Explore Singapore in our way

It was a long pending trip which was planned 2 years ago but kept on postponing. We seriously don't want any tour packages where we just walk like robots on their instructions. Rather we want to plan everything by our self and enjoy Singapore in our own way and pace...Also taking my Son and parents was a big challenge...


There is quote saying "Don't GO there... LIVE there"...

Before We go, here are quick Details...

• Gang: Mom, Dad, Me, Wife Vandana and my son Srujan (8 years old).
• Flight: Malaysian airlines (Booked 3 months before)
• Stay: Booked a 2 BHK Apartment (8 Farrer suites, Sing Joo walk) via AIRBNB.
• https://www.airbnb.co.in/rooms/8678981
• Transport with in city: Mostly Uber... Used MRT few times just to get a feel of local traveling.
• Dates: 30th Sep to 6th Oct 2016
• Packing: Packed so many Maiya's ready to eat packs..
• Attraction Tickets booked from
• Gardens by bay attractions: https://ticketing.gardensbythebay.com.sg
• Buy the Combo ticket which covers both the domes. 
•  Zoo, River Safari, Night Safari, Bird Park Combo ticket
• http://www.zoo.com.sg/visitor-info/park-hopper-specials.html
• Buy ParkHopper Plus ticket which covers all parks and tram rides.
• USS, Sentosa
• https://store.sentosa.com.sg/main/packages/2day-fun-pass/84#!/
• Buy a 2 day fun pass. first day to USS and next day entry to all Sentosa attractions.
• You save a huge money with this pass.
• Flyer, river cruise: Bough directly from the place.

Here is the long story of our fun journey day to day....

Day-1:   Journey, Check-In, Gardens by Bay, Flower dome, Cloud Forest and Garden Rhapsody light show.

.......Our flight took off at sharp 1am and reached Singapore 11:30am local time. Flight was via Malaysia. Picked up all luggage and booked a Uber Cab. He picked us in just 2 min and enjoyed a nice ride getting initial glimpse of city. Our check in time was at 2pm, but She (Our host from airbnb) agreed to place the language at 12pm only. Reached apartment at 12pm. Our first Impression of home was WoW... Little small but tidy. Kept the language in one room, went for lunch. Just few steps away there was an Indian restaurant by name "Taste of India". The biggest reason for booking this apartment was the location. It's near little India and have lot of Indian restaurant around and just 2 min walk to Ferrer MRT station. Had lunch and by 2pm rooms are cleaned and we are ready to check in. Selected rooms and filled all cupboards with our luggage. Took little rest, got ready and we are ready to explore beautiful city Singapore...

Quick Local Tips: 

• Buy all tickets online from Singapore official sites only. You get 10% discount also and so many combo options to save huge money. Do not buy any tickets from anybody else...
•  Do not buy plastic MRT card in Airport. It costs you 15$ and you get only 7$ to use and rest 5$ is nonrefundable. Better buy the paper card inside the MRT station only where you get full money of recharge. 
• There are many Indian restaurant in Little India where you get typical south Indian to north Indian dishes. On Average it costs 12$ per head on what ever you eat.
•  UberX is the basic cab there and it allows 4 persons at max. They count kid also. Some times they don't accept extra kid and cancel it.  But book again and some one will accept.
• Singapore is very very clean city...They have a huge fines for everything...So do not litter anything..There are cameras everywhere and you may get caught. 

Took MRT for the first time. We purchased MRT cards in Airport itself. Our first stop was Gardens by Bay. Started at 4pm and reached there by 4:30pm. Its a free entry to garden and can go around for some beautiful gardens. It was very hot and little late also. Domes are far away and hence bought tram tickets. This tram tickets can be used to go around the garden. Took Tram and stepped in to Flower dome. It was a huge dome maintained with at most care with rare plants and flowers. Entire dome is fully air conditioned. Walked around the dome for about 1.5 hour, took few pics and we are out of first dome.

With Rare Cactus

Funny Trees

View inside Cloud Forest Dome

Then entered second huge Dome called Cloud Forest dome. They have created a entire cloud forest environment artificially with great views... You feel like you are inside a small forest. As soon as you enter, breath taking water falls greeted us. Again walked around the dome to reach top of this waterfall. Spent 1 hour and out of dome by 6:30pm.

It was very hot outside. As usual Singapore is very hot all the time. Filled our tummy with McDonalds Veg Burgers and was waiting for "Garden Rhapsody". At this point we can take Sky Walk where we walk on small bridge connecting 2 super trees. Check out the pic below. But was closed due to bad weather. You need to buy different ticket for this sky walk and not covers in Combo Ticket. "Garden Rhapsody" started at sharp 7:45pm. It's a magnificent sight of Super trees with music and lights show for 15mins. Its a nice place to try your photography skills. Once the show is done, we are no more a mood of taking MRT and hence booked Uber and back to home.

Prepared the dinner with ready to eat Maiya's packs. Its very difficult to get Veg food in Singapore and hence we were well packed with all ready to eat Packs, even took small cooker so that we can cook rice. Had a nice sleep after walking for long long distances exploring the Garden.

Day-2: Zoo, River Safari, Night Safari

.......Started Morning at 9am via Uber and reached ZOO by 9:30am. As everything booked already, we showed our printouts and quickly entered the zoo. It was very big zoo with lots of animals. As we opted for tram also, Its little easy to travel between stops by tram and then roam around that place. Anyway we have walked long way to cover the zoo. We walked at least 3-4KMs..

3 important thing to do are....Seeing Animals, feeding sessions, animal Shows.

Quick Local Tip: 

• Check the zoo guide (available at entry point) for all feeding sessions and shows.Plan well to catch up all. 
• Be there at least 20min before for every thing as there are big queues for everything. 
• For feeding, its only first few 20-30 people only. 
• Reach zoo as early as possible (at least by 9pm). 
• No Veggi food options for lunch...If possible carry it...

They have feeding sessions on different timings for different animals where we can feed the animals from our hands. Its a great fun to do. We missed the one at Rhinoceros but cached the show at Giraffe. We fed Giraffe with carrots. My son was super exited with this.

Was able to catch the Splash Safari shows, it was fun to watch seal doing all activities. Then Covered 20 min elephant show. Then Rainforest flight back show where we saw few chimpanzees, monkeys and other animals. Covered pretty much by 2pm. Again food was big issue where only Veg option available for entire zoo was biriany rice which didn't have any spice or salt in it. Just filled our tummies with junk. Came out of zoo around 5pm and went for river safari.

Zoo Entry

Huge Polar Bear

Giraffe Feeding

Again we entered River Safari area where we have to walk at least 1 KM where they have presents important rivers around the world. We got a chance to see a cute Panda on the way. Reached dock and entered the boat. It was 30min ride on river. There is nothing great of this as they show the same animals from other side of zoo. You can hardly spot any animals.

River Cruise Boat

Inside Amazon River Quest

Amazon river quest entry

Entry Point

After river safari exit, We took Amazon river quest. Sat on small boat(8 seater) which moves by itself floating though the small setup of very rarest animals. For the first time I saw Anteater. This ride was awesome and at least for this, we should take River Safari tickets. It was a small 10min ride.

Its allready 6pm now. Time is going very fast. Our next stop was Night Safari. We booked 7:15pm show but by 6:30pm only queue started. There was some nice fire shows outside and we entered the night safari by 7:30pm. As soon as we enter they asked us to go for some show or to enter tram. We choose tram and we heard there is nothing in show. Actually it was best choice to first get in to tram as queues get build up and later it may takes hours to get tram. It was around 30min ride showing animals in dark.It's a different experience.
Back to home by Uber.

Quick Local Tip:

• Join the queue for Night Safari 30min before only
• Always take 7:15 first show
• Enter the tram as soon as you enter...You can check out all shows later.

Day-3: Jurong Bird Park

........Reached the park by 9am through Uber. Main attractions of this park are so many different birds. It's not so big as zoo but big enough to hold all major types of birds. At the entrance itself we were greeted with Penguins. We again opted for tram here also to avoid little walking. Even with tram you have to walk for at least 2-3KM. There was a personalize vehicle service called "Bird Eye View" which takes us to every place by small tram. But we didn't opt for it.

Catched "Kings of Skies" show where they show all big scavenger birds. And next show was "High Flyers show" where we saw parrot talk and sing. They asked to stand who have birthday and Parrot sang a Birthday song for them... And that day was my Dad's Birthday and it came as surprise where little parrot sang Birthday Song.

There is a small water games for kids. Proper swim attire is must to use the place.  My Son enjoyed the place for some time where we all sat and rest in shade having snacks we bought.


Done with the park by 2pm and started back to hotel.

Entrance

Show on Eagles

Birds walk with you

Kids Water games area

  Ate again in near by Indian hotel and took rest. Again started at 4pm and went for shopping to Musthaffa center near by. This is the biggest shopping mall open 24/7 where you can find everything under one place. Tried few gadgets and compared the Indian amazon prices. We felt Indian prices are much cheaper and dropped the idea of shopping. Example a PS3 CD was costing around Rs.1500 where as the same sold for Rs.1000 in Amazon. Out side the mall, there are small shops where you can find few gifts at small price. Grabbed gifts  and souvenirs for all and back to hotel. Prepared food, had dinner and slept early.

Day-4: Singapore Universal Studio (USS)

.......USS is in Sentosa Waterfront area.

3 ways to reach Sentosa.

1. Cable car which was down due to maintenance work. 
2. Take a direct taxi to waterfront. 
3. Reach VivoCity mall. On third floor of VivoCity, there is Sentosa Ticket counters. There we purchased the train ticket to Water front. It costs 4$ and actually its costly. For 5 of us we paid 25$ where as it would have costed just 12$ taking direct taxi from home. Other than reaching Water front area, this ticket doesn't help anywhere.

.....It opens exactly at 10am. We were there on time. There are many shows for all ages. And few roller coaster rides. Huge waiting time for every show. Waiting time ranges from 20min to 2 hours also. We just started skipping all high waiting shows and finished which we catch faster. By afternoon, crowd slowly dropped as i heard many finish the USS by afternoon and moves out to check out other Sentosa attractions. Even waiting time has reduced. Highest waiting was for Transformers 4d show. It was around 2hours at morning. But by evening it came to 10min.

Every show is unique and linked to some Hollywood movie. Enjoyed every show. Again Veg food is a big issue. Only option was margarita veg pizza and that too not that great taste. Again filled our tummies with junk and enjoyed all shows till 6pm.

Best Shows we liked were

• Transformers 4D. Make sure you hit this as first one.
• Jurassic park
• Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase
• Madagascar
• Shrek-4D adventure show

By 6pm we are out of USS. Took the train back to VivoCity and from there tried using MRT. But the balance on MRT card was less than 3$ which will not allow to use MRT. Option we had is recharge with 10$. As we found Uber was best option to travel around, we canceled the cards and redeemed the pending money on that. Took Taxi and we were back to Home by 9pm. Prepared some ready to eat stuff and slept.

Quick Local Tips: 

• Do not carry any food items as they check bags before you enter park
• Be there by 10am so that you can cover all places
• Pick a USS guide map at entry to plan properly.
• Do not join any queue which is high. Just skip and move on other one...Even evening everything will be free.
• Do not come USS on weekends.
• For few rides, you may get wet. But they sell a rain cover for 4$ to avoid it...And also u need to rent a locker to keep all your belongings.

Day-5: Sentosa Attractions

......We took 2 day Sentosa fun Pass where one day for USS and second day for sentosa attractions. Rather buying tickets at every counter, this pass is best option for exploring all attractions. More ever you can stop thinking on prices and enjoy attractions. Today we took taxi to Waterfront area directly. Note that all transport within Sentosa is completely free. We can use train, trams, cable cars and bus to explore all attractions. We landed on waterfront area by 9:30am. All most all attractions starts here by 10am.




SEA Aquarium: Our first stop was SEA Aquarium. We only entered first as we came early to this place. Its huge aquarium where we saw almost all kind of fishes.My Fav was huge stingray. My Son and even my parents enjoyed the place very much. As it was morning, many divers were inside the water cleaning and feeding the fishes. It was nice sight. Took almost 2 hours to finish and we are out by 12pm. Ate some snacks from our bag...

Trick eye museum. This is also in water front area only just few steps away from aquarium. Main attraction of this is huge collection of paintings with which we can take pics...Then whats so special about it...We can trick our own eyes and create so many wonders...Almost took 50 pics inside the museum... It was very very less crowd and hence spent good time with each pic and enjoyed the place....Got some amazing pics too....Check out below to fall in love with this museum.

Lunch Time: Its already 2pm and we are hungry...Biggest challenge again is getting food...googled for Indian restaurants in Sentosa and found one by name "Samundar". We are now at Resort World  sentosa bus station. First took the bus-2 and reached Imbaih lookout. The restaurant is actual at Merlion station but we miss understood. Anyway, after dropping at Imbaih Lookout, there are escalators down to reach Merlion and this Samundar restaurant is near to Merlion. Had a nice lunch. They too have only 2 veg options biriyani and roti's each costs 8$.

Merlion: After lunch, our first stop was Merlion. Merlion is the brand logo of Singapore. Its an 37m height unique status with fish tail and lion head. As soon as we enter the place there was a 5min show explaining the legend of Singapore.After the show they gave a Merlion coin of good luck. Then you can take the lift to reach 10th floor which is top of this statue. Nothing much special.

Tiger sky tower: Its an observatory tower which picks you and takes you to almost 110m height slowly. From top, even Merlion looks smaller. You get a great view of entire sentosa island from top. Its almost 15min ride.

Madam Tussauds:. It hosts really cool wax idols of few celebrates. Best one we liked was our Modi and Bapuji. They look so real that you need little more attention to confirm that they are not real. I have seen the one in NewYork and Sanfransisco. This is also big enough to match them. My Parents enjoyed a lot here. My Dad specially asked a pic with Modi. Spent almost 1.5 hour. It's already 4:30pm. Still lot of more to cover... You have to very quick at each attraction to cover all of them.

Luge Ride: We took this ride where we sit on small kids bike kind of vehicle which moves based on gravity. It was a fun ride where at the the first attempt itself my Son mastered it. My son rode so fast with out even applying brakes. Myself and Mom came slowly down. It was really fun and never saw this kind of ride anywhere. You end up in Beach station.

There we have to take "Skyline ride" which is open cable car kind of vehicle back to same station where you started Luge ride. This is more amazing and thrilling one as its open and moves at very high altitude. With a great view, you also get little scared. But they are very safe. Here we almost waited 20 min in queue and total 2 way ride completed in almost 30min.

Butterfly park: Nothing great about this place. But if you love butterflies and insects, then this place cannot be missed. We didn't enjoy much and just moved around fast and completed in 5min.

"Journey-2" 4D show:  As soon as we come out of Butterfly park, We moved to "Journey-2" 4D show. It was around 15min show with nice 4D effects. Just outside there are 2 more 4D shows but we are already later now.

Cable car: Actually as part of fun pass you get one full round of Cable car. But we are in hurry and took the cable car from Merlion station to Silosa Point station.

Silosa Beach: Its already 5pm now. Day ends with Wings of Fire which starts at 7:40pm so we still have time. Spent a nice time on Silosa beach. It was a clean beautiful beach and that too nice evening. Didn't get in to water as its too late but spent time walking around there.

Segway ride: Its 6:30pm. Now in the same beach, you get tram station by name "Silosa Point". Caught the tram and dropped at "Go Green Segway ride" stop. Its again free as I said earlier, all transport inside Sentosa is free. It was first time in life to try Segway. Its very easy to ride with little training. Even my Son rode it well. Its 7pm now.

Wings of Fire: From that Segway ride place, trams were closed. So we walked for about 0.5 KM to reach beach station. Its 7:30pm and we are on right time. Took some place and relaxed for some time. Magnificent show started and went for about 30mins. It was really amazing show which I never saw in my life. This is one of the best one of my entire trip. Ended the day in Sentosa with soo much fun. Took Cab directly to home from this place.

Day-6: City...Only City...

Now we are done with almost all attractions except the one inside city. As the list is small we woke up late and had a lazy morning. Started the day at 10am.

China Town - Mariyamma Temple: Landed near Mariyamma Temple by 10:30pm. Its a very old temple. Spent around 15 min. Nothing much to see as its regular temple which we go every day. 

Chine Town - Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. Initially we dropped the plan to visit this place as it was very hot outside. Some how walked and reached this place. This was an amazing temple and not to miss at any cost. Its a 3 floors temple and the way they arranged the place is awesome awesome... We really not in a mood to leave this place... We felt like sitting some where and peacefully meditate at 3rd floor. Spent almost 1 hour and back to home.

Its already 2pm. Ate at "Taste of India" Restaurant near home. Slept for 1 hour.

Perumal Temple: Got ready by 4pm and went to Perumal Temple which is just one street away from our home. Spent 15min and left.

Flyer: Reached the flyer by 5pm. But we want to enter the flyer after sunset so that we get a view of city in lights. Actually you can get entire city view from 2 places, Flyer and Observation Deck of Marina Bay Sands Hotel. From both you get a similar view. My Son selected Flyer and hence we choose this. It was a huge giant wheel where each capsule can hold at least 15 people. It rotates slowly and takes 30min for 1 round. We got into the flyer by 6:30pm and by the time we reach top, it was pitch dark and city was filled with lights. Its an amazing view which cannot be missed.

Wonderful Light show: Now from flyer we have to walk though helix bridge for about 1 KM to reach this place. It was lovely way altogether and really fun to walk on that bride. Nice views, Cool breeze. We were little tired but left with no option to walk. Reached the place by 8pm. Show started at 8pm. Its a light and water show. Not that great as Wings of time which we saw in Sentosa. And not so bad to skip.

River Cruise: We almost saw everything in Singapore now and didn't want to miss this Cruise. Took the Boat at near by station of Wonderful show and reached "Clarke quay" Station. View of Marina bay sands is Awesome from the boat. On the way we can see Small merlion where water coming from its mouth. "Clarke quay" is the place of Party, music, Fun, sounds, Drinks....I don't suggest this place with parents... Picked up Taxi and back to home....

View from boat

Day-7: Check Out Day

We are done with Singapore trip...Spent some morning time in City Square mall near to our home. Bought some chocs.
Checked out of home by 1pm. Flight was via kuala lumpur and we had almost 4 hours in transit. Spent Walking around the airport and even went to other terminals using internal train...Finally reached Bangalore by might night 12.


Bye Folks....Meet you with next blog soon.... :) Do not forget to comment and Share with your Friends...