Singapore - Our First International Trip Together

Singapore skyline.

Singapore was our first foreign trip together. Before this, we had done our little Pune-Mumbai ride and we had been to Papikondalu, Araku and around Vizag and finally Fort Kochi for the new year of 2016. I grew up listening to stuff about the Singapore Zoo, the Singapore Changi Airport and the Flyer. I had always been an aviation enthusiast since childhood and a visit to Changi was something I simply had to do. So we had four main objectives for this trip. Visit the gardens by the bay, Singapore Flyer, Singapore Zoo, S. E. A. Aquarium in Sentosa and do planespotting at Changi. So we booked a 4 day trip. We got pretty decent accommodation at the Fragrance Hotel Sunflower. Singapore was an erstwhile British colony after being a pirate hub for centuries. It was a British garrison during WW2. Currently it's probably one of the best cities in Asia to visit as a traveler.

Gardens by the Bay.

Cloud Forest, Gardens by the Bay.

We flew by Tiger Air, landing in Singapore on the morning of 29 Jan. We took all our luggage and hopped onto the metro at the airport, bound for the Gardens by the Bay. This is a grand garden with plants from all over the world house in huge greenhouses. Those include pitcher plants, boababs from Madagascar and every type of cactus imaginable. The main attraction there is the cloud forest, which is a giant manmade mountain which is misted every few minutes to simulate a cloud forest. After we were done with all this, we had lunch at the restaurant present there itself. Srivani couldn't digest the smell of seafood there. It began to rain after this and we waited for it to subside. We took the metro to Kallang station, which was 900m from our hotel. After a quick refreshment, we set out to visit the Singapore Flyer. This was the largest wheel when it was built. It overlooks the skyline of downtown Singapore and sits right above the F1 track. We had previously booked a slot on it for the evening of 29th. We hopped on for an awesome 30 minute ride aboard the Flyer. After the ride, we had dinner at an Indian restaurant in the same complex and caught a metro back to the hotel.

Formula 1 circuit. 

Singapore skyline.

From the Flyer.

At the astro store.

The second day was mostly spent in Sentosa. We visited an astronomy store to purchase a few telescope accessories for my inventory. Then we caught the metro followed by the monorail to Sentosa. At Sentosa, we visited the S.E.A Aquarium and the Underwater world. The S.E.A. Aquarium is a full fledged aquarium that rivals Monterey Bay. It's got underwater tunnels with tiger sharks and stingrays swimming overhead. We also witnessed the feeding sessions there. After this, we walked across to the other end to Sentosa to reach Underwater World. We took a spin in the Tiger Tower and walked through a nature trail by Fort Siloso. Underwater World was more of a Sea World kind of experience than an aquarium, with dolphin and sealion shows. It was already evening by now and we walked back to the monorail stop and took public transport to our hotel. 

Universal Studios, Sentosa. 

Underwater World, Sentosa.

The third day was spent in Singapore Zoo. This is a place I had wanted to visit since my childhood, following educational CDs that I had as a kid. We caught a cab to Singapore Zoo. The zoo was way better than the best Indian zoo. They had native animals such as the Komodo dragons on exhibit. They also had African fauna such as African lions, cheetahs, meerkats and the like. They also had a Madagascar exhibit which was free-range. We could walk in and experience lemurs up close. This inspired me to actually travel to Madagascar by that year end. They also had an elephant painting exhibit wherein a trained elephant comes around to draw paintings. We bought one such painting as a souvenir. The highlights were the polar bear exhibit and the panda exhibits (both the red panda and the giant panda). We continued onto the river safari. The riverine exhibits were amazing. The aquaria there housed everything from Gangetic gharials to the Mekong river catfish and manatees. We then took the river cruise which showed the zoo from the river point of view. We also took the Amazon River Quest, which was pretty much a kid-level stuff with wheeled boats going through capybara and jaguar exhibits. This finished our third day and we headed back for a good rest.

S.E.A. Aquarium, Sentosa.

Jellyfish. S.E.A. Aquarium

 The last day in Singapore began with a visit to the Merlion, the national symbol of Singapore. After a quick breakfast at the Starbucks there, we had a photoshoot by the Merlion, the most photographed monument in the world. We then caught a cab to Changi park. By now, we had exhausted our 3 day free metro pass. Changi park lies right on the glideslope to the Changi airport. We spent half the day lazing around in the park watching aircraft take off from its two runways. We then made it back to the airport by taxi to finish our trip. We spent the other half of the day exploring Changi airport itself, seeing what makes it the best airport in the world.

River safari cruise.

Madagascar exhibit with ringtail lemur. Singapore Zoo.

This trip was probably our most touristy trip yet. It has been a charming experience to an incredibly polite and nice country. We'll pass through Singapore a lot of times in the future now that Scoot and Tiger Air have merged and their fares to South East Asia match that of Kuala Lumpur based Air Asia.

Last day at the Merlion.

The elephant painting.