Sunday 1 January 2017

Singapore! My Travel Story

Hello lovelies, wish you a very happy new year! Hope you all had a blast celebrating Christmas and New Year! with this new year, I have something new on my blog! Yes, this is my first ever travel post and I am super super nervous while writing this. In November 2016, I and my mom traveled three countries in South East Asia and here is my experience in Singapore! If you have any plans to travel there, this will be helpful! So, let’s get started!



Day 1
Singapore is two and a half hours ahead of India and it takes approximately six hours to reach, from Mumbai. We landed on Changi airport, Singapore. After checking in the hotel we went on a city tour. First we took the Singapore river ride where we saw all beautifully built skyscrapers at the edge of the river. All buildings are commercial once, also it is said that, higher is the skyscraper the wealthier is the owner. 

 We also got to see the famous Merlion statue, which happens to be the identity of Singapore. The city was named after the name Singha, means Lion. Many years back when a warrior, (who happens to be the first King) stepped on this land, he saw a Lion at his sight and he named this land as Singa-pore. It is said that this Merlion protects the city and brings many tourists every year, which contributes a considerable amount in Singapore's Economy.




 Of course when you go near the merlion statue, you get to see many things around it, like Marina bay hotel and the Esplanade auditorium. Next we rode the Singapore Flyer and enjoyed the view of city.


I forgot to mention this was my third time in Singapore and was visiting the city after 17 years! Of course, it means that, I was a child back then and the city has changed drastically now, so I had to make a visit!
We also took a tour around the parliament house, City Hall, Orchard Road, Fountain of wealth, the Suntec city and Esplanade auditorium.

 After all this, we were very tired and decided to head back to our hotel to rest. We stayed at the ‘Premium Inn’, which happens to be a very good Hotel on beach road and many attractions in Singapore are just 8 to 10 minutes away from this hotel.

At night, we went for night safari. That's a place where you have to take a tram ride and of course, you are not supposed to get down from the tram even if the tram takes stops in between. There is an audio guide in the tram that tells you on what side the next animal will be. The audio guide provides information about all the animals you will see around. The ride takes approximately 20 to 30 minutes. After the ride we headed for the show called as ‘Creatures of the night’. It is a fun show where some reptiles and small animals perform.


In my entire tour, what I found interesting about attending these shows is, you get to see people from all around the world sitting at one place, and chances are; you get to talk to another tourist from some other country. I cannot tell you how exciting it is to talk to some complete stranger about their lives and family. One thing you will definitely feel while you travel is that, it is more important to be a good fellow human being for this world to be a good place. We may belong to different countries and different culture but, in spite of differences; our lives are more or less similar. You will certainly feel connected as a human and as a traveler.

Day 2

Anyways, Moving on to next day, we spent our entire day at the Universal Studios which was indeed Fun! 


My favorite ride at universal Studios was the transformer ride at the Sci-fi city. It certainly is mind blowing and something that no one should miss! When you take a ticket at universal studios, you will be handed a map of the whole place and a schedule for all the shows and meet and greets. This schedule would tell you where would you get to see the streets shows and at what location you will get to meet your favorite characters and take a photo with them. I managed to attend the ‘Rockfellas’ show and the ‘Sesame street show’. Apart from the street shows, there are some places where the shows are inside the buildings and you can only see them at prescribed timings. For example, 'Lights, Camera, Action'; it is a live show, which is hosted by ‘Steven Spielberg’. It gives you a feel of being in the movie itself. Let me not spoil what scene it is (nothing from Titanic) but it surely some awesome action happening in there!



At Universal Studios, I took first ever roller coaster ride in my life. In fact there are two roller coaster rides. let me put a picture down here.


These are actually two roller coasters with separate entrances. The Red Track is just Twist and turns and the Grey one (the cyclone) is where you turn upside down and lot more (Yayks!)
In these roller coaster rides you can definitely see the tracks of roller coaster, so you know what is going to happen to you next, but same is not the case in the adjacent ride and that's, ‘Revenge of the Mummy ride’; where you cannot see what's going to happen to you next. So, that's one of the many fun rides. Apart from this we visited Lost World (Jurassic Park theme), Far Far Away (Shrek), Madagascar, Hollywood and New York. And that was it for the second day.


Day 3
On third day we took a cable car ride to Sentosa Island. Yes you will see another Merlion statue there but that’s not the original one.



There are many things to see at sentosa Island (Yes, Universal Studios is also at Sentosa Island). We first visited Madame Tussaud's, do I need to tell you about it? It was my third time at Madame Tussaud’s but first two times was in London. If you have been to Madame Tussaud’s wax museum London, you need not to visit this one, because it is much smaller and many statues are not included in Singapore.

 Only addition I saw here, was India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. So if you want to see a grander Madame Tussaud’s wax museum? Go to London, Nothing beats that! Also there is a small boat ride inside the same building, called images of Singapore, it literally takes 2-3 minutes.
Then we walked down to Marine Life Park, which is the largest oceanarium in the world, which contains 100,000 marine animals of over 800 species. 





By this time we were very tired but, there was something relaxing to attend and I believe everyone must! It was a spectacular night show called ‘Wings of Time’. We took a mono rail ride from the aquarium and since we had a lot of time before the show, we went to the manmade beach. The show takes place outdoor at the beach, and is a combination of water and laser.


You can find the whole show on YouTube. But I would suggest not to watch it if you are going to visit there soon. Anyway if you do watch it on YouTube, it won’t be that great, because watching it live on a beach, with so many people, with good Audio quality, and with lovely breezes is quite an experience.


Day 4
I was really excited for the third day because, we were going to visit the place I came to Singapore for! 'Gardens by the bay'. I love plants and nature in general, so I was very excited to visit Gardens by the bay. I wore a nice, georgette maxi dress that day, and guess what? it was a bad choice. Let me tell you why. Gardens by the bay. according to me consists of three main parts, first is 'flower dome', second one is, 'Cloud Forest' and third is super tree. 


Everything fine with the super tree but flower dome and Cloud forest are Air conditioned and the temperature inside these domes is very low. At least, for someone from Mumbai, it was very cold. So in case, you are going to gardens by the bay, make sure you wear something that covers you. Trust me, it says that indoor temperature is 23 to 25 degree Celsius but it is much cold than that! Especially, at the Cloud Forest.


One more tip: If you come out of any dome and will be going back inside again, make sure to take a stamp on your hand at the exit or you will not be allowed to enter again. If you want some great photographs at this place I suggest you to visit it at the morning time around 9 am, because it starts getting crowded later. Also, if you are carrying DSLR/ Professional cameras, know that your lenses are going to get foggy after you come out of the Domes, so you are going to have to wait for at least 20 minutes for the lenses to clear the moisture after you come out. Make sure to carry a lens cleaning cloth with you. 

Gardens by the bay look beautiful at night time too. Someday if I visit Singapore again, I would want to visit the Garden at night. However it wasn't possible in this trip because we had to leave for that afternoon! It was time to say goodbye! Our next stop was Malaysia!
My travel story in Malaysia is coming soon, so stay tuned! Till then, share this post with someone is going to visit Singapore; or may be someone who is not!
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Much Love,
Chitra XOXO






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