24 Hours in Singapore

Continued Travels!

On our way to India we scheduled ourselves a layover in Singapore. We had 27 hours to get out and see the city. We decided we would go out to see the city and come back to the airport to sleep. We arrived at 5:30am, got back to the airport at 11:30pm slept until 6am when we had to get on the plane and head to Mumbai.  

We really enjoyed Singapore. We experienced Singapore as "Asia Lite."   It's clean, everyone speaks English, the trains/buses are punctual, and it's a cosmopolitan city.  It has a true feeling Chinatown and Little India so you can acclimate to those experiences without actually dealing with the stress, crowds, and confusion of China or India.   And, it really is a garden city. There are big trees everywhere. That was pretty neat. 

I took a bit of a lazier approach by just explaining the photos.   Enjoy!

And leave comments!  I love comments!  Have you been to Singapore? How did you like it? No?  just say any old random thing.

 Made it to Singapore! The airport is packed full of art and decoration and things to do.  Bored?  Check out their roof top garden. Want a bit of wildlife, go to the butterfly garden.  Too hot? Swim in the rooftop pool. Extra money to spend?  Shop in every store imaginable. Lots of time to kill?  Take a free tour to the city!  Really. It's kind of unbelievable. 

I'm trying to capture the "NO" signs which, you might notice includes Durians.  A very smelly fruit.  Other signs also told you of the potential fines you could face for breaking these laws.  Smoking was $1000, eating was $500.  I'm not sure about the Durian fees. 

We started our day in Singapore with a trip to their Botanic Gardens. A Unesco World Heritage site. They were stunning.  The gardens were used to create and experiment with rubber trees.  Singapore provided most of the worlds rubber until the mid 1900s. 

Look at us at the Gardens! 

It's us again!   

On a treetop walk!

The city was decorated for Christmas!  We decided to take the bus from place to place so we could get a sense of the city.  Glad we did. the buildings are gorgeous and, as you can see,  festive.  

Our next stop after the Botanical Gardens was Chinatown. The first thing we did, of course, was to eat but once that was accomplished we wandered around. We both really enjoyed the architecture of the buildings in conjunction with the markets below them.  

The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.  Yes, there is a buddha tooth here. It's houses in a solid gold reliquary that is the size of a small car.  

There was a lovely garden at the Buddha Tooth with a prayer wheel.  That big structure inside spins and as you spin it you are sending out prayers. It's pretty incredible.  

And we ate again!  

After we left Chinatown we went over to Little India.   

Isn't he adorable in all the color?  

Diwali is coming up and Little India was also decorated. In India, Diwali is as big as Christmas in the states.  

Again, we enjoyed the Architecture. We wandered down this street until we found a little corner cafe to eat.  We were the only foreigners and I was the only woman so we got a lot of stares.  

We stumbled upon a Ukulele store in Singapore.   Only Ukuleles!  It was so fun.  And run by some awkward but charming 20 something year old men.  We watched some emo music videos with them and were warned to not travel to the Philippines because the guards put bullets in your luggage.    Right? Interesting.  The store was pretty great and we did enjoy our time in there.  http://ukulelemovement.com/  They let us play with all the Ukuleles in there!   

And then, while trying to get to the CBD, we wandered though the underground shopping area following signs and hoping to arrive in the right place. After wandering thorugh the parking lot (followed signs) and then through the lobby of a performance hall (still following signs), we went up and escalator and came upon a Ukulele sing-a-long!  Over a hundred people with Ukuleles singing John Denver and Johnny Cash!  How to get Shannon to fall in love with a city?  bring her to s sing-a-long! 

Took a break from walking around by watching the light show across the bay. Pretty amazing and such a lovely rest. 

The other side of the bay.  Beautiful! 

Finished up our evening with another meal!  Singaporean Carrot Cake (an egg thing) and some satay.  Delicious!  The food stalls are really conveniently set up. You order from any one of them. They are all part of the same organization, so they give you plates and silverware that you just leave at any of the tables and the tables are bussed and cleaned.  So easy, delicious and safe. 

Long day. Jamie looking like a local sleeping on the train back to the Airport.   We got back to the airport at 11:30, found a quiet corner to sleep until 6am and then hopped on the plane to head to Mumbai.