Lena: The Fine City of Singapore

Singapore may be described as a very fine city, both figuratively and literally (wink).  The country boosts tourism as one of its bread and butter. Well, I couldn’t argue more. Once you’ve stepped out of the plane, Changi Airport would welcome you with millions of flyers describing and boasting all of the nice things to do in their country. Plus, in all turns and corners, Maps of Singapore are strategically offered – free for public and tourist consumption.

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WHERE WE STAYED

Ciara and Lena at SG, Jan 2011

This may not be my first visit for this year, Ciara and I graced Singapore for an almost 4-day visit early this year -- last January.  This second trip, also a 4-day visit, was actually planned during the last quarter of 2010. My beloved college friends and I were able to hook ourselves with some seat sales, thanks to Air Philippines, worth buying for! And the rest was history.

Compared to my first trip (a hotel stay), my friends and I opted to try one of the recommended (based on the Top5 Backpacking CNN GO Hostel Review I’ve stumbled upon) backpacking hostel in town. It is also way cheaper and more economical if you’re a budget traveler. 

The Hostel's Entrance

A Beary Good Hostel is quite a place, a very dainty hostel indeed. It portrays a festive array of vibrant pastel colors. And who could deny the all-so-cutesy feel emanating from its mainstay adornment of different bear stuffed toys – the name itself says it all.

Sitting Room & Dining Room

The hostel offers rooms comprising of 10 or 12 beds configuration.  All inclusive of free breakfast, common pc station and/or Wi-Fi access on their lobby. All of these are for a whopping 26SGD/pax/day.  A super saver!  Our previous hotel stay costs us at around 120SGD/twin sharing/day , no breakfast and Wi-Fi.

Computer Area

Aside from the free breakfast, it provides unlimited coffee, tea or hot chocolate. They also sell canned soft drinks (1SGD, usually 1.2-1.4SGD outside) and water (0.60SGD, usually 1SGD or more) in a cheaper price. And most importantly, they do have a list of warm and very accommodating employees. Kudos to that!

The Beds

The Room

Also, staying in this backpacker’s hostel was a new and thrilling experience. I get to meet and mingle with other tourists. They came in all walks of life. Different races, beliefs and cultures. Yet, we have the same passion –traveling!  I even gained a new Brazilian friend, hi to lovely Jessica! 

For more details, you can visit their website: A Beary Good Hostel

Singaporean Dollars

POCKET MONEY

This will really depend on your projected expenses and shopping skills. Haha!

Well, I do suggest that aside from your accommodation, transportation, food and entrance fee expenses, it’s better to make a bit more room for shopping and unexpected food expenses. You’ll never know when you’ll see that oh-so-nice dress and shoes. And the sooo-techy gadget you’ve been dreaming of. Besides, Changi Aiport has an almost fair enough Money Changer stations. You can always have your excess SGDs converted to USDs.

Tourist Pass

TRANSPORTATION

So how did we get around Singapore?! Well, the country does have a very efficient transportation system, mainly via MRT, Bus and Taxi. But for a budget and practical travelers that we are, MRT would be the cheapest and fastest choice. They also offer Tourist Pass which equates to unlimited MRT and Bus rides.  Weee!

The Pass would cost you 8/SGD per day + 10SGD refundable deposit.

For example:

1 Day Pass           8SGD + 10SGD = 18SGD

2 Day Pass           16SGD + 10SGD = 26SGD

Pass can be purchased in designated TransitLink Ticket Office; all are located in various MRT stations.

SG Tourist Pass Details: The Tourist Pass Website

By the way, after all the MRT rides, be sure to brace yourself for a whole lot of walking to and from connecting MRT line stations. Plus, all the walking you could imagine from one place to another. So, a nice and comfy slip-ons or flats are a feet’s best friend. Wink!

To get a better understanding on their taxi fare rates and surcharges, and I deeply suggest MRT and Bus over Taxi, you might want to take a peek on their website.

Surcharge fees varies depending on peak times. So, you have to pay for the meter rate fee + surcharge.

Taxi: SG Taxi Fare

Now, let the journey begins! Weee!

Sentosa Monorail

SENTOSA

The day after our arrival, we immediately headed out to Sentosa. During my last visit, Ciara and I were only able to enjoy Universal Studios attractions. Other points of interests were not given much attention due to a lot of unforeseen situations -- mostly, due to the part that we, Ciara rather, want to lay low on the walking part. She tends to have terrible leg or knee aches after some heavy walking. Ooops! Haha! Peace!

We woke up way early, had our breakfast and started our journey as early as 8am. No Tourist Pass was purchased for this day, we decided to get the pass the day after this one since the trip was basically called “Sentosa Day”.

It’ll take a minimum of 1 day to experience most of the must-see and must-try in Sentosa. Plus, considering the fact that Chinatown, the place where we’re staying, is a mere 1.4SGD (refundable, 1SGD) away from Harbour Front. Can you imagine that! You can do the math. Less than 8SGD!

There are 4 ways to get to Sentosa:

1. On foot, via the new Sentosa Boardwalk.
2. Via Bus + Sentosa Express.
3. Via Cable Car
4. Via MRT (Harbour Front) + Sentosa Express.

Getting Around Sentosa: Going Around Sentosa

I personally haven’t tried options 1-3. All of my trips to Sentosa were via MRT (Harbour Front) and Sentosa Express (3SGD, roundtrip). Sentosa Express is located at VivoCity, Lobby L Level3. For me, it’s the fastest way to get in and out of the island.

Our Sentosa Day was jam-packed with the following to-dos:

• Siloso Beach
• Merlion Plaza
• Underwater World
• Universal Studios Singapore (66SGD)
• Dolphin Lagoon (19.5SGD)
• Songs of the Sea (10SGD)
• SkyLine Luge (18SGD, 2 rides)

The Tram ride to Siloso

Siloso  Beach

We came in early; USS will not be open in an hour. So we decided to start frolicking towards the beach. 

From Sentosa Station, we alighted at Beach Station. A tram took us from Beach Front station into Siloso Beach. The same stop will also lead you to Underwater World. However, due to time constraints, we chose to go back for USS and skipped Underwater World after our Siloso trip. This is to maximize our stay in Universal Studios. I’d personally assured them that USS rocks, and they’d love me for dragging them out of Underwater World. Wink!

Jump at Merlion Plaza

We’ve procured our USS tickets a month prior to the actual trip. It’s so easy to buy online, plus less hassle of long lines during the actual visit.

BUY! Online: Universal Tickets

Universal Studios

Once inside, USS maps and shows screening schedules are at hand. So you’ll never get lost and even have the ideas on all the available attractions and rides on the said area. The whole stay was a blast. Super tiring yet all so worth it!

A wow-ing show at Waterworld. We LIKE!

 Waterworld and Lights, Camera, Action are my top two live shows. Very fascinating!

At Ancient Egypt, The Mummy

The Mummy and BattleStar Galactica are two of the must-ride! Not appropriate for the faint-hearted though.

Unfortunately, Transformers: The Ride will not be open until the 4^th quarter of this year. The ride is based on the film franchise of the same name and is said to employ 3D High Definition video and audio-animatronics. Can’t wait to try this! I just hope it’ll be a fun ride and at par to The Mummy and Battlestar experiences.

Mel's Drive-in

Burgers! Fries! Hotdogs!

By the way if you’re wondering bout the food, we had our lunch and quick snacks inside the park. A typical lunch, and cheapest I guess, would be in an American Burger joint called Mel’s Drive-in. A burger, fries and drink would cost you at around 12-15SGD, prices varies and can go up depending on add-ons and extras. The meal is pretty decent and comes in large servings. According to some of my friends, who are based in SG, Loui’s NY Pizza Parlor is also a must try. But I haven’s tried it yet, maybe on my next visit. Wink!

The whole USS trip ate up most of our day. It’s been a tiring yet so much fun adventure! We were out of the theme park at almost 7pm and took the Skyline Luge --2 rides for 18SGD. 


Luge was an exhilarating experience!  We enjoyed it a lot and almost wished that we took the unlimited rides but it’ll close soon and we still need to hurry and catch the Songs of the Sea’s last schedule, 8:40pm.

Songs of the Sea -- Happy Birthday DJ!

Captivating Show :)

 

Songs of the Sea is a fascinating show comprising of dramatic effects and pyrotechnics. It’s a musical show with lasers, water jets and flame burst. It’s a feast to look at; a visually entertaining and mesmerizing show I must say.

Immediately after the Songs of the Sea, we took our last Skyline ride and made our way out of Sentosa. We had dinner at Food Republic, almost called it a day at around 11pm and caught the late MRT ride home.

FUNAN DIGITAL MALL & SIM LIM SQUARE

We couldn’t let the chance slip and get a hold of good gadget finds. So we hopped on to Funan Mall on our third day and stopped over Sim Lim on our fourth day.

Funan is a huge mall comprising of all the gadgets you can think of, hence the name Digital Mall. We arrived early and we’re surprised to see that even though the mall is open at around 10am, many if not most of the stalls or gadget stores were still closed. That’s the minor disappoint though. How can that be possible?! Aaah! It’s strange not to open at almost the same time the mall opens. And due to that, we nearly spend most of the morning finding the right deal. Good thing we got an IT show-ish deal on a Lenovo laptop. We bought it immediately. 

Meanwhile, Sim Lim is far more rowdy than Funan. Analogy, Funan is to Glorietta as Sim Lim is to SM. Wink! We asked around, mostly about Samsung S2 and IPHONE 4. But it seems like prices were almost the same in comparison to our local Greenhills offerings. It’s slightly cheaper though ‘coz you’re entitled to a 7% Tax Refund in Singapore. The visit in this mall was quicker since I’ll just do some favor errands for my friends. I got a WD 500G HD for 78SGD. Sweet deal!

JURONG BIRD PARK and NIGHT SAFARI

At the bridge in Jurong Bird Park, overlooking the man-made falls

 

The visit for the two parks was done on our third day. We were behind schedule due to the mild Funan disappoint, plus the fact that it rained for quite some time. But we did make it! Thank God.

Flamingos

Happy Feet Penguin =)

 

Jurong Bird Park is situated in a 20.2 hectare hillside and is the world’s largest bird park in the world. The place is quite big and would require a lot of walking (again). This place is perfect for the animal loving person, specifically birds. I bet this would also be a grand and happy treat to your toddlers and kids. They’ll love it! It’s also a perfect subject for all of the photography enthusiasts. But what fascinated me the most were the penguins! They’re so cute. I guess I’m just a good old Happy Feet fan. Wink! Oops, not to forget the very amazing Kings of the Skies show. Superb!


There are various combo treat rates if you'll visit Jurong Bird Park, Singapore Zoo and/or Night Safari. We even had a 45SGD deal (Jurong Bird Park + Jurong Souvenir worth 11SGD + Night Safari with Tram). For more informations, visit them online.

Jurong Bird Park: Jurong Bird Park Site

Waiting for our Bus to Night Safari

Night Safari

We arrived at around 10pm. Took the tram ride, alight at the Leopard’s Trail for some walking and exploring, and then rode again towards our final tram journey. It took us almost an hour to finish. The minus-the-tram exploration option would have been nice but would take a lot of time (estimated at 1 ½ - 2 hours). We can’t opt for that since we’re dying to hop onto the last MRT ride (last train leaves at around 1145pm). Taxi fares are way expensive plus the fact that we’re so far from Chinatown.

Night Safari:  Night Safari Site

  

BUGIS STREET MARKET & CHINATOWN

Bugis, one of my favorite place to shop! It’s like the Divisoria of Singapore. All the nice finds and great bargains are here. The only drawback is that you don’t get to ask for Tax Refund. They mainly accept payments via cash basis and don’t hand out official receipts. A typical flea market style it is. But still, it’s a must visit. Whether to get the nice shoes, cute bags, trendy blouses, girlish dresses and numerous souvenirs; it’s just the place to visit. I even got some pretty dresses, and ‘pasalubong’ snacks in a local deli store. Sweet!

In comparison to Bugis, Chinatown is also a bustling area from morning till night. It’s also filled with must buys and good finds. It also offers a wide array of food. From pubs, al fresco restaurants, and local hawker-style food establishments. It’s all there!

My super fave!

A Bee-ry delicious Bakkwa from Bee Cheng Hiang

We also discovered that some souvenirs were cheaper in Chinatown compared to the one we got in Bugis. Aww! But the happy part was that I was able to get some packs of my oh-so-favorite OLD TOWN coffee at People’s Park Center. Yey! The popular Bee Cheng Hiang was also around the corner, right in front of our hostel. But no worries, you can purchase them at Changi Airport minus the tax and minus the carrying part from your place towards the airport. I bought 3kgs (45SGD per kg) of bakkwa and a bottle of refined pork floss (10SGD). Yum!

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Well, that mostly covers our SG trip. I hope that helps! Also, I suggest that to fully exploit the must-see and must-try in Singapore in a not- so-fast paced trip, it’s a better idea to stay for a minimum of 5-7 days. But hey! A 3-4 day stay of less sleep and tired body will also do, just to save those vacation leaves away! Happy traveling! =)