How we spent 2 days in Singapore

For my 40^th birthday present to myself I planned a trip to the Far East and Australia for me and Amy. The first port of call was Singapore, and we couldn’t have been more excited. This is how we spent 2 days in Singapore!

After a long flight, we landed in the early evening with our body clocks being all over the place. We left London in the evening, flew for 13 hours, and landed in the evening the next day! Aside from a shower and a bite to eat, we decided to rest and get a good night’s sleep. We wanted to start our first full day as fresh as possible. We had 2 days in Singapore to play with.

Day 1

After a dip in the hotel pool to wake up, we had a snack and headed off to the MRT station. Our first destination was Chinatown. We saw the Sri Mariamman Temple which is the first Hindu temple in Singapore. The detail on the temple was amazing.

We had a really good wander about Chinatown, through the narrow streets and street food areas. Sadly, not many were open as it was still quite early in the morning. One thing I did notice about Chinatown was the awnings over the shopfronts were very low. I did bash my head a couple of times, so something to watch out for!

Next, we stumbled upon the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple (catchy name, right?). We took a bit of time to explore here and were amazed by the detail of the Buddhist features inside.

From there we walked to Clarke Quay as it was getting near lunchtime. I also needed to cool off as the humidity was getting silly. I’m not ashamed to say that my clothes were soaked with sweat by this point! There were lots of bars and restaurants around the river’s edge in Clarke Quay, so we had plenty of choice for lunch. There are also boat trips available cruising on the Singapore river, and this is something we’ll try to enjoy on our next visit.

Me and Amy were suitably fed and watered after lunch, so we thought we’d follow our noses and try to find the Raffles Hotel. Like most tourists, we had the romantic idea of going to their Long Bar and having a Singapore Sling cocktail. It was a relatively short walk from Clark quay, taking about 20 minutes or so. Unsurprisingly we were soaked again by the time we walked into the Long Bar.

We wanted to visit the home of the Singapore Sling cocktail, where it was first created in 1915 by a Raffles bartender. The bar itself was made of solid wood and had a very decadent feeling to it. I really liked the ceiling fans everywhere that moved slowly but continuously. We had a couple of Singapore Slings each (beware, very expensive at around £19 each currently) and then decided to head off again. It was full of tourists, but everyone was in good spirits. The only thing I was slightly disappointed in was that the bar had many Singapore Slings already made up waiting on the bar to be ordered. Kind of took some of the magic away.

As we were already sweating, we thought we’d continue to walk onwards. We walked past the Singapore Flyer and onto the helix bridge towards the Marina Bay Sands. We chose not to do the Singapore Flyer as the queues looked substantial and it went on the list of things to do on our next visit.

If you’ve been to Vegas and explored the Venetian Hotel and Casino, you will see a lot of similarities. Both are owned by the Sands Corporation and have very similar themes and signage. Both are absolutely huge too! We spent the rest of the day scoping out the resort and shopping mall, before having a well-deserved shower ready for the evening.

To be honest, we were dehydrated, jet-lagged and running on adrenaline. For this reason, we stayed local in the Marina Bay area for our evening of eating and drinking. We powered through to midnight and then went to bed. Our thinking was to try to get our body clocks back on to something like normality.

Day 2

The next day we started with a dunk in the pool again. The humidity was still off the chart even early in the morning, so having a bit of time on the pool (and jacuzzi) was delightful. We had a buffet brunch in the hotel before deciding to explore the perimeter of the Marina. Once again it was a sunny, sweaty walk, but we didn’t care. Singapore is an amazing place and is very clean and tidy. We didn’t see any graffiti, litter or beggars.

Halfway around the Bay and walking over the Esplanade bridge, we found the Merlion. The Merlion has the head of a lion and the body of a fish and is the symbol of Singapore. We then continued anti-clockwise until we got back to the Marina Bay Sands. Directly behind the complex are Gardens by the Bay.

Gardens by the Bay was something that was definitely on our list. It is a huge park at 250 acres, so there is plenty to see. Best of all, access to the garden is free of charge. Some of the attractions there do carry an admission fee (such as the OCBC skyway, cooled conservatories and supertree observatory) but there is so much to see that costs nothing. After a good walk around, we needed to duck back into the hotel to the welcome relief of air conditioning!

By this point, it was time to get ready for our trip to the airport. Our hotel had given us access to the fitness club where we had yet another shower before getting into our travelling clothes. We jumped in a taxi and set off for Changi airport, wishing we had had more time in Singapore. There were lots we wanted to see and do but simply didn’t have enough time to do it all justice. If there is one takeaway from our trip, it would be to stay for at least 4 days. The heat and humidity make your pace slower, so more rest is needed. We would have liked to have spent time on Sentosa island, ridden the Singapore Flyer, and seen Little India. We also missed out on a hawker centre visit too. Maybe next time!

2 Days in Singapore

So this was how we spent 2 days in Singapore, and I reckon we needed more time! There is loads more to see and do that we simply didn’t have the time to do during our stay. Singapore is the obvious layover choice for a trip to Australia, but it’s definitely worth considering a visit as a destination in its own right. You won’t be disappointed!

Next stop: Sydney!