Singapore Trip

Want to know what the best travelling experience I ever had? Singapore! A small developed country which mostly the citizen is Chinese, a country where English transforms to be Singapore English and is used as a national language. As a citizen from developing country, I wanted to know how a developed country looks like. To fulfill my curiosity, visiting Singapore might be the best choice. It isn’t far and not so expensive like European or USA country. Besides, many airplanes company offer promotions flight going to Singapore. Those reasons and some other reasons made me fly to Singapore.

 22^nd of October 2011 was the time. We went to Singapore for five days. We went to the airport by taxi in early morning. That was at 3 am. The flight was only 2 hours from Ngurah Rai International Airport to Changi International Airport in Singapore. That was unforgettable experiences.

I didn’t think that I would get so many ‘wow’ expressions there. First, the thing that made me ‘wow’ is the Changi Airport. It is so much better than Ngurah Rai Airport. I started wonder how other International Airport in other developed country would look like. On the way getting out of the Airport, there were some taxies waiting for passenger. There was a luxury black car on that line. Someone came and asked us to get in to the car. Then I realized that was a taxi. The taxi had luxury seat and LCD TV inside. That was the second ‘wow’ in my mind. 

The taxi driver drove us to the hotel that we have booked online. On the way to get the hotel I saw beautiful-cared park, and so organized traffic. That was totally NOT like the traffic in Bali.  The taxi headed to Sims Avenue 112 in Geylang where the hotel is, not so far from the airport. The hotel’s named Amrise hotel. It was okay, with AC, TV, and warm water.

We started to experience Singapore just after putting our bags in the hotel. We went around the hotel, and had lunch in small restaurant at the street side. There were so many Chinese restaurants which were always full by people, Singaporean. One thing I still wonder of is about Singaporean who often stay up late watching football match in the restaurant close to our hotel, but they still be able to wake up early on the next day. I wonder how much they have sleeping time.

On the first day we went to Bugis junction, a big mall in Bugis. That is so big mall, where you can find a playing-water park with various color flowing up and down. Singapore has many big malls anywhere for example; Bugis Jucntion, Orchad central, Cathay mall, Ilumo mall, vivo city mall, Singapore convention center and many more, I don’t remember. Not only big malls, Singapore has also many skyscrapers like apartments or schools. That is caused of the increasing population in limited land since Singapore is small, it might be one third of Bali.

a temple in Little India

Besides, Chinese tribes there are large number on Indian people live in Singapore. They have their own area with shops and temples called Little India. You can find typical Indian food, merchandise, clothes, and ‘pacar’ art painting on Indian girl’s hand there.

Little India

If there is Little Indian for Indian people, there is also China town where you will find typical Chinese things, starting from the food until the sandals with Chinese pattern. Everything has Chinese characteristics.

China town

One thing also interesting about Singapore is their government who has project to make two types of Singapore, Old Singapore and Modern Singapore. A taxi driver said anything like a building is built in two versions, Old and Modern. If there is an old building, it will not be damaged. It will be let alive while the modern version of that building is built. Such a wonderful idea to make income in tourism field.

Singapore doesn’t have many natural beautiful panoramas, such as beaches, mountains, waterfall etc. They build amazing recreational places to attract the tourists visiting Singapore, one of them is Sentosa Resort World which has many tourism objects inside, such as; casino, hotel, The Merlion Tower, Ifly Singapore, Universal Studio Singapore, and many more.

You can go to Sentosa Resort World by Sentosa Express. The station of Sentosa express is in Vivo City Mall. You can buy the ticket for Sentosa Express with only 3SGD with operating time from 7 am- 12mn. It is used for one day long, so you can go there as many time as you want without buying a new ticket in the same day. From the Sentosa Express station you will be dropped to your destination (sub-station). The first point is waterfront station where Universal studio n casino placed. The second point is Imbiah lookout station where you can see Singapore from The Merlion Tower. The third point is the beach station where you can see the beach and the Singapore Ifly.

Far Far Away in Universal Studio

The most attractive place in the Resort World Singapore is the theme park Universal Studio Singapore. To experience Universal Studio, you will need to buy the entry ticket 48SGD for child, 66SGD for adult on weekday and 52SGD for child 72SGD for adult on weekend. In the universal studio you will find so many theme parks, they are: Hollywood, New York, Mummy, Jurassic Park, Far Far Away, Giant Roller Coaster, Water World and many more. One day is not enough to try out all the games in Universal Studio. I suggest you to come earlier and make sure you are in a good stamina. :D

Singapore Flyer

Another attraction of Singapore comes from Singapore Flyer. It might be the twentieth ‘wow’ of Singapore. Singapore Flyer is World’s largest giant observation wheel, which standing at a stunning 165 m. It offers breathtaking 360 degree views of Singapore and beyond. One capsule can be ridden by more than ten people.

National Museum of Singapore

The last day in Singapore after experienced Resort World, Universal Studio, Singapore Flyer, China town, Little India, the malls, we planned to visit Singapore Zoo. The first plan changed because it was raining at that day. The decision is to visit National Museum of Singapore.  We were lucky that was free entry day get into the Museum. The museum is technologically built. It has thousand plasma TVs describing Singapore history. Amazing.  It was the last place we visited before fly away from Singapore to Bali on 26^th of October 2011. 

Five days staying in Singapore was not enough to explore more about him. I would like to go to Singapore again if I get another opportunity. I would be so happy to be able to go to other side of world.  That’s of course when I have much money. :D