Singapore

Singapore was the last stop on our whirlwind tour which started in Perth, headed to Brisbane and then home via Singapore. With just 30 hours here before the flight to London, we hit the ground running! First stop was the Marina Quay, home to The Shoppes, a huge shopping mall with luxury brands and home to the most iconic of all Singapore hotels, the Marina Bay Sands. Singapore is famous for its nightly light shows on the quay and crowds gathered to watch ‘Spectra’, a magnificent symphony of music, light and water show powered by advanced lasers, fountain jets and visual projectors. There’s a great atmosphere at these events which are free to watch.

Naturally we then headed up to the 57th floor of the Marina Bay Sands, to the rooftop bar and an extensive cocktail list. As befitting a 6-star hotel, the service here is exemplary and they are perfectly used to tourists gawking and asking for pictures with the rooftop infinity pool as the backdrop!

We stayed in the Katong area of Singapore, just 10 mins/10 dollars taxi ride from the centre. Taxis are regulated and easy to hire on the streets – cheaper to do this than from the hotels, who charge a booking fee. Our Village Hotel Katong was well appointed, with amazing buffets (including curry!) for breakfast and lunch and an outdoor pool and gym. This is an area more inhabited by locals and a great place to stay if you want a more Singaporean experience with wonderful, inexpensive food, lovely coffee shops and bars and many restaurants open till 4am. A much quieter feel here than the bustle of the centre of Singapore, Katong was the location of villas and mansions belonging to the wealthy.

Next stop was Sentosa Island, an integrated resort on an ‘island’ just off Singapore, linked by roads and tunnels. This is Singapore’s playground for locals and foreigners alike, with Universal Studios rides, cable cars to take you to the top of Mt Faber, indoor skydiving, one of the largest aquariums in the world, adventure park with zip wire experience, resorts world and shopping, as well as many 4- and 5-star hotels. I can see this is great fun for families for a few days, but I personally preferred Singapore itself. Singapore is now in its 56th year of independence and English is widely spoken as it is the language in which everything is conducted there, plus it’s compulsory in schools. The public transport system is easy to navigate and the whole island is beautifully clean, with fines for litter dropping, chewing gum being dropped etc. It’s a fun destination and well worth a stopover for 2 or 3 days either on the way to or on the way back from further destinations or even as a holiday in its own right.