Singapore Diaries

A View of Marina Bay Sands from the Singapore Flyer

A FINE CITY

Anand @Food Republic,Shaw House

Every holiday has that one person who makes it special. Well, our guardian angel was Anand Khandelwal who took on the mantle of our friend-philosopher-tour adviser, much before we even stepped on board our flight. So at the outset a big thankyou to Anand Khandelwal. Take a bow Sir.

These days, before every holiday (which are infrequent) and journeys (which are very frequent), to any new wonder-or-otherwise land, I always end up in a tizzy, with the logistics. There is so much information on the net and then there are friends and foes ever ready to chip in with a "friendly bit of advice". So I am beholden to add to the mele. Here's my tuppenny, a Singapore travelogue. Follow HyperLinks to access more websites. Click on Photos to enlarge

Legend 

🆒         :  Section Separator . (Scroll down to find the 🆒 one which suits you)

✋ 🚩   :  Stop Read this

🔥        :  Hot Tips

👉      :  Important Tips

👪     :  What Katy Did What we did

A break from the Navy and a 16th birthday called for a special holiday. Now my idea of a special holiday may have meant hours on the road to some remote corner of the country(albeit the end of the road had an AC room with cable, WiFi, a comfortable bed and chilled beer). My wife's would have been, to any exotic place in India, better still a village, in the lap of nature with animals and hours of DSLR moments (serious photography stuff - not my pouting/smouldering selfie type). My daughter's idea would be a trip to a Mall? Books? Dystopian/Extended Univ movies? Dunno? Chilling?(I still haven't figured out a teenagers ideal holiday package or what chilling actually entails). So we choose Singapore. Go figure.

Singapore evokes images of a fine city. Ok! That jokes been literally - umm -  flogged - to an inch of it's life. Anyway we had a fine experience in the fine city and did not get fined (or caned) in the process. Nope, that's flatter. Sigh! I guess, I have no future as a stand up. Better stay off humour for the time being and cut to the chase.

A Govt Building enroute Chinatown Pt

Singapore is one of the most tourist friendly destinations that I have been to. Even if you're Indian. Yes, Thailand was great, people were extremely welcoming,  very tourist friendly, awesome street food, relatively cheap, all great till, well - till you took a trip into a shopping mall especially any of the bargain basement shops.  See what I mean? At Singapore,  people are friendly, ya even fellow naturalised kith n kin. Infact, my experience, they go the extra mile. A camera store sold my wife a $50 filter for her camera and we almost ended up with  an expensive lens. All over a 15 minutes of a - Hi! Hello! - to a walk through (window shopping?!?!) customer.  The myriad Bakkawa shops from Chinatown Pt to pagoda street don't mind if you sample and taste their wares. Clear signboards to tell you where you are and what lies ahead. Even the local buses and bus stops carry a name and a reference number. If you loose your way in this ordered world someone will surely help you on your way. Yes, there's a sense of order. Sanitised and sometimes a bit too orderly at times. Like say, its so so so so green, but you'll never see an overgrown disorderly  bush. Even wild flowers have a sense of, trimmed and tended to, symmetry. ✋But beware 💲🔥Singapore is expensive🔥💲. Very expensive. So please don't walk around with a calculator multiplying S$ X 48.9 = ?? Rupees. It will cost, a bit - Ok a lot?

💲🔥 My guardian angels best tip - The City mapper app saved us lots in commuting. This amazing and Brilliant app is available for both Apple  and Android. It takes off from where Google maps left. Point to point, multi modal transportation. Bus MRT walking Cab. All the  combinations/options dumbed down for guys like me. It goes to the extent of telling you which section of the MRT train (Front, center or rear) to occupy. 🔥💲 

Freefalling @Trickeye 

I tell you why the 'Fine' city joke doesn't fly anymore. It is still a phenomenally clean city and I saw more janitors/house keeping personnel than Cops. But there are signs of change. Yes you do see occasional signs of littering and jaywalkers aplenty, and that's not limited to Little India. But beware, it is by no means cool to saunter across the road distributing popcorn graffiti. 

Post a trip to Ladakh, a couple of years back, I was convinced that there were only two types of tourists. Those who fell in love with Ladakh and those who wondered what's the big deal about the crumbling rocks. I must admit that I was getting ahead of myself. I was probably so overwhelmed by the breathtaking vistas and the arid beauty of a land seemingly crafted by God's own hands, that I forgot that it takes all kinds. The Bikers, the hikers and the Campers. The luxury getaway guys. The lonely solitude seeking guys. The family gang. The groupie gang.  The eat only the local food expeditionary. The eat only the familiar (home type) food conservatives.  The carry your  own meals guys. And finally the touch and go P gang (P = Present Sir - like students attending roll call. Yeah XYZ! Been there. Done that. Big deal! What do you mean, how many days?  Liked the place? Does that count!!) Oh, and so many dozen permutations there on. Each one right in anothers wrongs. Perspective. One man's meat -  another man's poison.

If you have the molah, and are nice enough to leave, Singapore caters for all palates. Almost.

Meat or vegetarian! Food, Yup! That's inevitably the centerpiece of my travels.  The point here is that like tourists, travelogues or blogs, come in just as many flavours. So here's the menu card for this one. Read through or scroll thru to the section of your choice(Stop and follow the embedded links):-

🆒    1.  Blah bblah bbla - that's just me rambling, in the beginning and throughout .....

🆒    2.  Planning the trip to Singapore - the research

Arab Street

🆒    3.  Travel Agent / Online Travel Portal / Plan it yourself ??? - the Budget

🆒    4.  How to apply for a Singapore Visa

🆒    5.  Choosing the Hotel / Room Type

🆒    6.  Things to Do

🆒    7.  Places to eat - vegetarians can breathe easy too  

🆒    8.  Tips and Trivia  - Time n Travel 

🆒    9.  Places to shop 

🆒   10. My Place of Stay - Hotel Village, Bugis 

🆒  11.  My Itinerary 

🆒  12.  Getting to Singapore - The Chennai - layover

So the meat, my meat, my perspective,  is here. I admit that a few days does not do justice to any place. But then a tourist has, but, a few days. So this is what we did, in our quota of a few days. And what a blast we had. So Will I return as a tourist? Most definitely yes, but not before I have covered more ground, at home in India and across the yonder.

Maxwells Food Centre

The options for travel, stay and entertainment are many. Your best friend is the internet. Whatever you choose, I suggest you spend a while on researching the place you want to experience. Say a zoo may have many shows, but there may be a show you may want to see or miss, so plan the visit around the show timing. Other than the attraction opening time, it may be ideal to visit the place at a particular time - say, I would recommend the Singapore Flyer in the evening. 

Now I get to the nuts and Bolts part. Refer to the sections below if you want to travel to Singapore or are just plain curious and / or bored. Otherwise Cheerio till my next Blog  

2. Planning the trip to Singapore.

OK so you have chosen the destination. Thats bigger than the"what to cook" dilemma! Good going! Now chose the means to organise your holiday. The local travel agent or an online resource.  Do net in with previous travelers and friends in Singapore and sites like Trip Advisor. The number of things to do in Singapore is mind boggling and all activities may not be to your taste. For example, everybody likes to visit Sentosa. However, to save time, we preferred to do Universal Studios,  SEA Aquarium and Trickeye museum on one day and left out the rest of the Sentosa attractions.

✋ 🚩 Also please remember to 🔥cater for days lost in transit🔥.
👉 A 6 day 5 night trip is actually 5 days/nights  (the travel agents  count Day 1 as the first day  and not each completed 24 Hrs) and it  finally amounts to only 4 full days. The first day is lost in reaching the hotel and checking in and making yourself comfortable. The last day is lost to checking out and transit to the airport. So 6 days = actually 4 days.

Batik clothes at @Arab street

👉 If you add KL to your package, one day (6 hours or so to be precise) is spent in transit between the two cities.

👉 But Day 1 can be gainfully utilized. For example I would recommend an evening/ night activity on the first day. Like the Night safari or Singapore Flyer or Gardens by the Bay.

👉 If you choose a cruise, then drop a similar activity. Say night views off the Marina.

      ✋🔥 I suggest that you keep at least one/two days spare to make up for last minute shopping or for some repeat/missed attraction.
✋ 🚩 Early Check in : Remember Check In Time is usually 2:00pm and Check out 1200pm
✋ 🚩  Late night/Early morning Flights:  If you are saving a bundle by using a late night flight. You may end up paying for a Day extra if you reach your Hotel early. Talk to them directly before hand-they may accommodate you at a nominal charge. Don't land up early at the Hotel and expect a free/discounted early check-in

👉 Plan to do your minor purchases like SIM card on day 1 (ID Proof : passport)

(If you see a jump break at this point : CLICK BELOW ON THE READ MORE>> FOR THE COMPREHENSIVE STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO PLAN YOUR TRIP)