Three days in Singapore was my idea of mixing things up on this trip. Just a two hour flight south of Bangkok is the city state of Singapore. I figured that it would be some cleaner version of Thailand, but we quickly learned its much more closer to a hot and humid Japan.
It seems like everyday there the weather is threatening to rain, and everyone carries an umbrella with them. This leads some extreme moisture outdoors and constantly fogged up my glasses and camera lens when stepping out onto the street. Thankfully our hotel, the Sheraton Towers had umbrellas for use and so we always grabbed one when we left, which was nice because the forecast called for rain but didn’t want to buy an umbrella just for the trip.
Singapore has a pretty good public transportation which we took from the airport into the city, but to get around most of the time we bought passes on the Hippo hop on/hop off bus to take us around the city for two days. It did its job of giving us an audio tour while we were on the bus, and gave us the freedom to get off when we near something we wanted to see.
The main tourist attraction for us was eating around town, with the biggest spot. Singapore is famous for their hawker stalls which are basically outdoor food courts that serve up traditional foods. The first place we visited was Newton food court where we had some Laksa which is pretty spicy to have for breakfast and Fish Ball Soup which was kind of bland. Next up was Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice at Maxwell Food Centre, which was featured on No Reservations and highly reviewed by many food sites. It was good, but i still prefer the Thai version of it.
Our favorite thing we found there was the Kaya Toast and soft boiled eggs. Its basically toast with Kaya (coconut jam) and butter that you eat with soft boiled eggs, soy sauce and pepper.
We did take in the local sites by taking a walk around the Singapore Botanic Gardens, grabbing a drink a top the KU DE TA the Sands Hotel, and of course taking a picture with the merlion.
Shopping and drinking were extremely expensive throughout the city and even more on Orchards Road. Drinks ran a premium with beers costing at least $8, a jug for $32 and cocktails at least $15.
