Hooray for Singapore!

After waving goodbye to Indonesia, we were ready to enjoy Singapore’s beautiful gardens and clean streets. We heard from many people how incredible the city is and it did not disappoint. The fusion of culture and high standards of living make it quite a different destination than neighboring countries. We only had 2 days and 3 nights as a stopover but we packed it in.

Shout out to the clean and efficient subway

The highlight was Gardens by the Bay, which is Singapore’s most iconic landmark. It's a 250 acre park in Central Singapore and is a beautiful oasis in the midst of a bustling city.

 Futuristic avatar like trees

Our favorite part was the mind-blowing cloud forest. Inside a glass biome is 115 ft tall mountain covered in lush vegetation shrouding the world’s tallest indoor waterfall. Covered in plant life from tropical highlands up to 6,500 ft above sea level, the biome recreates the exact levels of humidity, temperature and cloudiness required by these plants at high altitudes. It was just incredible!

Singapore has quite a notorious reputation with strict laws- including no littering or chewing gum. These cheeky monkey had lots of giggles over that! 

Cooling off and showing off at the splash park

Singapore’s character is a melting of three main ethnicity (Chinese, Indian and Malay). Chinatown has a great vibe and it was fun to explore pagodas and chow down on some delicious food. We found a place that was famous for their hand pulled noodles and pan fried dumplings.  

We also stumbled on a Christmas market with carnival rides, Christmas light displays and wintry yet tropically-appropriate drinks! It was such a festive atmosphere and unexpected find. We had been homesick for celebrating the Christmas season at home and this really hit the spot.

 

Perfect way to spending a relaxing evening

A bumboat cruise on the river was a great way to end our stay.

The eyes are traditionally painted to ensure the boat can see upcoming danger.

The British ruled Singapore for 144 years so many people speak English and it  has a huge international expat population due to the finance industry. Being so clean, modern and easy to get about made our stay very relaxing. Besides exploring Chinatown, we didn't have opportunities to go deep into the culture. We've already vowed to come back, but for this round it was the perfect antidote to our homesickness.