Monday, May 30, 2016

Singapore

This is a very late post about my trip to Singapore last year. Better late than never right?

So I landed in Singapore in the early morning August 15th while India was celebrating its Independence Day. When I planned for the trip, I expected to see a lot and even extended the tour plan to 5 whole days. I probably did not do my research properly. In 3 full days you can see and experience most of Singapore. My friend Shravan was there to host me – so I took this opportunity to the fullest.

First day, I got to see the night life that Singapore had to offer. We went around various pubs in Boat Quay and Clark Quay. There were a plethora of pubs around the place. There was Russian pole dancing in one, Bollywood themed in another and my favorite of all - the Altitude one pub.  It provides a fantastic night time view of the city. The open top pub on the 60th floor also acts as a good observation deck. 


At one Altitude 

On the second day, we were off to Sentosa Island – the place seemed to be too artificial. Singapore is only a city state, so when there is not much offering in terms of nature, folks have cleverly built and developed areas around the city and marketed it as a place of relaxation and fun.  There are many things one can do while at Sentosa, I explored Madam Thussads (duh! at last! ) . Spent some time at the beach and that was it. Honestly speaking, there is nothing much to do. But you can spend a whole day there. Other options include Universal studios and an Aquarium. (I skipped them both because I knew I could get similar, if not superior experience in the States). In the evening Shravan took me around Marina bay area, and there -   I had a jaw dropping experience. Downtown Singapore on one end and the Marina bay on the other. You could just sit for hours and keep staring the bay area around you. 





























By the fourth day, there was nothing much to do, so we went for a short visit to suntech city. Basically it’s a group of 7 office towers with a mega fountain in the middle. Also known as “fountain of wealth” it’s the world’s largest fountain.  After a couple of photo ops, we were on our way to Little India to visit the famous Mustafa stores. To my surprise the store stretches almost into 2 streets across the road! No wonder this is a famous place for tourists to visit and shop. In the evening, I was back in Marina Bay to visit the famous Merlion . Yes I had planned for this even before I came so it had to happen! 


























































On my last day, I spent the whole day in leisure at the Singapore botanical gardens. I love nature to bits and what better place to chill out in this big concrete jungle. 


At the singapore Botanical Gardens 


Panaromic view of the city
I bet it would take more than a day to explore the entire place. Once the garden tour was done, I still had time to visit the Merlion in the morning and the Singapore Flyer! Yay!  I always wanted to visit the London eye, but this one was something similar. So this was pretty much my experience. All of this was not possible without Shravan – who took me around places. So thanks Shravan!