Last week, Drew & I were lucky enough to finally experience southeast Asia for our belated anniversary holiday! Neither of us had been anywhere in Asia before and even though we had heard mixed reviews about certain places, we were very excited. And let me tell ya...it did not disappoint!
We got to our hotel (for only a $15 cab ride I might add) and it was amazing! They let us check in that early thanks to Drew's platinum status with Marriott and we got to have breakfast on the concierge floor...27 stories above downtown Singapore. After that, we settled into our room a bit, got ready and headed out for the day. We had purchased a City Pass online ahead of time that allowed us to pay one relatively low cost and get access to the hop-on/hop-off bus and all of the other big attractions in the city. Using the HOHO bus as our sole means of transportation, that puppy paid for itself within the first 2 hours of being there!
Anyway--we hopped on the bus (no pun intended) and went straight to the Singapore Flyer. We were able to cash in our tickets and scoot in line before a huge group of tourists. It was a really cool way to see the city and took a little over half an hour to complete one rotation.
Afterwards, we grabbed a smoothie that was delish and then headed out on our duck tour. Some of you have asked if this is a tour where you look for ducks...I assure you it is not. It's one of those 'buses' that drives you around the city and then drives straight into the water and becomes a boat--like a duck! So we did that and got to go through the Marina Bay and hear some fascinating history about Singapore.
For instance, the famous 'Merlion' statue was resurrected because Singapore used to be a fishing village (hence the fish tail) and 'singa' in Malay means lion (hence the lion head.) So from that...we learned Singapore literally means 'lion city'.
From there, we took the bus and headed to an area called Clarke Quay with lots of bars and restaurants. Much to our dismay, none of the restaurants are open during the day! FAIL! The only place open there was Hooters. BIGGER FAIL! I was proud to say that I had never eaten at a Hooters in my life, but when you're tired and hot and starving, you do what you have to.
We got back on the bus and headed to the botanic gardens which were stunning. If we hadn't been exhausted and hot at that point, I would have wanted to stay longer! Our city pass did give us entry into the renowned orchid garden and it was well worth it. So many stunning flowers all in one place.
As the storm clouds rolled in we headed back to catch the next bus and relax at the hotel. We took our free bottle of wine and cheese platter (thanks again to Drew's platinum status) down to the pool where we relaxed for a whole 20 minutes before the bottom dropped out. Since we were exhausted anyway, we didn't mind the excuse to snuggle into the luxurious bed in our room. We got ourselves together and attempted to walk down the street for dinner but the rain deterred us and we opted for room service instead--glorious! (Side note: on our walk back through the underground walkway, we saw the newly-opened Krispy Kreme where there was an HOUR-long wait and a dozen doughnuts was $26!)
The next day I did something I have never done in my life. Thanks to jetlag, I was up at 5:45am so I decided to go to the gym and exercise. Yes--you read that right. After Drew got up, we enjoyed breakfast upstairs again before heading out for a little walk to see the area near our hotel. Nothing was open yet because it was a Sunday, so we came back to the hotel to Skype with Becky & Charlie. Afterwards, we walked across the street to the huge shopping mall called Ion and were in absolute awe of this place. It was 4 stories below ground and 4 above, spanned an entire city block and had a 4-story Louis Vuitton on both ends of the mall--just in case you didn't want to have to walk all the way back.
We learned very quickly just how expensive things are in Singapore. I went into a 7 for all Mankind jeans store and a basic pair of jeans was $595...even I don't like jeans that much!
For lunch we headed down to the Merlion area and...shocker...none of the restaurants were open there either! We ended up walking around the entire length of the marina to get to the Marina Bay Sands hotel and mall where we ate at a questionable burger joint. Another FAIL! We did get to see that mall, though, and wondered the whole time how all of these stores manage to stay open!
After heading back to the hotel to get ready, we broke down and took a taxi to the Fullerton Bay Hotel to have drinks at their rooftop bar. The views were pretty awesome, but for Drew to get a beer and me to get a mojito, the bill was $48!
Needless to say, we only had one drink before heading to dinner at a restaurant called Ku De Ta at the top of the incredible Marina Bay Sands hotel. Drew started not feeling well, but dinner was absolutely amazing!
To round out our trip in Singapore, we walked over to the Gardens by the Bay to check out the 'super trees' that were lit up! Then we walked back to the bay to catch the 'Wonderfull' light show on the water.
Singapore was definitely a really amazing city and I only wish we had more time to experience things! If it weren't so far away, I would definitely book a trip back. Maybe someday...
Stay tuned for part 2 about our trip to Thailand!
Cheers,
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