Singapore Trip Lessons

I slapped this together to send to someone I met in a bar who was going to Singapore soon. Not exhaustive, but useful if you need some good places to eat, stay and do fun stuff:

Singapore

Where to Stay:

            Orchard Road Area, with close walk to either the Orchard or Somerset MRT Station

            We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Orchard Rd.

Orchard Rd Area:

            TONS of shopping above and below ground.

            EAT:   Ya Kun Kaya Toast is a must do (only eat Kaya Toast from Ya Kun)

                        Food Court in basement of Paragon Building has a good food court with a Ya Kun Kaya Toast, So Pho So Good, a Dutch Baby Place, Din Tai Fung which are all good food choices.

                        JiBiru across the street has a great beer selection and good food.

Must Do:

            River Cruise – Catch at Clarke Quay. There is a Thirsty Beer Shop in the Liang Shopping Center which is just outside of the Clark Quay Shopping Area (Clark Quay has two walkways that cross in the middle. If you take a left in the middle as you walk away from the river it lead to the Liang Shopping Center across a street. Cross the bridge to Boat Quay and walk along the river for some cool food places

URA Center Model

            Chinatown – Might want to set aside at least two days if you are going to be in Singapore for a while. Make sure to see the Buddha Tooth Relic, Heritage Center, Food Street, Maxwell Food Center (best hawker stand), Sri Mirraman Temple, Chinatown Center, URA Center (Singapore City Gallery with huge scale models of the city). Chinatown is the best place to get large volume, really cheap, cool but crappy gifts for people you need to get something for, but don’t want to spend a lot of money on.


            Little India – Quick in and out – try eating at a hole in the wall.

Coud Forest Waterfall

            Cloud Forest – this is actually in a huge area with giant fake trees, air-conditioned rain forests with water falls and other really cool stuff.

            Botanical Gardens – Mainly for the Orchid Gardens

            Night Safari – Book ahead and consider a tour. This is one of the few places you need a taxi or bus to get to. They have a pretty cool buffet dinner there.

            Explore and don’t be afraid to just wander in some random place for food.

Other things:

            Sentosa Island

            Casino

            River Safari

            Singapore Museum

            Arab Street

            Japanese Gardens

            Chinese Gardens

            Mt. Faber

            Harbour Front

Haw Par Village – almost made this a must do but it’s very weird but huge. It’s basically a crappy statues history of Chinese Myths. The 10 hells exhibit is disturbing and hilarious. It’s very close to an MRT station so you can do it quickly.

Food Names to Look For:

            Seng Fa Bak Kut Teh (Seng Fa is the chain, Bak Kut Teh is the food (pork rib soup))

            Fish and Chips

            Lassa (a drink)

            Nasi Lemak

            Kopi (Malaysian coffee with sweetened condensed milk)

            Satay
            Soba

           

Chicken and Rice

This is where you get Chicken and Rice at the Maxwell Food Center

Kaya Toast (very soft boiled eggs that you mix with soy and pepper and did toast in)

Chili Crab

Consider pre-booking a day trip to Johor Bahru in Malaysia. You will want to book ahead. It’s cool for cheap stuff, batik, weird food and the drive across the causeway.