About Singapore
Once a small trading post, Singapore was established as a British colony in 1819 by Stamford Raffles and quickly grew into a key port due to its strategic position on major shipping routes. After independence in 1965, it transformed rapidly into a global financial and trading hub.
Today Singapore is a sleek, ultra-modern city known for its skyline, efficiency and multicultural energy. Futuristic landmarks sit alongside historic neighbourhoods and bustling hawker centres, where some of the best food in the world is served at street level prices. Clean, green and impressively well-run — a city that feels both cutting-edge and deeply rooted. 🌆🍜
Brief trip around town
Arriving in Singapore saw us back in the warm weather, although it’s a funny thing, as we both immediately missed the cooler air of New Zealand. A very efficient passage through immigration and security and a quick uber equivalent, called Grab in Singapore, whisked us to Raffles.
After a well deserved lazy day around the pool on Tuesday by Wednesday we were itching to step foot outside Raffles and see something of Singapore. A quick chat with the concierge and she recommended the BIG Bus, hop-on / hop-off, we had done one of these before in the Blue Mountains in Oz, so already had the app. Perfect.
Gardens by the Bay
All aboard, and after just two stops we hopped off to visit the Gardens by the Bay, which includes two domes, the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest.
After a refreshment stop (we both had delicious milkshakes), we purchased tickets for both domes and decided to do the Cloud Forest first.
Around the gardens, cloud forest and flower dome
Around this time Nikki also spotted a prop from Jurassic Park, a Gyrosphere, she’s seen all the movies, some more than once, of course she has, and realised that Cloud Forest had a Jurassic theme.
Ooooo said Nikki, ohhhhh said Steve, and it became obvious very quickly that Nikki had bought Steve into a fully fledged Jurassic Park experience, dino’s included. It was actually very well done, the dinosaur bit, and included a fantastic winding walkway from the top down with a rainforest feel and waterfalls. You exit thru the shop, and Steve had to drag Nikki along to stop her buying some dinosour merch !
Jurassic weirdness
We then crossed over to the flower dome, which was also very beautiful, with some amazing cacti.
The Flower Dome holds the Guinness World Record for the largest glass greenhouse with over 1.5 million plants, and the Cloud Forest has one of the tallest indoor waterfalls.
Fowers of the Flower Dome
Back on the bus we decided to go almost all the way round and hop off and explore Little India. We almost didn’t find it due to some massive roadworks which blocked our way across the road, so we had to go a fair way around, but we eventually got there and it was worth a visit even though we were not planning on eating there.
We went there mainly to see some original shophouses, part of Singapore’s architectural heritage, mostly now selling either food, electronics, clothing including jeans for $6 (that’s about £3) and a few bars. If we had more time in Singapore we may have ventured back there, confident that Steve would have been able to get his Vindaloo.
We then headed back to the hotel in a taxi, it was now too late to get the bus, and after a quick change visited a Hawker’s market for Chicken Satay. It was basically a huge covered food market, a bit like Time Out places in various cities around the world, selling all sorts of very very cheap food. We did find some Chicken Satay, which was delicious, but our main meals were a little disappointing, but we didn’t expect much for $9 to be honest !!
We finished the evening, our last night already, with a nightcap at the Writer’s bar. Steve had a gin martini, Nikki a beer. We had a lovely day and Singapore was amazing, such a beautiful city, especially at night.
Hamish says ...
It’s almost getting repetitive, if not boring, to say that Singapore is yet another place on our grand adventure that we absolutely fell in love with.
The city is wonderfully vibrant, both at day and night, and what really makes it is the way you are envoleped by the warmth in the air, and the warmth of the people. Of course, it is all made even better when you can book into Raffles, which we covered in a separate post. We appreciate that we are very lucky to be able to embrace such luxury.
Steve felt another couple of nights there would have been great as it felt like we only scratched the surface. This time, Nikki agreed.
What's next
We head home!
Originally we were returning to London Stansted via Dubai on Emirates. However, events in the Middle East meant this was a risky proposition.
While we met many travellers like us who felt stuck where they were, Emirates were actually brilliant. About a week or so after the conflict started, they opened up rebooking at no charge, and included a panel of airlines that could be used. Our concierge (Julian at DiaAFlight), who helped organise our travel, contacted us to let us know about this and after a bit of to and fro managed to get us on Air France via Paris, completely by-passing the region. Only cost to us really was that we no longer had their courtesy chauffeur so had to book cabs in Singapore and Heathrow. Small price to pay compared to other traveller stories, as well as risk mitigation.
A few observations on this:
- Julian was worth his weight in gold as not only did he help us through this tricky situation, his knowledge and discounts really helped. If you are planning a trip like this, we would highly recommend.
- Emirates is way better than Air France!
Anyway, that is the end of 56 days travelling and a truly memorable experience. We will try and create a final summary post, assuming we can find the energy to do so. We hope you have enjoyed our stories, and welcome any feedback, good or constructive, about it all. Steve and Nikki xx.
2 Responses
We’ve loved following your journey and your blog, especially as we’ve not travelled in that part of the world.
If you loved Raffles you’d love Gleneagles and we might have to get you up here for a visit.
Thanks for sharing your journey!
Thanks Lynn, as you know we loved Glasgow last year, so will have to make plans!