Old Police Station Building, close to the Funan mall

Welcome to our first adventure! We are embarking on a multi month South East Asia trip, and our first stop is Singapore. In all honesty, it became the first pick because there was a direct 17h long flight from the US so, instead a stressful day of layovers, we opted for some very sore butts and enough time to watch about 8 movies. Our flight left at 8am and landed the next day at 6pm so we were chasing the sun the whole flight! Reminds me of the Phineas and Ferb movie however, we didn’t have any misadventures and landed safely and comfortably in Singapore.

The MRT (or Mass Rapid Transit) is the country’s main railway transit system and as any big city should have, it was very easy to use. We tapped on with our phones straight from the airport and with one connection it took us a 10 minute walk away from our hotel. The names of the lines, while not creative, are self-explanatory. EWL is the east to west line and DTL is the downtown line. We quickly learned that as people here drive on the left side of the road, they also walk on the left side of the sidewalk and stand on the left side of escalators.

Singapore location map is located at the bottom of the article

The Hotel - Mondrian

Our choice for this hotel came down to the offers that we got with a credit card. It offered 150$ credit for the hotel, free breakfasts and credit to the card itself. We thought to splurge for our first stay in Asia and to give ourselves somewhere comfortable to get over our jet lag. The room was small but comfortable and we were able to put our stuff away with the various storage spots. The pool deck was nicely set up and had a view of the city, the gym had only a few but premium techno gym machines and they had multiple restaurant and bar venues. They offered complimentary alkaline water in paper bottles that featured a shophouse design on the front, which I thought was a nice touch and was super convenient for us to bring on our long days out.

However, my favourite part of the hotel was the breakfast buffet every morning. I’ve never had a better hotel breakfast or even just a better breakfast buffet. They had a variety of western and asian dishes but the quality of all the staples were so good. Alex and I still talk about how amazing and fresh the orange juice was. But from the fresh fruit to the delicious flaky pastries, the buffet was definitely the stand-out to me. We did also have dinner at the in house Mediterranean-Asian fusion restaurant. The meal was fine, the chilli crab was disapointing but the wagyu steak was melt in your mouth delicious. Would recommend venturing out to the city for a cheaper and better meal.

Kampong Glam and Little India

Kampong Glam means village of the gelam tree in Malay and is an interesting historical neighbourhood to visit in Singapore. The name harkens back to the origins of the neighbourhood to the seafaring people, the Orang Laut. This tree would provide the material to build boats with the bark and had medicinal purposes through boiling of the leaves or the fruit. Later this community became a British trading post and welcomed many Arab traders creating a Malay/Muslim neighbourhood and now features the Sultan Mosque as a centerpiece of the neighbourhood.

You can read a much more detailed history on this blog post https://www.lionheartlanders.com/post/the-fascinating-kampong-glam-history. Nowadays, the neighbourhood has lots of interesting street art that speaks to the history and culture of the area. Haji lane, a noteworthy street, is now mostly a shopping street with an abundance of themed photobooth shops where you can take pictures of yourself in anything from a laundry machine to an vintage newspaper with all the silly accessories to match.

We then ventured to Little India to visit a Hindu temple and explore another cultural neighbourhood. However, with the heat and humidity of Singapore, by the time we walked over, we were slightly overwhelmed with the bustling streets and crowded shops and sidewalks. We made our way to the Sri Veerakaliamman Temple and admired the detailed tower with all the colourful statues and and figures. We definitely found joy in photographing colourful structures because as we walked to the nearest MRT station, we stumbled across the Tan Teng Niah house and admired its colourful walls and shutters.

Funan Mall

This was the best mall that encompassed both Alex and my interests in a huge variety of stores. Largely an electronic mall, Alex was very excited to visit all the different camera stores and we were able to purchase all the last minute gear that we needed. It had a good variety of other stores though including more niche stores like a water bottle shop and some local Singaporean brands. The bottom had a cheap food court with a ton of variety but higher up there were more specialized food options including an Alex staple, Wingstop.

My favourite bite/drink though was a bubble tea shop called Happy Cup. They specialize in brewing your selected tea to order using a high pressure brewing system then shaking it over ice to cool it down. It is a bit of a longer process but so worth it for the incredible flavour and aroma that you get from the freshly brewed tea. The staff were so kind to let me smell the tea leaves after it was brewed so I could smell all the notes of just the tea itself. I would love to see this process of creating bubble tea more, and love to try it again.

Gardens by the Bay

Oh the tropical weather in Singapore is incredible for all the plants and the Gardens by the Bay are an incredible way to witness them in a manicured, but laidback and peaceful way. I dream that the house plants that I have back home can one day become as lush and healthy as the plants in the garden here but my orchids could never.

Free to enter, the gardens create a great community space for people to enjoy the quiet and nature only a short metro ride away. We visited twice, once in the late afternoon/evening to watch the Supertree light show and two days late in the early morning to try to beat the heat. The morning was bustling with locals on a run, fishing in the river or just on a walk with their family. We went to look for birds at the wetland area and much to our surprise found the lake we visited just 2 days prior full with blooms of different colour waterlilies. I learned that they typically last 3-5 days but open at dawn and close in the afternoon, so if you want to try to catch them, go visit early in the day.

The Supertree show runs nightly at 7:45pm and at 8:45pm and lasts about 15 minutes. It is a very popular activity so try to arrive as early as you can to get some seats, by the end of the show I was shoulder to shoulder with a stranger who had squeezed their way next to me to sit. The bases of all the trees have a super wide platform so you can lie back comfortably to watch the lights dance above you, which was a fantastic way to watch the show.

Changi Airport

On our last day, we of course had to spend some time visiting the Changi Airport before our flight to Bangkok. Overall, the airport had a pleasant atmosphere. It never felt to crowded, like the usual zoo feeling you get when stuck in line for security or immigration. There was always options for seating and it was relatively quiet and peaceful. I enjoyed the scattered attractions around the terminals, from little fish ponds and big screen of crashing water.

Departures was a huge hall with numbered sections of where your airline has its check-in counter. Then from there it was a train ride with a surprise journey through the Jewel to our gate. We backtracked and walked the long tunnel (thankfully with moving platforms) to see the crowning Jewel of the airport. It was as impressive as one would think to see it in person, with the lush greenery and grandeur of the waterfall inside a building. You could venture up the floors for different angles and viewpoints but as you went higher, the greenhouse effect of all the glass did make it hotter and hotter to which it felt a bit like a big sauna.

As a lot of the malls in Singapore, the amount of stock and selection in the mall that surrounded the waterfall was quite impressive. We did have another layover back in Singapore and Alex was able to find a pair of headphones that he’d been searching for a couple of months to find. But as you can expect, it was the busiest part of the airport as people just come to sightsee and shop and comparatively the terminals were really quite empty.

Our biggest surprise was discovering that each gate has it’s own security that you clear right before you get onboard, which leaves much of your time open to shopping at the rest of the mall. But it also meant, no bringing your coffee onboard your flight with you. Overall, a fantastic airport experience, we picked a longer travel day so we could return here on a layover and enjoy the easy and relaxing vibe of Changi airport.

Food

I would be remiss to write a blog post about Singapore and not talk about the food in this country. As the country was birthed from a variety of different people coming to this land, the food reflects the history with a blend of rich flavours creating some mouth-watering dishes. Food is a huge part of Singaporeans cultural identity. There are so many iconic dishes that the locals are proud to call their own and to know where the best spots to get each dish are. You can see how emblematic some dishes are from little laksa icons of keychains in souvenir stores or a kaya toast embroidered hat.

Accessibility to a hot meal was incredible in the country, it felt like you were never more then a 5 minute walk to a little restaurant or sometimes a huge hawker center. With the later coming in a some really cheap prices, it’s a wonder to me if anyone takes the time to grocery shop and then cook a meal for themselves. The hawker centers were a conglomeration of old roadside food stalls placed together in an effort to create sanitation standards in the cooking environments but have now evolved to huge community hub where anyone can come in for some good food. So good, in fact that many hawker stalls have been placed on to the michelin bib gourmand list and are sometimes a preferable place to eat over a traditional sit down restaurant.

We frequented the most popular, Lau Pa Sat, twice during our trip during two very different times (9pm on a tuesday and mid-week at noon) and both times we were wandering around trying to find someone to share a table with. However, the hype for the hawker centers continued for many of the smaller ones that we walked by with equally eager people lining up to grab a bite to eat.

Singapore Location Map

Above is the map that has all the spots from our Singapore video! We hope it helps you plan your own Singapore trip.