Singapore; though we had transited through Changi Airport many times, we had never really got time to explore Singapore. Well, its time had come 🙂 . My family and I had decided to visit Singapore and Siam Reap in Cambodia for a vacation in December last year. This blog post is to give a glimpse of what we did and saw around Singapore.

We spent 4 nights in Singapore during the trip. This allowed us to try out the various activities and attractions that we had wanted to visit. Well, what were they? Like you may know by now, if you have been following my blog over the years, we like to have a mix of outdoor activities along with the main attractions. And I of course had to do some birding as far as it was possible. I have an upcoming post dedicated to the birding I did. So in this post I will of course on the other aspects.

What we generally try and do when exploring a new place on our own is to take the public transport as well as walk around. This we feel gives us the best way to take in the essence of the place. And that is what we did in Singapore too.

Post taking it easy in the first half of our day of arrival, we dedicated the second half of the day to exploring the areas around Merlion Park, Gardens by the Bay and the Marina Bay. Here are some pictures taken from Merlion Park:

Here is an obstructed view of the iconic structure of the Marina Bay Sands resort as seen from the Merlion Park.

We then walked across to the Gardens by the Bay. Here are some photos from the walk:

Here are some photos from within the Cloud Forest Dome; one of the attractions there:

Back outside, night had fallen. And this gave us a complete different experience of the surroundings. Here are some the photos of what it was like:

Before we called it a night and headed back, the last item was to see the laser and water show in the Marina Bay area. To see this we made our way to the Marina Bay Sands waterfront. Here is what the skyline looked like in the night:

The show lasted for around 20 minutes and it was pretty good. It seemed to be a popular attraction going by the number of people who had come to see it 🙂 .

On the second day my wife and son spent the day at Universal Studios theme park whereas I dedicated it for birding. The last birding session of the day brought me back to the Marina East Park area. Here is the view from there:

The first half of day 3 was hiking around Singapore. We had chosen to do the Southern Ridges trail. Well what is it? The Southern Ridges is a network of trails, pathways and pedestrian bridges connecting 3 parks in the south of Singapore, between the Kent Ridge Park and Harbour Front. The total trail is around 10 kms and some parts are on elevated walkways. We decided to join the trail from the Henderson Waves. We took the MRT and then a bus to reach the start of the Henderson Waves. We had a wonderful experience throughout the hike. I would strongly recommend the trail if you do not mind walking. Here are some photos from the walk:

The last day was kept for seeing Orchard Road, shopping (lots!) and visiting the Botanical Gardens.

That evening we had a dinner invite at someone’s house. Here are more pictures of the night skyline from then:

Singapore is also known for its food. And we did not miss a chance to try many of them 🙂 :

Summary

Singapore is a very modern country. It has something for whatever interests one may have as a traveler; theme parks, nature, hiking trails, night life, food etc. You of course have to choose what you want to experience. So if you have not already been there, then you should certainly make plans to visit.