Singapura

Singapore…a trip for kids, for they deserved it. Planned it in 20 days and decided on our travel dates- April 28- May 2, 2017. Why didn’t we take up later dates, coz we thought baby will have her classical music exam during May 3^rd or 4^th week. After booking, a day or two later we got to know that her practical exam dates could be anywhere from May 2- May 7. Without thinking twice, we put in a request to the center asking them to change the dates and requested them to keep it for her post May 4^th. Glad that it all worked out & she gave her practical exam on the 5^th of May and Theory on 7^th of May and Piano Grade 5 theory on 6^th of May. So you can imagine the amount of pressure built on my dear darling.

@ Chennai Airport, Indian flag flying high

We planned our trip starting from Chennai as the ticket deals were better from there. Got Chennai- Singapore Scoot tickets for Rs.4000/- per head. Luggage add-on was 1500 more for per 20kgs of luggage. Drove down to Chennai in our forever reliable Force One. Our flight from Chennai was at 1.20AM IST April 28^th. Arrived SG at 8.15AM SG time after 4.5hrs flight. We were booked at Hotel Boss. Well we chose it amongst the 3 options we were given by GOZO travel team. 

At the reception of Hotel Boss

Centrally located with MRT (metro train) connectivity, walkable distance from Little India & Arab street, Hotel Boss is an ideal hotel to stay.. but again only if you intend to go back to the hotel and just sleep. Good comfortable beds. But the rooms are pretty small, one double bed occupies the whole room. There is no closet, only hangers provided. Space on stool to keep just 1 baggage. Works well for single travelers or a couple. With kids difficult. No moving around in the room…jump straight onto bed. Washroom is about 3 ft x 5 ft/ 6ft. Someone really planned it well to make sure space was utilized to its best lol. Food- average, breakfast was the only food we had there, and absolutely no variety in the 4 days that we stayed there. Same breakfast buffet served all 4 days. Well….it does make it easy on 2^nd day for us to choose what to eat and what not to :P. Otherwise a clean hotel and courteous staff except for the lady managing the restaurant entrance who was like a school headmistress. Okay, review on hotel given. 

DAY 1:::

On the way to Little India

Mustafa Shopping Mall in the background

Indian restaurants @ Little India

Get some idly here

Outside Mustafa

A walk through the streets

@ Night Safari

Indian Tandoor- Restaurant @ Night Safari

Day 1:: We checked-in at 11am or so. With nothing to do after freshening up & long rest we explored one part of Mustafa Shopping mall which was just 5-7 mins walk away from the hotel. Lunch was at Kailash Parbat- tasty north Indian food. Evening the plan was to go for Night Safari (nocturnal animals). The travel guy reached late for the pick up and we ended up at the Night safari only at 7.30PM. Those who want to enjoy this place to maximum should have atleast 3hrs in hand. Because we reached late, we missed “the creatures of the night” 8.30 show. It was full! The travel guy had asked us to get back to the drop spot by 9.30PM and the next show was at 9.30. We decided to give a skip to the cab and travel back to the hotel on our own. Good decision taken. Why? Coz we enjoyed our night safari in an open tram, educating ourselves about all the animals we got to see and then got ourselves a good seat for the night show. Dinner options plenty for non-vegetarians. Luckily this place has a roti sabji, rice dal option. We went in for the Dal rice option since it had lesser waiting time. The lady at the night show kept us all entertained & we got to see quite a few animals at a close distance and learn about them too. We never imagined that a 20 min show could leave us in such awe. By 10 we were out. Next was to look for a way to reach back our hotel. We headed for the city bus. Lucky to have got the last bus which leaves at 10pm. Since we were the last travelers we got some discounted price on the ticket too. Guess what, it was double decker bus. What an experience, watching the night sky, wind blowing on the face, diamond like glitter on the buildings. We got down at a stop which was 15 mins walk from our hotel.  A good nights sleep and next day our visit was scheduled for Universal Studios.

DAY 2:::

 

Roller Coaster in the background

Madagascar in the background

My turn to show off the Car I liked

Water World

Transformers

Sesame Street

Phamilee

The Mummy

He & I

Trying the Minion Glasses

Day 2:: OMG! Universal Studios is one place for kids to go crazy. With 8hrs in hand….Madagascar, Shrek, Waterworld, Sesame Street, Jurassic Park, Transformers are just a few that amaze you. We were advised by our tour guide asking us to look for rides with lesser wait time and then try for different rides. Another tip given was that the first few rides would all look full with higher waiting time, so walk in first and try the rides which are inside, they would have lesser waiting time. And as suggested by him, that is what we did. The least waiting time that we saw was 15 mins. Got used to standing in queues before we got any rides/ shows. Shrek had a 4D show in a large auditorium. Jurassic Park & Mummy had a scary ride. Water world we experienced a mini cinema right there. Madagascar was a lovely ride. Transformers had a 4D ride almost a real time experience of being in the movie. The only ride we didn’t try was the Giant roller coaster. Make sure you pick up the brochures kept at the entrance. They help you with time of different shows which are not to be missed. We got to see the Waterworld- The lost world, Sesame Street Stage show, Madagascar Boogie, Shrek- Happily Ever After, Meet the egyptian royalty, Jurassic Park- Look out! Velociraptors have escaped in Jurassic Park. This place has lots of restaurants, very few options for vegetarians. Plain cheese Pizzas seemed to be the safest choices we could make. Icecream gave us company too. 7.30PM we were picked up by our tour operator and dropped back to the hotel. Dinner- Soft phulkas, sabji, dal combo, Dal khichdi, Milo, Lassi- at Bikaneri Express in Little India, opposite Mustafas.

DAY 3:::

@Jurong Bird Park

Hornbill

Pelicans grand entrance

Feeding the Lory Bird @ Lory Loft

@ Lory Loft

Found this pair hiding away

With the Penguins

Day 3:: Morning 9am we were ready for Jurong Bird Park. This place ideally needs a full day to explore every bit of it. We were asked to go in for the Eagle show, Penguin show and then go for the tram ride. Tram ride is on extra charges. Eagle show was another wonderful experience like the Night safari show. Live appearance of the eagles, vultures and owls with explanation on each of these birds. Penguin show was too cramped since the venue for this show is right at the entrance and viewing is not that easy. I managed to get the kids a good spot for them to view the show. Next was the High flyer show which wasn’t told to us earlier, but we were glad that we went for this one. Amazing experience of watching and knowing about different kinds of birds, the Toucans, pelicans, flamingos, parrots. Absolutely colorful show. We had been asked to return to the pickup spot by 1.30, which seemed a bit too early. Not even 3hrs given from the time we were dropped to Jurong Bird park. And after all the bird shows it was already 12pm and we hadn’t yet got onto Tram ride. 

In the tram

We decided to ditch the cab guy again do our own return travel. Tram ride turned out to be not so exciting one. Would have worked best for the aged & the little ones. The way the tram ride works is, you get off at certain stops, experience the birds there and what each stop has to offer and then go back to the tram stop and get on to the tram (after a queue & if there is space in tram) and get off at the next stop. Funnily we were the only idiots who got off from the tram thinking we could go see the Lory Loft (lory bird feeding). Getting an empty tram to move on became a pain. So we decided to ditch the tram and started to walk. We gave waterfall aviary a miss since we had not carried an extra pair of clothes to be worn after playing in the water. V managed to get one empty seat for mummy in the tram and we walked up towards the main entrance. So for those who really wish to enjoy Jurong Bird park—keep full day with you and walk the way to enjoy it to the fullest. Lunch again turned out to be Veg Pizza’s at Pizza hut. Now for the return journey, the cab guy had already left. We stepped out of the gate and enquired for the bus stop. There we met an Indian origin Singaporean who was also headed towards Mustafa. So we just followed his instructions. Bus until the MRT station. From MRT station a ride in the MRT to Bugis street to shop. This reminded me of Avenue road in Bangalore. People people everywhere. Cheap eateries. Fun shopping. Souvenirs, Watches, clothes, chocolates, footwear. Anything you would want to buy is here. Here we tried the Icecream sandwich. A thick slice of flavoured icecream kept between a folded slice of flavoured bread. You are expected to eat it like a sandwich..bite into it. Surprisingly even in that hot weather the ice cream did not melt until it was finished. Taste- not great. Dinner that night was at Saravana Bhavan in Little India. Masala Dosa, Paper Masala Dosa, Parota, Veg Meal. With tired legs, we ended our day a bit early.

DAY 4:::

 

Marina Square

Fountain of wealth

Singpore Flyer cabin

View of the city from flyer

Another one from the flyer

Time for a shot

Floating Stadium

After the flyer ride

Supposed to be a Casino in the shape of a ship

The Merlion Park

At the Merlion Park

Victoria Memorial Hall

The Fullerton Hotel

Candylicious @ Sentosa

@ Sentosa

Madam Tussades Museum

My brave girl with the White Python

Couldn't have been left behind

Cable car @ Sentosa

First view of the Wings of time show

Merlion @ Merlion Park

'Wings of Time' Show

Merlion @ Sentosa

Day 4:: City tour & Sentosa Island. We were picked up right on-time from the hotel with a tour guide who took us through a short city tour explaining the significance of each place we passed. Singapore Fountain of wealth, Supreme Court, Singapore Merlion park & Singpore Flyer. Singapore flyer hadn’t been paid for in our trip plan. But since baby insisted we went for it. Awesome experience of being 165m from the ground and getting a visual treat of whole of Singapore from that height. It is supposed to be Asias largest Giant wheel. The merlion park was the next stop. Merlion is the official mascot for Singapore with water fountain coming out of the lions mouth. At 12pm in the afternoon it was hot, but the water there kept us cool. Post this, we were brought back towards our hotel for lunch stop for an our before we headed to Sentosa. Lunch was at Komala’s. We decided to have Combo meals there. Channa bhatura with fries, Dosa, Poori combo, Mini meal- all with a drink. Entrance to Sentosa is at the same place as Universal Studios. We explored for a while for others to finish up with their aquarium experience. Another large Merlion welcomed us in. We gave Madam Tussades wax museum a skip. Headed for the Tiger sky tower experience. That gave us another breathtaking view of Singapore- 110m above the ground. Next was the cable car experience..this was longer than the one we had experienced in Malaysia. We were given about 30 mins before the rest of the tourist with the tour operator could meet up again. With the tickets we had a deal of picking up free drink or ice cream and coffee. So our next 30 mins was with stomach fueling station J 7.30PM show was our next stop—“The Wings of Time”. An open air show with Laser lights, fireworks, Water fountains, water jets & projector, this is one awesome experience which no one should miss. The story of a bird taking the 2 kids through journey of time. It was a beautiful & colorful experience for all of us. Our day ended with a big happy smile on each of our faces. Dinner was at Bikaneri Express again.

DAY 5:::

Arab Street

Changi Airport

Day 5:: The day of our return to Bangalore. With no agenda set for day 5, and checkout time as 11am, we finished breakfast & checked out. Some shopping at Mustafa and lunch at Little India. Post lunch, V  I let the kids & mummy rest at the reception & walked to explore Arab street. Beautiful architecture all over the street with a lot of eating options for non-veg eaters. Souvenir shops is what took away my time. Some chocolate shopping on the way back made kids happy. Some more chocolate shopping at the store right outside the hotel and it was packup time. The Tour operator picked us up at 7.30PM to drop us at the airport. Flight back was with TigerAir straight to Bangalore. A walk at the Changi Airport put baby in a different zone...she wanted to turn into the fishes in the pond there and stay back in Singapore :)

Changi Airport

One more tick in the box—Singapore shown to kids and mummy. Those with kids, this is a must see place. For the aged it can get a bit tiring. Most places are wheel chair friendly. Learning- better hire a wheel chair when traveling with aged folks to ensure they get enough rest. 

Tips::

• Make sure you carry light cotton clothes only. It is mostly hot & humid. 
• Good pair of shoes you can walk in-- there's lot of walking to be done 
• A hat/ cap & Sun glasses 
• Sun Screen lotion 
• Cash in hand necessary when going shopping. Restaurants can be managed with card.
• Pick up brochures & maps at every place you visit.  
• Jurong Bird park-- paying up for tram could be a waste. Ideally walk and explore all the places there. And dont miss any of the shows. 
• Bugis street is the best place to shop for Souveniers, Clothes & chocolates. Dont waste money buying chocolates in places where the tour operator takes you. Prices are higher and the taste of the chocolate is not great either. 
• Night safari-- Creatures of the night show should not be missed 
• Definetely watch the Wings of time show at Sentosa. It takes you to dreamland.
• MRT & bus frequency is too good, so if you are travelling alone or as couple, rely on them. Pick up MRT card (refundable at any MRT station) and travel around. Avoid cabs as they can be expensive 
• Dont be late for your bus/ cab if you are with tour operator, they wont want.
• If going with family, better to consult a tour operator.

eeehaaaaa

Jurassic Park @ Universal Studios