Singapore - June 2023

 02-June-2023

We visited Singapore in the month of June 2023. We had been to Singapore almost 10 years ago and we decided to visit again. Our flight was departing from Bengaluru airport around 11 PM and we arrived in airport at 8:30 PM.

We arrived in Changi Airport early morning around 6:45 AM. After completing immigration formalities, we decided to first visit Jewel which is easily accessible from the airport terminal through and monorail. We did take a local SIM card from the terminal before leaving the place.

Jewel doesn't open very early. We walked around the place and around 10 AM some of the shops opened so we decided to have our breakfast here before leaving the place. We had booked Holiday Inn near Clarke Quay. We decided to just take the metro to go to hotel. 

If you are 3-4 people then taking metro is not always the cheapest option. The best approach is to have one of the local ride sharing apps. The only issue we found that these apps did not accept forex card so we had to use our India credit cards or get some cash.

We rested in hotel for few hours since our night was completely spend in flight and we did not get much sleep.

In the night we decided to visit the area around Marina Bay Sands.

After spending time at Gardens by the bay, we took a metro to go to Little India to find some food there. After that we took the metro back to our hotel and retired for the day.

04-June-2023 This day we had planned to visit the areas around Bird Paradise and Night Safari. Bird paradise, even though like a zoo, is pretty well designed and is a good place to visit. I would not confuse it with a proper bird sanctuary where birds come on their own but it still is worth it. There is a pretty good show also which happens every half an hour so one should not miss it.

After bird paradise, we had booked tickets for night safari. This is not that great but since it is close by to Bird Paradise and it is at night when pretty much everything else closes. one can visit it.

The night safari finished around 10:00 PM and we took a cab back to hotel. The cab fares were around 40 SGD either way, but we were six people, and we booked a six-seater cab so it came out pretty much same price as taking metro.

05-June-2023 This was the day to checkout from mainland and check into Hotel Village in Sentosa. The resort check-ins are generally around 1PM, so we decided to checkout from Holiday Inn and leave our luggage with the hotel there and visit Marina Bay Sands again for some of the places that we had missed visiting on the first day.

We visited Merlion, Art Museum and bunch of other places before walking to Nalan restaurant near Singapore city hall. They had good Indian food. After lunch, we went back to Holiday Inn and picked our luggage and left for Sentosa.

We arrived in Hotel Village around 8 PM and checked in. There is a very good Indian Hotel Royal Taj just outside the hotel. The only issue is that they open at lunch and dinner time. So if you are a vegetarian, the breakfast becomes huge problem in Hotel Village. 

We had our dinner in Hotel Royal Taj and retired for the day.

06-June-2023 This was the day for universal studio. We got ready, had our breakfast and were in Universal studio. We spent pretty much whole day in multiple rides. A point to note, if you intend to do Jurrasic Park ride, keep a change of clothes because there is a good chance you would get wet and your shoes will also get wet.

It was evening when we got out but we decided to try to reach the Wings of Time show since we had no other slot available. We reached on time and were able to see the show.

After the show, we came back to the hotel and retired for the day. 

07-June-2023 The next day we got ready and decided to do Skyline Luge the first things in the morning. After skyline luge, we took a round trip in Cable car. It offers a good view of whole Singapore. Then we checked out from Hotel Village and checked into Hotel Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa. For vegetarians like us, this is a much better hotel because there is a full-fledged vegan restaurant and the breakfast spread always has decent south Indian stuff.

08-June-2023 We had couple of more important things to visit on this day. After our breakfast, we went to S.E.A Aquarium. This is probably one of the best aquariums that I have seen. After the aquarium, we went back to our hotel.

09-June-2023 This was the last day in Singapore. Our flight was late in the evening. So as usual, we checked out and left our luggage at hotel. Then we decided to visit Madam Tussads. This place is not that great. I will visit it only if I have time. If you have time to spare, it is a must visit.

After finishing up with Madam Tussads, We went back to hotel, collected our luggage and reached airport. Singapore airport immigration exit is pretty smooth. There is a automated process so you don't even have to talk to a person. 

We arrived in Bengaluru around 10:30 PM. As usual we had our dinner at airport and then left for home.