We began our trip with a time-zone altering overnight flight and touched down in Singapore early the following day. After a rather exhausting and unintentional tour around the city’s metro system, we arrived at hotel no. 1… the Marina Bay Sands.
The first thing that hit us was the scale of the place. The expansive green water of the marina gives way to an enormous shopping mall complete with a canal and gondolas, a super casino, and exhibition centre! The hotel itself is split into three 55-storey towers, above which sits a large deck that connects the three towers and boasts a seriously impressive infinity pool, several restaurants and even a nightclub!
As we’d not had a lot of sleep on the plane, we dropped our bags and spent the rest of the morning enjoying the roof top pool and ordered Caesar Salads for lunch. Check in time arrived so we headed down to the lobby then back up to our room on the 42nd floor which was huge and had epic panoramic views of the marina and city sky line.
As the sun was setting we took a lovely walk around the Gardens by the Bay at the rear of the hotel. The gardens are famous for their vast number of tropical plants and flowers, as well as their tree like structures which double up as a light show at nighttime. There are also two large domed greenhouses; one with a Mediterranean climate and the other more like a rainforest. We had some tasty, if a little carb-rich tapas at a restaurant called Pollen which was inside the cooler of the domes, then pottered around rainforest one which had an amazing waterfall structure, you get a lift up to the top then walk down along a suspended walkway, which was very high! Before heading home, we watched the disco inspired light show at Supertree Grove and hit the hay!
The next day we ventured around the marina and into the CBD where I was mostly looking upwards at the skyscrapers rather than watching where I was going. Since our hotel didn’t include breakfast, Claire was getting hangry so I took us to a recommended brunch spot called Sarnies in Chinatown. It was busy but we managed to grab a table, some coffee and shared an açai bowl for starter. For mains, Claire had smashed avo on toast, and I had a tasty take on an Eggs Royale.
We then took in the sights of chinatown; it’s low-rise architecture, tightly packed streets, vendors and temples, in stark contrast to the CBD behind. The area was actually pretty cool and seemed a lot more authentic than the chinatowns I’ve been to previously, perhaps as it was less touristy and there weren’t Chinese restaurants on every corner!
From there, we jumped on the metro for a few stops up to Little India. The north side of the district felt quite dirty and wasn’t much to write home about, however we the area to the south of the Masjid Sultan Mosque, known as Kampong Glam, was very quaint with lots of brightly painted colonial buildings and palm lined streets. Just by the mosque we happened upon a local wedding ceremony taking place in the street during a tropical downpour, and then we stopped at a little spot playing funk and soul on Haji St, where we enjoyed a few beers and some good people watching! There are lots of bars, boutiques and places to eat here and the graffiti is decent too!
The next stop was the world famous Raffles Hotel, the home of the Singapore Sling cocktail. It was one of the first hotels in Singapore and at the time of its construction opened out directly onto the beach! Unfortunately the main hotel has been closed for over a year as it’s been undergoing a major refurbishment. We nipped to the gift shop for Claire’s mum, and then savoured two very expensive Singapore Sling’s at the recently re-opened Long Bar, where you eat peanuts and throw the shells on the floor!!
Back at the hotel we had hoped to take advantage of happy hour on the roof however this didn’t pan out as expected, although we did spot Steve Aoki in his dressing gown by the pool! We ended up heading out across the marina where we got well and truly soaked by an all mighty downpour and had to take shelter under a motorway bridge whilst the rain passed. We had heard good things about the street food stalls in Singapore, known as Hawkers, but the chicken satay and noodle dishes we had were not great. The rest of the evening was nice though, we walked around the marina taking in the city lights and upmarket bars and restaurants on the waterfront. Another night, another light show, this time involving water fountains and lasers in front of the Marina Bay Sands hotel. We then had late night Pina Coladas served in coconuts at our roof top pool to get another perspective of the city at night!
The following day we had a flight, so we got up early, had breakfast by the pool then took a lovely boat trip up the Kallang river where we travelled through the other Quays, learnt about Singapore’s heritage and some of its important historical landmarks. When we returned to land, grabbed our bags and set off for Bali!
An impressive city, super clean, lots to do but also very expensive and maybe lacked a little character, staying at Marina Bay Sands was certainly a tick on the bucket list.
If you like Piña Coladas... 