Singapore - The city that never sleeps? 🌃

We got on our coach in Kuala Lumpur at 12 midday, we got off the coach in Singapore at about 10pm, it was a long ride! It did involve 3 stops and we had to get off for customs etc. which all went very smoothly but we were happy to arrive in Singapore.

We started the first day by heading to Chinatown and having a good look around the markets, Matt finally bought a new cap so all set for the sunshine again. There was lots of lovey street art all around which was very impressive. We then headed to the Singapore City Gallery, free to enter, it's filled with exhibits about how Singapore developed and how it plans to sustain itself in the future. It was very interesting, we spent a while there on a interactive thing where you could build your own city, trying to get the balance right between residential and commercial buildings and green space and attractions.

We the headed to see the Merlion, the official mascot of Singapore with the head of lion and the body of a fish, whichh sits on the edge of Marina Bay. After, we headed up onto the roof of the Esplanade, there's not many places in Singapore where you can go up somewhere for free but you can here. It's not very high but it gives good views of the Marina Bay Sands which I do think is a very strange looking building.

As a break from the city skyline and to get good use of our metro cards, which are needed to get around Singapore, we headed out to the Botanical Gardens. They're pretty big and have so many different areas to see. As seems to be tradition now when we get to any gardens, the heavy rain began as we arrived so we sheltered in a lovely photo exhibition of garden birds.

We headed back to Chinatown to eat in one of the food markets, it was lovely but my curry ended up being a lot spicier than I was expecting. We then carried on to Gardens on the Bay for one of their Garden Rhapsodys, which occurs every evening in the Supertree Grove. It does feel other worldy as you sit beneath these huge light up trees while music swirls around you, it's quite the experience! It's like the whole of Singapore comes alive at night, they know how to put on a show involving lights and water, I would definitely recommend exploring in the dark.

The next morning we popped to Little India, as it was right near where we were staying, and found more vibrant street art.  We then headed to the sea by walking over the Sentosa boardwalk to reach Sentosa Island, our aim was to get to the beach, but we ended up getting quite lost and walking all over the place! There are trails but they turned out to be tricky to follow. We also wanted to get specifically to Siloso beach as it was the only one on the Island which had been deemed safe to swim at again since a oil spill in June this year which caused quite a mess in the area. Anyway, we got there eventually and we had a good swim, the water was so warm.

After a good amount of beach time we wanted to see more of Gardens by the Bay in the light so headed back over there. There's so much see and explore, different garden areas, and plants. There's an area with hedges all shaped into native animals which I loved called Web of Life. As our flight was quite early the next morning we headed back to eat noodles on the roof of the hostel in the fading light.

I've been very impressed with Singapore, the whole city does feel quite futuristic. Its also the first place we've been where there had been endless free drinking water and free toilets. I know not all places can offer these things but when the weather is hot and you want to stay hydrated its a huge weight off your mind and you can just enjoy the city.

Lots of love,
Lisa and Matt 💕