Singapore travel

Singapore Trip

This is my last travel post from my big trip last year. As I’m writing this post, it would’ve been exactly a year since the start of our Europe trip. Singapore was our very last stop. We had a week here which was longer than our stay in other places but we wanted to unwind and have a more chill time at our last destination before going home.

We did a decent amount in Singapore so here’s what we got up to on our final week on holiday.

We travelled from Rome to Singapore and our flight was around 12 hours. We landed at Changi T3 around 6am.

Arrival / Day 1:

We took the MRT to our hotel and we stayed at Mercure Singapore on Stevens. I’ll share more on our hotel later but this hotel was close to Orchard Road and had two pools! When we got to our hotel, it was still too early to check into our room but we asked and we were able to use the pool and gym showers. It was a good way of waiting until our room was ready. After a long flight, it was nice to get in the pool to relax. It started raining but it was actually quite nice because it got cooler.

After our dip in the pool, we had a shower then ventured off to Orchard Road. We ended up in the food court inside Tang Plaza. We had our first char kway teow which is Max’s favourite dish and clay pot rice. We also walked around and checked out some shops.

We were getting tired and feeling the lack of sleep on the plane so we went back to our hotel to relax. We had a nap and decided to stay close for dinner.

Just outside our hotel are a few restaurants. One of them was Enjoy Eating House & Bar. We went here for dinner. We had chicken satay and BBQ pork cheek. We also had Chendol panna cotta. The green on top is pandan noodles. It was good! This was a great first dinner.

Afterwards, we checked out the 2nd hotel pool and had a dip there before going to bed. It was relaxed day which we needed after travelling.

Day 2

For our second day, we took the bus and headed towards Clarke Quay.

Our first stop was to try the famous Ya Kun Kaya toast. This didn’t disappoint and I had to buy kaya toast spread to take back home with me.

Then we ended up walking along Clarke Quay river towards downtown area.

We ended up at Lau Pa Sat which is one of the hawker centres Max had on his list. Max has been to Singapore a few times for work. He absolutely loves it here especially the food/hawker centres. It was my first time here. I was glad he can take over and plan some spots we should check out. This was one of them.

After lunch at Lau Pa Sat, we walked towards Merlion Park. We had to come see the Merlion while we were here and it had a good view of Marina Bay Sands too. It was so hot and humid so instead of walking, we took the bus towards Gardens by the Bay.

We got tickets to both Flower Dome and Cloud Forest.

Flower Dome was cool. I thought it would be bigger but it was still a nice place to walk around in and check out plants and flowers. There were so many roses!

Cloud Forest was much cooler and I enjoyed this place more. It was bigger and the waterfall is quite tall! I loved the views. It’s also cool that there’s a little piece from NZ in the Cloud Forest. Look out for Tāne Te Waiora Kūwaha if you’re there.

I enjoyed going to both. They’re both pretty cool and different. If you do have to choose between one, I’d go for Cloud Forest. I love how green Singapore is. Plants love and thrive so well in the humidity.

Afterwards, we walked to Supertree Grove which is a popular spot in Singapore. If you’ve watched the movie Crazy Rich Asians (I did rewatch this on the plane), you will know this spot and it’s a popular tourist attraction. These were pretty cool to see in person. It’s different during the day and they’re even better at night time.

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, had a dip in the pool before heading back out for dinner.

The hawker centre of choice this night was Newton Food Centre. We got the famous cereal prawns which was delicious and chai tow kway or ‘carrot cake’ white radish dish. We also tried sugarcane juice which was also yum. This hawker centre had some stalls that got Michelin stars so it’s a pretty popular spot.

Day 3

The start of day 3 was more relaxed. Max slept in and I decided to check out the hotel breakfast buffet.

Asian hotel breakfast buffets are so superior. The selection was great and these sticky colourful treats called nonya kueh were so good! Afterwards, we had another dip in the pool before going out.

We ended up going to Singapore Botanic Gardens. This is a huge garden/park in Singapore. It’s free to enter except for the National Orchid Garden. It’s 165 years old and is honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The plants in Singapore are next level. They grow so big! It’s amazing to see. There were also a few lizards in the park and little squirrels. We spent quite some time here and it was so hot and humid. We went back to the hotel, got in the pool and relaxed before dinner.

This night’s dinner was exciting. We went back to Lau Pa Sat but this time for Satay Street. Every night from 7pm, they close down this street and it’s lined with multiple satay vendors. They mostly sell the same things but each stall may have different prices / popularity. Tbh, it was quite overwhelming. It was hot, smoky and busy. I got Max to choose which stall while I got us some drinks. The prawns were so good!!! I wish I can have these prawns again. We smelled like smoke afterwards so we went home and called it a night.

Day 4

It was a slow start to our day again. Since we were here for a week, we could relax, take the mornings slower and plan our day from around 10-11am onwards. I had another dip in the pool as Max had a call. When he finished, we went back to Orchard, had lunch at Tangs food court again then headed to the zoo.

Singapore Zoo was amazing! They had so many animals and we loved our time there. They even had a Komodo dragon.

My favourite area was the big enclosure where you can get up close with squirrels, birds, sloths and bats. We could almost touch them. It was so cool!

Getting back to Orchard Rd after the zoo was a bit of a mission. The zoo is around 30mins by car or 1hr by public transport. We never took a taxi/Grab while we were there and used public transport instead.

When we got back to Orchard Road area, we went to Lucky Plaza. This area has a lot of Filipino food stalls, including Jollibee. I didn’t need to go to Jollibee anymore since I had it in Milan and Rome so we opted lechon instead and Max got to try mais con yelo for the first time. This was one of my favourites when I was younger.

Afterwards, we were exhausted from our zoo adventures so we went home and had a dip in the pool before going to bed.

Day 5

I booked an activity for us on this day. I’m sad to say that SingapoRewards have finished but at the time of our trip, anyone travelling to Singapore as a tourist was able to book cool activities for free. I found this out quite late so most activities like the Zoo breakfast encounter, cooking classes and river cruise were fully booked but I was able to book this cool activity anyway.

We went to Ooh La Lab to have a perfume making workshop. We were able to mix and develop our own fragrance which was pretty awesome. We got to choose all the different notes, figure out the percentage of each note that we wanted and mix it all together. Once done, we got to take home a 20ml bottle. We also got to name our fragrance ourselves.

This was a free activity through SingapoRewards. It would’ve been $120 per person but thanks to their tourist scheme at the time, we got to enjoy this for free. We also got to take home our own fragrance as a great souvenir of our Singapore trip. I named mine SG23 to remember this trip. Max named his Seletar Breeze. Seletar is an area in Singapore.

After our perfume workshop, we took the bus and headed towards another hawker centre for lunch. The area near Maxwell Food Centre had some cute buildings.

We had lunch at Maxwell Food Centre. Food in Singapore was so cheap. The meal in the middle photo was $4NZ! We also finally had some Hainanese chicken rice. Some of the stalls in Maxwell were known for their Hainanese rice and the lines were super long.

As we were eating, I realised we were close to Coach Play.

Coach Play Singapore Shophouse is a cool concept store. It has a cafe on the ground floor, a vintage Coach section and installation showing the brand history at the top level. I’ve never seen a Coach store like this before.

The design and aesthetic of this store is beautiful. I also ended up buying my first brand new Coach store bag here. I love Coach and I have a few in my collection already but they were all secondhand. I haven’t bought one from an actual store until this day. The service I received from this store was also amazing.

My sales associate was awesome. I got to customise the bag tag for free and he gave me some freebies including an umbrella. I got this white tabby bag in a square shape. It’s so pretty and although it’s white and not as practical, I love it. The whole experience at Coach Play was so good.

Coach leather quality is amazing and their service is also top notch. You can take any Coach bag to any store and they will clean / leather condition it for free. I actually used this bag that night and got a mark on it. It’s white and I had to accept it will happen eventually. I took it to the Coach store in Auckland and they got the mark off. Amazing service.

For dinner, we headed to Gluttons Bay which was a small food court with a great view of the marina. I had the best fried rice there. The pineapple fried rice on the middle photo was the best fried rice I’ve ever had in my life. I want to go back to Singapore to eat this again. Max got another char kway teow and I also got garlic prawns. This dinner was delicious and this food centre was the nicest in terms of location and views.

Afterwards, we walked our food off. We walked along Helix Bridge towards Gardens by the Bay. The main reason we came back here was to see Supertree Grove lit up at night for the show.

Seeing Supertree Grove at night is so different. It’s beautiful and magical.

You cannot visit Singapore and not come here at night. It’s a different vibe. We chose not to go up the walkway. It wasn’t that cheap to go and the lines were so long. I thought we’d have a better view of the light show from ground anyway.

Garden Rhapsody is the music and light show that’s on twice every night. It’s free so you just have to come early, pick a spot and wait for the show. It’s worth it. The show was amazing and it was at this moment when I got a bit emotional. We’ve had 5 weeks of travelling and it’s been such a surreal experience. I just reflected on how lucky I was to have seen and experienced all of it. This moment felt magical ending our trip in Singapore.

After the show, we walked towards Marina Bay Sands mall. This mall was huge. I did a bit of shopping then we decided to try getting into the rooftop bar in Marina Bay Sands.

The rooftop bar is called CÉ LA VI. It’s located on the 57th floor of Marina Bay Sands. There was a queue but it wasn’t that long when we arrived so we waited it out and managed to get in. After some time, we also got a table which was great because the bar was packed. We had a few drinks, reflected on our amazing trip and took in the sights of Singapore at night.

Day 6

This day was quite different as we decided to escape the city for a day and check out Palau Ubin Island.

It’s quite a journey getting to this island. We took the MRT and a bus to the ferry terminal and then had to take a bumboat to the island. This island is towards the north-west of mainland Singapore. It’s a small island and is special because it is one of the last areas that have been preserved from urban development.

The island is good for walking, cycling and camping. We were only there for the day so we rented some bikes and explored the island this way. Cycling in Singapore is a struggle when it’s so hot and humid!

I didn’t have many photos from this day because we were cycling but it was really nice. After days in the city, it was so nice to see nature like this. There were spider monkeys and stray kitties on the island. We had a great time and it was something different too.

We only thought about coming here because Max’s friend visited this island and recommended it. I’m glad we went and had a different adventure in Singapore.

This day was an exhausting day and we took all kinds of public transport. We took the MRT, buses and bumboats! We decided to walk from the MRT station to our hotel and on the way back, there was torrential rain. We got soaked so that was an interesting end to our day adventure.

We were quite exhausted so ended up walking down and had dinner at Enjoy Eating again. it’s so handy being in front of our hotel so we didn’t have to go far. We had durian ice cream for dessert too and we loved the pandan panna cotta that we ordered it again.

Day 6

This day was more of a relaxing day. We had a late start and travelled towards Bugis area.

We checked out a few shops, had lunch then walked towards Haji Lane.

Haji Lane is quite a popular spot on social media. It’s a cool laneway filled with shops and restaurants. I checked out a few boutiques and petted the resident Haji Lane cat, Ginger.

Afterwards, we had an exciting treatment booked.

We went to Oscar Head Spa to get a head spa and massage. There are a few places in Singapore for a head spa. A head spa is quite popular in Asia and the videos on Tiktok looked good. They scanned our scalp before, then they deep clean the scalp and hair, massage your head, put a hair mask on and while they steam your head, they’ll also give you a hands, arms and shoulder massage.

This was a blissful experience. They scanned our scalp afterwards too to see the difference. This head spa place was unique and they had treats and drinks after our treatments. There’s also an opportunity to dress up in costume for a photo shoot which we opted out of. We also got a goodie bag of products to take home! This was a lot for the price. Everything costed $58 which is so amazing. It’s 100% worth it. You cannot get this service for this price in NZ.

After our head spa treatment, we went to a nearby mall for dinner. I can’t recall where we went and I forgot to tag the place because I was so blissed out. We ordered too much Japanese food and I had food coma afterwards.

The bus ride back home was also interesting. The bus drivers in Singapore drive so erratically that the bus ride felt like an amusement park ride. When we got back, we jumped in the pool before going to sleep. It’s been a daily routine while we were in Singapore.

Day 7 / last day

This was sadly our last day in Singapore. Our flight was at night so we still had a whole day to chill.

We packed, checked out and left our bags at reception and headed to Orchard for brunch. I wanted Filipino breakfast so we went back to Lucky Plaza.

We also didn’t have any specific plans for the afternoon so to use up our time, I booked us a full body massage. We went to Healing Touch and we had an amazing 90min massage each. It felt so good after 5 weeks of travelling, thousands of steps per day and also cycling around Palau Ubin island.

After our massage, we headed back to the hotel. We took the hotel shuttle to the MRT station and made our way to the airport. Thankfully Max has lounge access so we got in the lounge, had some food and had showers. Having a shower at the airport lounge was awesome. It was a nice way to start our journey back home.

Mercure on Stevens Hotel

Our accommodation during our entire time in Singapore was at Mercure on Stevens.

We wanted to stay in one place and we chose this because it was close to Orchard and appeared to be close to public transport too. There is an MRT station close by and also a bus stop to Orchard right in front. There’s also a hotel shuttle for free to the MRT station and Orchard Road.

The best part about this hotel was the pools. We didn’t know this when we booked but Mercure and Novotel are beside each other and share facilities. Therefore, guests of each hotel had access to 2 pools!

This was the first pool on the Mercure side. It’s nice and secluded. It seemed warmer in temperature too and this was the quieter pool area.

The second pool on the Novotel side is an infinity pool facing the main road and it’s by the hotel restaurant so you can order food and drinks. This was also nice especially at night.

I definitely missed our daily pool dips while we were there. It was so nice to have two options. Having a pool was top of our list when we were looking at hotels in Singapore. We knew it would be hot and humid so this was an essential for us. We did enjoy this hotel. We wished it was closer to the MRT station though. A 10min walk doesn’t sound much but in the heat and humidity, it was quite an experience.

Overall, we were pretty happy with our choice and it was a reasonable price too. Singapore hotels aren’t cheap and Singapore dollar is pretty much the same as $NZ. This hotel was pretty good.

Overall, we had amazing week in Singapore. I get how and why Max loves this place. He almost moved here at some point when we started dating too. He didn’t end up going for it but I almost lost him to Singapore but at least I now understand why. The food is absolutely amazing. There are so many options and the prices are great. The MRT is so efficient and it’s so clean and green. There are trees and plants everywhere. I would love to come back because there are so many more to see and do.

Here are some Singapore observations/tips:

  • Bring cash! Most places still prefer cash over card and some don’t accept international bank cards. At the time we were there, we can only topup our MRT card with cash too.
  • Buy a transportation card. This would work out cheaper. You can tap your card on MRT stations but it’s more expensive. Good as backup though.
  • Singapore is so safe! If you go to hawker centres, you can save your table by leaving your umbrella, water bottle or sanitiser on the table and no one will take them. People will know the table is reserved.
  • Bring a portable handheld fan. This was a lifesaver in the heat and humidity.
  • Bring a hand sanitiser, wet wipes and tissues especially if you’re going to hawker centres to eat.
  • Their public transport is amazing. It was the best MRT system we used, much better than the ones we used in Europe.
  • Bring an umbrella. It can be super sunny then have sudden torrential rain within minutes.
  • Bring a water bottle. It’s hot so you want to be hydrated!

That’s all for my Europe/Singapore trip! It’s been so great reliving all these memories. I can’t believe it’s been a year since this trip too. It really was a surreal experience. I experienced so many firsts during this holiday. First time in Europe and Singapore and Max and I’s longest trip away together. We survived 5 weeks travelling without any major hiccups. We travel so well together and I feel so lucky. This trip was definitely one for the books and I’m so happy I have these blog posts to look back on if I want to. 🙂

Europe Trip blog post links: