It has everything to make your dreams come true – from night safaris and luxury beaches, to museums, scrumptious cuisines, and extreme sports, too
One of the biggest advantages of making your passion your profession is that you are almost always guaranteed a lifetime of happiness :-). And so I embarked on my second trip to Singapore in a little over a year – with family in tow — thrilled with the knowledge that come what may, I was at the very least finally going to realise a lifelong dream of watching my favourite football team (Arsenal) play live.
While I spent the first four days of my 10-day “work-cation” mixing with professional footballers, attending press conferences, conducting interviews and watching matches, I had the nights virtually to myself to explore what is truly a fascinating city. Singapore doesn’t quite have the nightlife of a New York or a Paris, but there is enough on offer to make life fun. Two items that you must add to your nocturnal visits are Clarke Quay and the Singapore Zoo. While the former offers some fantastic options in terms of food (and drink!) and entertainment, the latter has an incredible night safari, a not to be missed experience.
A visit to Clarke Quay should ideally start with a walk along the riverside before adventuring onto the GX-5 Xtreme Swing. Not for the faint of heart, a group of four comfortably fits into a swing which then torpedoes skywards at 120 kmph. After reaching a height of about 50 metres, you’re then released in a manner in which you swing like a pendulum for a few minutes. The time passes by rather quickly and all you can really remember is screaming your lungs out while you oscillate around Clarke Quay.
Right next to the Xtreme Swing is another adventure attraction for adrenaline junkies -- the GMAX Reverse Bungy — it is like doing bungee jumping but in reverse. Once again done as a group activity, you sit in a pod and then are yanked up to a height of 60 metres at a speed close to 200 kph, before being instantly released downwards again. Neither activity should be attempted after having a bite as many first-time adventure seekers in my vicinity learned, and personally I’d recommend choosing one a day, rather than attempting them in quick succession, unless you are a regular at extreme sports.
With the adrenaline still rushing in your system, venture over to a noisy pub for some quick lubrication and then maybe move to a quieter restaurant on the riverside, where multi-cultural cuisines are on offer. The “work” leg of my vacation ended with taking my family over to see Arsenal vs Everton, and while they were chuffed to bits with the entertainment on offer at the Singapore Sports Hub, it was time to move on to more kid-centric activities to make the trip to Singapore all the more memorable.
A little over 700 square kilometers, Singapore is a really tiny place to visit, and any destination inside the city is less than an hour away. A Guided City Tour ensured that all the top tourist destinations were officially visited at least once, giving us time to plan where we would spend the bulk of our time going forward. The Botanical Gardens was one of our top targets, and for nature lovers it is a dream come true. It is a little warm to traverse on foot all day long, but the Orchid Garden specifically is well worth the trip alone. Wrap up your day with a meal at the Blue Bali restaurant, and that’s one day of your vacation really well spent.
A trip to Sentosa was next on our agenda, and while the small island is outside the official city limits, moving to and from central Singapore is quite easy. There is so much to do on Sentosa alone that one could easily spend three-four days there, but we had to make do on this particular trip with a visit to just Universal Studios. Universal Studios is a truly fantastic experience, but one needs to be prepared to get into long lines and wait for a while, especially for some of the more popular rides. Whatever you do, don’t go to Universal Studios on a public holiday, you could end up waiting for hours.
Sentosa has a lot to offer including an Underwater Aquarium, and a Dolphin Lagoon, which we were forced to skip on this trip, but it on our agenda for next time. It also has a Madame Tussauds and some really amazing beaches, making me consider the prospect of perhaps staying at a hotel on Sentosa itself next time. Back to Singapore though, and there was still plenty we wanted to do before boarding our flight home. A trip to Jurong Bird Park was next, and while nowhere near as enjoyable for adults, the kids certainly loved it. Seeing live penguins as soon as we entered was certainly unexpected, as was the Birds of Prey show, which had real vultures and hawks flying over our heads!
In the afternoon we made our way to the country’s famous Raffles Hotel to finally try out Singapore’s most famous concoction, the Singapore Sling. The drink itself was a little too sweet for my liking, but the atmosphere in the bar was amazing. The peanut baskets at each table, where visitors shell their own peanuts, and then toss them on the floor was a unique experience. Fortunately for me I had three kids in a tow who were happy to do the shelling before a predictable food fight broke out in our corner. Trying to squeeze in as much as possible into our holiday, we finally made our way to the top floor of Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which has an amazing ocean liner design at the top of three buildings, and is believed to offer the best view of the city. Sadly though, the weather gods intervened for only the second time on our trip, denying us our dream view.
Armed with our umbrellas and still full of enthusiasm, we ventured over to the Gardens by the Bay and spent the late evening watching the amazing light and sound show. Unfortunately, we couldn’t really enjoy the attraction in all its splendour, and I would strongly recommend a daytime visit for anyone who plans on heading here in the future to make the most of it. Our past two stops in Singapore were also easily the most enjoyable. Singapore has something called an Alive Museum, a 3-D interactive photo exhibition, where patrons are encouraged to actually touch the art and be a part of the experience. For the kids it was a totally memorable experience as they posed for pictures galore with everyone from Superman to Marilyn Monroe!
Before heading home, we decided to spend our last day in Singapore on the beach, hoping to inhale as much fresh air as we could muster into our lungs and also enjoy an off-day lazing around after an actionpacked holiday. East Coast Park has a nice relaxed setting without too many people and a small beach where the children can build sand castles to their hearts content. It also has some enjoyable little restaurants where one can grab a drink and a bite without burning a massive hole into your wallet, which honestly the rest of Singapore manages ridiculously well.
Having had our share of fun to last us a year, we returned to where it all began — Changi Airport, which is unsurprisingly rated one of the best in world. Having not had much time to explore it when we arrived, we enjoyed the couple of hours we had before our departure at this airport which gives the impression of being more like a mall-meets-hotel. Blessed with a swimming pool, a spa, its own theatre, not to mention a butterfly garden, one almost wished our flight home was going to be delayed!