The adventure has started: A little taste of Singapore!

The long awaited adventure has finally started. We left on the 16th of September from Luxembourg, to our first stop: Singapore for 3 days.

Taking off from Luxembourg

Our flight was amazing! We flew from Luxembourg to Munich, where we had a 2 hour layover -- which was more than enough time to grab a beer and a quick lunch. From Munich we then flew right to Singapore, which was 11h.40 flight. We flew with Singapore Airlines, and I can only recommend them. The service was fantastic, really, there is nothing I would change: we got Champagne, 2 meals, 4 snacks proposed and even a hot towel. The in-flight entertainment is also very good and the food is tasty compared to the standard flight food -- On the menu we had fried noodles with chicken for dinner and an omelette with sausage for breakfast. Overall, it was a great experience to fly with them.

I had reserved two nights at the Mandarin Orchard Hotel in a deluxe room, located right on the famous Orchard road, and they were able to free us the room at 10 a.m., which was great as we were super jet lagged. The Mandarin Orchard Hotel does not only have a great location, the rooms are very spacious, the swimming pool is great for a cool off, and the breakfast is so nice! There are two buffets for the breakfast, both with different choices and located right next to each other, so you can easily switch between them. The breakfast has a lot of choices: Asian cuisine, Indian cuisine, and Western cuisine. If you book a room at the Mandarin Orchard Hotel, I would really recommend you to take the breakfast included.  

Marina Bay Sands, Gardens by the Bay, Chinatown (Buddha Tooth Relic Temple), Little India (Tan Teng Niah House), Arabic street (Masjid Sultan Mosque), National Museum of Singapore, light show of at the Marina, Clarke Quay, and Universal Studios.  

Day 1: As we were still very jet lagged, we wanted to take things slow and start discovering Singapore by a simple walk next to the famous Marina Bay Sand Hotel. We took the metro to go there, which is really a great way to get around Singapore if you don't want to spend too much. The metro is super clean and safe. You just need to buy a ticket for $1.80 per person and hop on.

We had a walk through the Marina Bay Mall, went up to the first floor and headed to the bridge taking us to the Gardens by the Bays! If you didn't already know, this is a magical place, with great views of the whole Marina and the Marina Bay Sands mythical hotel. Once arrived at the gardens, you can either take a shuttle to go to the different spots (flower dome, cloud forest...) but I would recommend walking. From the bridge to the flower dome and to the cloud forest it took us a beautiful 10 minute walk through the gardens which enabled us to discover many other beautiful spots. The tickets to enter the two places are at $28.00. Here are some insights of the flower dome and the cloud forest:

From there, we walked to Chinatown. This was about a 30 minute walk in total. Chinatown is very interesting to see -- especially the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. Everything is way cheaper. We went to eat to the food street in Chinatown, which I can recommend as well. Although it does not look very appealing at first. The food is very good and the prices are super cheap for Singapore. We ate a Wan Tan soup and a Pad Thai which we paid 10 dollars for including drinks.

Day 2: We wanted to see a little bit more of the inner city and decided to go to Little India and the Arabic part of Singapore.

Little India is very different from the rest of Singapore, both in a good way but also in a bad way (in my opinion). Little India is a very colourful place, with cute buildings, such as the House of Tan Teng Niah (see picture below). However, Little India is not very big and most importantly, not very clean compared to the rest of the city. There are a lot of street markets where the smells are not always very appealing. Although it is definitely not my favourite part of Singapore, it is very nice to visit in order to see something else. The colours of this part make it also very fun for people to take pictures.

From there, we walked 15 minutes to the Arabic streets -- a totally different place. Overall, I found it to be way more clean than Little India, however, also more expensive, due to the Masjid Sultan Mosque, making it more of a touristic place. The mosque is beautiful. Unfortunately, we could not enter as the prayers were going on, but its outside beauty was already enough. We took a drink right next to the Mosque, which I would probably not do again due to the high prices. I would recommend to walk a little further away from the Mosque to enjoy some Arabic tea or food.

On our way back we stopped at the Singapore National Museum, which was a great experience. We were still able to get in under the student price, which was $10. I would definitely recommend going to the museum if you are interested in the history of Singapore.

At night, we went to have a drink at the Marina to watch the light show which is every day at 8 and at 9. It lasts for 15 minutes. We took a drink at the Pelican restaurant, which is located with a great view on the Marina bay. It was also happy hour which sounded very appealing -- so we did not look at the menu and simply ordered. Do not do the same mistake. Although it was happy hour, we payed 22 dollars for a glass of wine, and 20 dollars for a beer, which we found very over exaggerated. Although the view is nice and the ambiance was nice, it was definitely not worth paying this price for two simple drinks.

Finally, we went to eat around the Clarke quay area which I found great. It is a great place to have a little drink at after your dinner, or even to party at if you are in the mood. This place is full of people, restaurants, bars, and nightclubs.

Day 3: For our last day we went to Universal Studios! Universal studios in Singapore is located on the Sentosa Island. It is about a 15 minutes drive by taxi from the Orchard road. Although the tickets are quite pricey -- 79 euros per person for a normal ticket -- it is definitely worth it! The roller coasters are not the best I have been on, but the shows, the 3D  and 4D attractions were amazing! Don't miss out on the transformers' ride, the mummy attraction, and the waterworld show! This place is also really great for kids (for the moms out there) :) 

Keep in mind that the food inside is really not tasty and is super expensive. Best is to take something from outside!

Our first Singapore trip is already over and have arrived in Sydney, but we will be back after our Australian adventure! I can't wait to share more things with you guys and give you more great tips. Let me know if you are interested in something specific!

Love,

Jil