerary
15. Singapore: Deja Vu
16. Singapore: Changi Airport & Flight Home
17. Notable Eats in Singapore