Whenever I’ve asked anyone what Singapore is like the only answers I’ve ever received are ‘clean’ and ‘modern’ making it sound a bit dull so I wasn’t in a hurry to visit and missed it out on my last travels. I’d also read it was expensive which was another thing putting me off but this time as I was in Indonesia I thought I’d pop by old Singers.
The price of accommodation is more expensive than in Asia generally but there were cheap backpacker hostels available however I opted for one of the cheapest hotels on the booking site. It was in Geylang which is apparently a ref light district but this seemed to consist of a few adult shops, a number of blokes selling a variety of pills from street tables and a couple of bored looking women at night so you certainly shouldn’t be put off from staying here. The Hotel room was small but at £31 a night it was a bargain as it was clean, modern and around 10 minutes walk to the MRT so reasonably priced accommodation is certainly available.
Once I arrived it struck me I had no idea what was here so searching google it seemed the most famous thing is Merlion so I took the MRT to near there. It was an impressive statue but I couldn’t find its baby that apparently was built a few years ago so maybe it grew up and left.
From here I caught the open top hop on hop off bus. There’s a number of companies do I opted for Funvee which is basically half the price of the others. As they all drive round the same city there didn’t seem any point in paying double. Plus this bus had 3 different routes and the ticket lasted 24 hours. I even hopped off twice once because I was so hungry and once to try and find an observation floor that the commentary mentioned. Sadly I failed to find it and got back on. When I got back on after food I accidentally got on another route which was a good mistake as the first one had almost finished it’s route and it meant I got a different loop of the city. There wasn’t actually a lot to see but it was quite interesting to hear a bit of history of Singapore and I did see some temples in Chinatown that I returned to the next day. View from the bus:
Singapore has the feel of a small town rather than a major capital city and Clarke Quay reminded me of New Orleans, not that I’ve ever been to New Orleans so that was pretty strange. It seems to be the tourist place to go and take photos and I met this obligation both during the day and at night.
Chinatown was another interesting place with some great bargains. How I resisted 6 selfie sticks for 10 Sgd I’ll never know. About one British pound for a selfie stick.
And finally the food pictures. Just 2 stops on the MRT from my hotel was VeganBurg a great place selling vegan burgers funnily enough. There was a choice of about 10 different burgers that could be made into a meal by adding a drink and fries (their word not kind) or broccoli. Who on earth would choose broccoli when you could have chips!! The mind boggles. They also had vegan ice cream and brownies both of which are highly recommended. As it was so good here I had my dinner here both nights.
