Planning a multi-city trip can be a bit of a stumper for first-timers. I got the idea of pairing Malaysia and Singapore from Reddit, interesting huh?. At first, I was considering picking one of the two but someone advised me to visit both instead. Malaysia would offer the nature part of the trip while Singapore would offer the modern city theme, plus they are very close to one another- one hour apart. The logistics of the trip could go either way, if either one of us missed a single flight, it would send our plans spiraling into a disaster, but we took the chance and successfully pulled it off. But I have to say my partner and I are a bunch of keen and calculated travelers. If it weren't for our 3-hour rule of getting to the airport before departure time, I could have easily missed my flight to Singapore, because of the extremely long check-in queues at KL airport, and an immigration pass to Singapore I needed to apply for as a Kenyan- something I was unaware of.
From the moment I stepped into the airport in Singapore aka the Lion city, I was already swept off my feet. The Changi airport in Singapore is rated as the world’s best airport, because there is an infinite number of activities to do while here. They have the world’s tallest indoor waterfall which is the highlight of the entire place. The waterfall area is surrounded by vegetation you'd think you are entering a jungle. They have little grass parks where you can relax and take a nap. They have gaming rooms, a swimming pool, a butterfly garden, movie theatres, etc., and an airport metro train that passes just next to the waterfall. I mean talk about taking extra to the next level! You just need to know on which terminal these activities are found. It must be nice to have a long layover in this airport- who knew I would ever wish for a long layover anywhere? The restaurants here are also amazing. They have all sorts of restaurants with different cuisines. It felt like being in a little town. But now this is where you start feeling the heat of how expensive things are here compared to Malaysia. It was like 3 times more expensive. The Singapore currency is called the Singapore dollar (SGD) which equals 0.75 USD, so you can already picture the cost of living here.
On the ride to the city, the roadside was filled with endless trees and lots of lush vegetation. As soon as you arrive in the city, you begin to notice buildings overwhelmed by greenery - steel and glass seemingly reclaimed by the tropical landscape. There are a lot of rooftop gardens and some buildings have huge gardens growing on their balconies. I have never seen anything quite like it. It is said that 56% of Singapore is covered in vegetation making it one of the greenest cities in the world. As you make your way through the city, you notice how many spaces are open to the air, with no congestion at all. The planning of this city was done meticulously!
When it comes to cleanliness, Singapore takes the trophy home. The laws here work so well, that if you are caught littering, you are instantly fined S$300. One of our cab drivers mentioned his friend threw a cigarette butt outside of his car window, and he received a $S300 fine the next day, they have cameras everywhere! I’m not kidding, commit a crime and you are caught within 24 hours, making the crime rate here to be among the lowest in the world. A lot of similarities with Dubai here.
The sale of chewing gum was banned in Singapore in 1992. It is not illegal to chew gum but it is illegal to import and sell it. Locals depend on buying their chewing gums in other countries. A fine of S$2,000 is imposed on those convicted of selling chewing gum as well as fines and/or jail terms for importers. Imagine having to "smuggle" chewing gum into your country. The reason for the ban was that vandals had begun sticking chewing gum on the door sensors of MRT trains, preventing doors from functioning properly and causing disruption to train services. I mean, their subway system cost them $5 billion! Understandable, right? Come to think of it, its crazy how Saudi Arabia casually dropped three times more to just build a hotel, talk about that oil money.
As you think of breaking laws in Singapore, remember that it is one of the countries in the world that still practices the death penalty.
Singapore is also known to be one of the cleanest and safest cities in the world. It was also ranked together with New York as being the most expensive city in the world. Unlike Kuala Lumpur, there was no mad traffic in Singapore, and I bet you the government has played a big part to ensure less traffic – at this juncture, the government of Singapore needs to be studied. So what the government is doing, is making it super expensive to own a car in Singapore unless you really need it. To own a car, you first need to pay a $S 86,000 permit that only lasts for 10 years plus cars are not that cheap either. Their subway system is very cheap, convenient and is well connected throughout the country, so you can easily do without a car.
Now let’s jump to activities in Singapore
Visit Marina Bay Sands
Ah, the famous Marina Bay Sands. It must be a crime to visit Singapore and not go over to MBS. It is an iconic landmark in Singapore and boasts of being one of the largest hotels in the world. I’m still surprised it has a five-star status. It has the world's largest infinity-edge pool, measuring nearly three Olympic swimming pools. The hotel has three pillars that are 200 meters tall, and the top of the hotel takes the shape of a ship that is over 300 m long- longer than the height of the Eiffel tower! ; however, word around is that the Eiffel tower recently added a 30 meter pole because no way is the pride of France being compared to a swimming pool. They have a popular restaurant at the top of tower 1 called Ce La Vie that you need to book a reservation days in advance as it is always full. One thing I noted is that, if you plan on going to any fancy restaurants in Singapore, especially during the tourist peak season, you need to book reservations days in advance. If it is an occasion like Valentine's and you haven’t booked a reservation months in advance, forget about it.
In case you don’t have a reservation at Ce La vie and still want to go to the top of Marina Bay Sands, you can still proceed to a lounge at the top that will let you in without a reservation, or maybe we got lucky, I don’t know. The views at the top of MBS are to die for. They have an observation deck where you get to see the whole city from up there. You can see all the tall buildings against the backdrop of the Marina Bay waterfront. The sunset views were breath taking. The evening would be the best time to visit so that you can see the city with all the lights. Staying at MBS cost about $800 a night, not much of a surprise considering its status.
Visit Gardens by the bay
This beautiful garden is located at the Marina Bay waterfront, just a short walking distance from Marina Bay Sands hotel. The main attraction of the garden is the musical garden pillars. Every day at 7:45 pm and 8:45 pm, there is a dazzling light show performed where the pillars are lit up with music. Each show takes 15 minutes. The garden has the beautiful Singapore River passing through it. There are benches where you can sit and relax or have a picnic. You can take a bike ride here or hop on a little buggy to show you around the garden. It is very big that we didn’t get to tour the entire garden. A day trip here would be nice but it is way nicer at night.
You can also choose to go to the flower dome and cloud dome located at the Garden. For these they charge entrance fees of about $20 for each.
Bike ride city tour
A bike city tour was the perfect way to kick-start our stay in Singapore. We were able to learn a lot about the history of Singapore and know all the cool spots and activities to partake in on the rest of our trip. The city of Singapore is very cycle friendly as they have cycling paths created everywhere. Our tour guide was a local from Singapore who toured South East Asia on a bicycle, so cool. His name was Holden, working for Lion City Bike tour of Singapore. He took us to Chinatown, Arab Street, Little India, the city center, etc. We got to see all the major landmarks of the city and I fell in love the architecture of the buildings. Some of the buildings were from the colonial era and had this beautiful neo-classical style. Visiting the Merlion Lion head and fish tail statue is a must. This is the official mascot of Singapore and it has a legendary story behind it. Our guide was nice enough to buy us the famous sugarcane drink and some samosas at Little India. I was very impressed that I didn't fall off my bike when riding through the CBD with cars and pedestrians everywhere. The city is orderly and traffic lights are respected, so it is easy and safe to move around on a bicycle. If I ever lived here I would get myself a bicycle.
Food tour
We went on a food tour in Chinatown and got to eat different types of Chinese food. Now before this, I couldn't exactly tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese traditional foods, and from the looks of things, I prefer Japanese food. Chinese food mostly consists of rice dishes in my opinion. We didn't enjoy the food tour as much because we had eaten in Chinatown on the first day we arrived in Singapore, so it wasn't a new experience for us. I think I enjoyed interacting with other people on the tour with us more than the tour itself. It’s always nice to meet other people with similar interests. We booked our food tour through Trip Advisor. We heard that other tour companies will take you to a different area for a food tour.
Street food
The best street food is found at a place called La Pau Sat Street. Every day from around 7 pm, that street is closed and a night food market is formed. This has to be the most organized and cleanest street food place I have ever been to. We were told to always check a stall with a line because that is where the best food was. Singaporeans love to line up, that is what our bike tour guide told us. The stalls here have a rating on them done by city inspectors, from A to E, showing the level of cleanliness of the food stall. People book tables with a packet of napkins, so if you see a napkin on the table, it is already booked. We were told you can use your phone to book a table because the crime rate is so low, but I don’t see anyone risking that. Especially me coming from where I’m from.
At La Pau Sat, it is a must to try the beef or chicken sate. They come with this sauce that is so good, I give it a 10/10. There are stands for all sorts of food: Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Western, etc. You can get non-alcoholic drinks and beers as well. There was even a section where they were playing live band music. The place was just huge and amazing.
Restaurants/bars
There are so many restaurants and bars to choose from. I will mention the restaurants where we had unique dining experiences.
· JiangHu Hot pot restaurant - I have never been to a hot pot restaurant before. A hotpot is a dish that uses raw ingredients, cooked by diners themselves by dipping them into boiling broth at their table. At the table, we had a hotpot and a grill. There was a knob at the side of the table for regulating the temperature of the hot pot and the grill. At the other side of the table, we had a conveyer belt constantly passing various types of prepped food ready to be cooked. All sorts of Japanese food from noodles, chicken, beef, seafood, vegetables, etc., you just had to know what goes into the hotpot and grill. They provide you with a nylon apron to wear and all the utensils you will need for the hotpot and grill. I never knew anything like this existed, it was such a rich and new experience. Mind you it was a buffet, so you could cook as much as you want, but for every 100 grams of food you waste, you pay for it. So make sure not to burn the food.
· Long Bar at Raffles Hotel - Raffles hotel is a popular hotel in Singapore because they make the famous Singapore Sling. Singapore Sling is a signature cocktail that was made by some bartender in 1915. They say you can't leave Singapore without trying the famous Singapore Sling. When we got to the bar, we found a queue of people waiting to be seated. You will find queues at the most popular spots in Singapore, and that is how you know you are at the right place. Raffles hotel has this Victorian neo-classical architecture, it looks like something out of the Bridgeton series. The bar had this sisal bag of peanuts at every table, to accompany the drink. I was surprised to see people dumping piles of peanut shells on the floor, but apparently this is how it was done back in the day. Everyone who was in the bar was ordering a Singapore Sling, It would be atrocious to come all the way here and order a Margarita. I remember we never bothered to look at the menu, we had come specifically for the Singapore Sling. But when the bill came, shock on us! One Singapore Sling was going for $S 7 after happily downing two each. This has to be the most expensive cocktail I have ever had. The moral of the story is to always check the menu first.
.jpg)
· Bacha Coffee- This is the most exquisite coffee experience I’ve had. The Café is originally from Marrakech in Morocco, and they sell coffee beans found in all parts of the world. I was excited to see Kenyan coffee beans on display. This reminds me, I saw Kenyan coffee being sold at one of the Starbucks coffee shops in Langkawi, looks like we produce good coffee beans ay. They serve their coffee with some cream and for the sugar, they give you raw sugar candy sticks. They have a wide selection of delicious pastries which made me love this place even more. I had a raspberry croissant for the first time and I loved it!! The cheese croissant has always been my favorite and this was a call to explore other types. The Bacha café place we went to was at the Shoppes at MBS, so it was a takeaway place. They serve the coffee in colorfully decorated cups and it is put on a little tray. It looked so presentable and made me even more excited to try it. Such a unique coffee shop experience.
· The other restaurants we went to were just regular. I would recommend trying out rooftop garden restaurants.
Visit Sentosa Island
Sentosa Island is in the southern part of Singapore. Here you will find the Universal studios and probably the only beach in Singapore. On this day we decided to have a new experience and take the subway train. You will find the MRT train stations everywhere, so it is convenient for moving around, especially for far distances like Sentosa Island. This would be my first time using a subway train. We had no idea where to start, but luckily they have good customer service at every station. We were given a map of the train's route and off we went. We had to get on two trains before hopping on the train to our last destination. The trains are underground and move so fast and you are at the next station in no time. Our last train to Sentosa Island was free of charge. I think they do this to entice people to go to Sentosa Island.
Our first stop was at the Universal studio. It is a theme park for Universal studio if you are familiar with it. Kind of like Disney land. We just wanted to see what the place looked like so we just moved around and left. One thing I will tell you is that the activities there are not cheap.
We hopped on a train to Sentosa Island, which took about 10min or less to get us there. The Island was beautiful, clean, and well-maintained- typical of Singapore. The beach strip was however small. There are many restaurants along the beach where you can grab a bite and have a drink. There are many activities to do here as well, but again, not cheap. I had my eyes on Indoor sky diving, but that was going to cost around $100 for a few minutes...
There was a scene from a popular show called Singapore Social that was shot here. I learnt that visiting a place where a particular scene of a movie or series was shot is called jet-setting. My first jet-setting I suppose.
Clubbing
%20(1).jpg)
We were not prepared for the clubbing scene in Singapore. We thought it would be a regular clubbing scene like any other but nope. We picked a very famous club called Marquee club and had no idea what was in store for us. The club is situated on the ground floor of Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands- indication number one that it was pricey. I remember we were from JiangHu hotpot restaurant, and along the way, a stranger handed me a stuffed animal from nowhere because it was Valentine’s season (I confirmed there were no cameras or drugs inside). I remember walking towards the club entrance where there were barricades outside and security guards looking like the CIA. We just looked like a bunch of confused tourists with my partner carrying the stuffed animal around- we named him Gary, and we were taking Gary with us to the club. We got there when they were just opening, so we didn’t get any queue. The first shocker was that the entrance fee for women was S$50 and S$60 for men- I remembered complaining when clubs in Nairobi charged $10 per person. On entering the club, the rates were even more insane. To book a standing table with no chairs was S$300, and to book a table with chairs was S$600. The bartender was even kind enough to talk to the manager to give us a really good offer of S$500 for the table with chairs. Unbelievable! Who needs tables anyways, we decided to take a tour around the club because that is what tourists do. The club was massive and even had a cable car and a slide. Only in Singapore I tell you. The club had 3 floors if I am not mistaken. After some time, the club was getting full, in fact, there was a very long line outside waiting to get in. For the rates being charged here, I wonder who all those people were, probably the mafia. One of my favorite parts of that night was when they brought out a bunch of female dancers. It changed the mood from 0-100 in a second. Looking back at it, this tops any clubbing experience I’ve ever had. The cocktails were reasonably priced though. Cocktails were going for S$20 - S$25 which is considered reasonably priced in Singapore. You don’t want to know how much a bottle of whiskey goes for here.
Street bars
I loved the street bar experience where you could bar-hop. There were several streets with just bars along them. They would close up the street at night and all the bars there would set up tables outside, just like the La Pau Sat Street. We discovered an Indian street bar and a Japanese street bar, and my favorite was the Japanese street bar. I was dying to try Soju and Sake for the first time and this was the place! They have different flavored Sake and Soju drinks. I refused to try the original versions of each because I for a fact don’t like bitter things. I went for peach Sake and Strawberry Soju and they were fantastic! It was like drinking alcoholic juice. The soju was stronger than the Sake though. From what I gathered, Sake is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran, while Soju is of Korean origin and is made of fermented white rice with a crisp flavor, a little apple, and sometimes a touch of burnt rice. The music, drinks, and crowd at the Japanese street bar were great and I would recommend it over the Indian street, in my opinion.
A little history about Singapore is that the Chinese, Indian, and Japanese inhabitants were originally segregated. That is why you will find some Chinese, Indian, and Japanese establishments concentrated in particular areas. I was surprised to see an Indian club where they were serving just Indian food and had an Indian concert going on. Plus I only saw Indian people inside, not to mean that people of other ethnicities were not welcome. I found people here to be warm, kind, and accommodating. I was a bit worried because there were not so many black people around but to my surprise, everyone treated me so kindly and were quite fascinated by my hair. I guess they don’t see people walking around in braids every day.
Visit Malls
There are many huge malls in Singapore. My favorite was Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands. It was gigantic and had so many restaurants and shopping stalls. Here you will find all the luxurious shopping brands, so this tells you it is a relatively expensive place. They even have a mini river passing through the mall and it ends at a waterfall. There are gondolas where you can take a little trip on the river, so cool. You can easily get lost but good thing they have digital maps on every floor- we still got lost trying to find Bacha Café.
The mall has a casino where tourists are allowed to enter for free while locals have to pay a S$150 entrance fee. This is to discourage locals from gambling, but they are very happy to take all the money they can get from tourists.
My favorite part was behind the mall. They have a huge beautiful open area where you can take a stroll among palm trees, and it is overlooking the huge Marina Bay waterfront. Not so far from there is an apple store on the Marina Bay waters, and it is the world’s first floating apple store. There is also a Louis Vuitton store which is the only floating LV boutique. They look so beautiful, especially at night. I would recommend coming to this mall at night. The views are endless.
Other places you can choose to visit are the Helix Bridge, Budhaa Relix temple, and the Art Science Museum. The architecture in these places and Singapore in general is just over the charts.
Here is a rough budget for staying in Singapore
· Flights from Nairobi – Malaysia- Singapore - Kenya cost $1200. We made the multi-city booking under one booking. I think it is cheaper that way.
· It is almost impossible to find an Airbnb because of the government’s housing policy. So you are left with hotels as the safer option. Most hotels average on at least $100 a night.
· Most taxi rides we took were averaging $10. They have this popular app in South East Asia called Grab that we used in Malaysia and Singapore. We saw a huge difference in prices between Malaysia and Singapore. Singapore has a very nice subway system that connects the entire city, so you can leverage this one since it is cheaper. A ride will cost you $2.
· Going out to eat at a decent restaurant was costing an average of $50 per person.
· Activities like the bike ride were going for around $80 per person and the food tour was around $100 per person. You can always google the prices of activities.
