A Week in Singapore

With 2 weeks remaining of my year abroad before returning home to London, my second last stop took me to Singapore for a week. Having never visited before, and curious to build on my South East Asia travels after spending a month in Bali, I tried to explore as much of the city as I could within a week. This blog will take you through the 5 days of sightseeing I did, hopefully giving you an idea of what Singapore has to offer.

Day 1

VivoCity Mall 🛍️

Arriving late the night before, I ventured out of my hotel for the first time to reach VivoCity, a shopping hall located in the Harbourfront precinct. It is the largest shopping mall in Singapore, with almost 100,000 square metres of lettable area spread over 5 floors. I'm not much of a shopper myself, but it was interesting to walk around and appreciate the sheet scale of the place. The mall also has very good connections with bus, train and skyrail routes, making it very easy to get to.

🚌🚆On the note of public transport, getting around Singapore is super easy, cheap and reliable, with an excellent public transport system. You can use your credit/debit card to tap on and off, so if you're here for a short time I wouldn't worry about getting a transport card. The city is designed to be walkable and reduce car use, hence I didn't use taxis the entire week (only to get to and from the airport with all my luggage)

Sentosa Island 🏝️

Stand Up Paddle 🛶

After reuniting with a university friend, we made our way to Sentosa Island - an island resort off Singapore's southern coast. You can get to it using the cable car, walk, cycle or the Sentosa Express - a form of train. We used the latter, and got onto the island in less than 10 minutes from the mall. There is loads to do on the island, home to Universal Studios, a waterpark, various museums and beach clubs. At Ola Beach Club I gave stand up paddle (SUP) a go - which I found pretty easy after utilising my surfing skills. From the beach we could take our boards out into deeper water, finding good vantage points to watch the huge container ships make their way to Singapore's port.

Palawan Beach 🏖️

Once back on land, we walked to Palawan Beach on the island, home to the southernmost point of continental Asia. I had to use the "big bridge" to get across to the viewing tower - a suspension bridge made of rope crossing a body of water.

Chinatown Walking Tour 🐉

Using the MRT (mass rapid transit, similar to the subway) we then made our way to Chinatown, another precinct in Singapore. There I had booked a free walking tour using Monster Day Tours, a company that provides free walking tours in many areas of Singapore. I would highly recommend using them, as they cover most the city and are very informative. From what I remember of the tour, some interesting trivia about Chinatown included:

• Fuk Tak Chi Museum - kept the fountain atthe back of the building, where someone used to do their washing!
• Thian Hock Keng Temple​ - a perfect example of Singapore's old and new. People ask the sea god for protection, and there are bats in the temple.
• Singapore is a very new country (established in 1965), that has gone through rapid development to bring itself out of poverty and poor living conditions to the country it is today.
• Maxwell Food Centre - try the fresh sugar cane juice here
• Sri Mariamman Temple - oldest Hindu temple in Singapore

Day 2

Southern Ridges Hike 👣

The Southern Ridges is a 10km walk connecting 3 parks along the southern ridge of Singapore. You don't have to walk the entire length - as there are multiple points to join and exit the route. We started in Mount Faber Park, and made our way though to Kent Ridge Park. You get to appreciate a different personality of Singapore - the harbour, residential towers, greenery and business district are all in sight.

Gardens By The Bay - Daytime 🌱 ☀️

Part of the Marina Bay Sands complex, Gardens by the Bay is a nature park spanning 101 hectares in the Central Region of Singapore. There are various attractions in the garden (most require tickets). I went to the Cloud Forest and Flower Dome attractions. They were huge attractions that had their own micro-climate. Plants and exhibitions were placed at various levels, meaning you could see things from different angles.

Marina Bay Sands 🌆

The iconic Marina Bay Sands, with it's 3 towering structures and boat like shape connecting the buildings, is also home to a huge shopping mall at it's base, and outside the fountain show 'Spectra' comes to life. The majority of this development is high end, with luxury stores, casinos and fine dining. However, the fountain show is free to view, and the entire Marina Bay area has been developed to make it an attractive place to hang out. I would recommend coming here both at day and night, each have their own charm.

Day 3

Fort Canning Park 🪷

The first stop of today was Fort Canning Park, a green space within Singapore's CBD. Originally having military and strategic importance for Singapore, it is now home to a gallery, murals, and various gardens.

Asian Civilisations Museum 🏛️

I could have spent a little longer at Fort Canning Park, but I had booked a free guided tour at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) for mid-morning so made my way over there. I recommend doing the free tour in the ACM, as it's a great way to get the key points and ideas from the exhibitions. Some of the key points I took away were:

• Singapore is a melting pot of many different cultures and traditions, from west to east Asia. This in turn influenced cultures and created combined outcomes, trade between different regions for popular goods, and different thoughts and belief systems.
• Diversity and the creation of a multicultural society was around long before it became popular in today's world. The main trade routes allowed for an exchange of information through people travelling, just at a slower pace than today.
• There was also a Jain exhibition section in the ACM which I was pleasantly surprised by!

Marina Bay Walking Tour 🏙️

Using the MRT, I made my way to Marina Bay for the third time to join the free walking tour. This tour was clearly different from the Chinatown tour I had done earlier in the week, with a focus on the development of the modern Singapore as we know it today. I got some good insights as we walking around the Marina Bay area, including:

• The Marina Bay is actually freshwater, not saltwater. A barrage was used to create the space, and the Bay is one of 17 reservoirs around the country that collect freshwater for use.
• Singapore has to import some of it's water and energy imported from abroad. They are connected to the ASEAN power grid, meaning that surrounding countries can help each other supply energy.
• SG has no space to build it's own renewable plants, so buys renewable electricity from abroad.
• Singapore have a goal to keep their city clean as the waterways around it are used for drinking water - an uncommon concept in most modern cities.

Gardens By The Bay - Night 🌱 🌙

I mentioned Gardens by the Bay again as it's worth checking it out at night too. It's all nicely lit up, and I did the OCBC Skywalk at dusk. Most the attractions are open till late at night, so you can come after an evening meal and spend time here.

Day 4

Jewel Changi Airport 🛫

I originally was meant to go for a hike on the morning of day 4 in Singapore, but woke up to heavy rain. So I switched my plans and made my way to Changi Airport to explore the Jewel. This is the first time I've ever visited an airport with the intention of looking at it like a tourist attraction, and not to fly anywhere!

The Jewel isn't actually an airport terminal itself, which is what I originally thought. You can access it from any of the terminals quite easily. It is a self-contained ecosystem of rainforest like vegetation, shops, restaurants and places to chill spread over 7 floors. These all surround a 40m high waterfall that is the centrepiece of it - the largest man made waterfall in the world.

MacRitchie Reservoir ⛵

Making my way out of the city in the afternoon, I paid a visit to MacRitchie Reservoir. The area surrounding it definitely felt more suburban, with fewer high rise buildings and less noise. My original plan was to do the 5km walking trail, along the Jelutong Tower trail. As I set off, you feel a sense of peace and quiet, spotting the odd monkey in the forest. The walks around the reservoir are ok to do in trainers, but I would recommend walking shoes if it's muddy.

Arriving at Jelutong Tower and climbing to the top, you rise above a canopy in the heart of the forest. This also meant that I found myself in the middle of nowhere, and ended up doubling my hiking distance to 10km to get out. Nonetheless, it was a nice change from the densely built up city.

Day 5

Little India Walking Tour 🚶

My final day of sightseeing in Singapore started with a free walking tour of Little India. Whilst I would usually leave contingency time when using public transport in London to get anywhere, I loved the fact I could leave my hotel at the very last minute and still make it on time. Upon arriving to this precinct, it did have a different feel to other parts of Singapore - with a large concentration of Indians and Indian shops. After a walking tour, you're always going to get some triva from me, so:

• The area was renamed to Little India to attract more tourists.
• For wealthy Brits in the past, they used to gamble on horseracing here (hence there is a street called Racecourse Lane)
• About 1.7 million people live in Singapore who are not residents. About 300,000 of them come from India to work in construction.
• Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple - a place of worship that visitors are allowed to enter.
• Lots of street art too, depicting the jobs that some of the Indians had.

Botanical Gardens 🌿

Singapore Botanic Gardens is a 165 year old tropical garden located close to the Orchard Road shopping district in Singapore. It is one of three gardens in the world to be honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The gardens are absolutely huge, and you could easily spend a day here exploring. Within the grounds is the National Orchid Garden, and landscaped gardens and lakes.

Vegan Food in Singapore 😋

This section I'll let the pictures do most the talking - but in general Singapore is great for vegan food! There is so much on offer, from all cuisines, including local dishes that would typically be non-veg. You don't have to look too hard to find a plant-based spot. Below are the restaurants and eateries I managed to visit, but there is plenty more that I didn't discover.

nomVnom 🍔

A vegan fast food place, where I tried the tempeh rendang burger - a twist on a traditional dish.

Yole 🍨

A joint known for it's frozen yoghurt. I did try the avocado on toast (which was overpriced in my opinion and not worth it), but definitely go for the yoghurt.

Whole Earth 🍜

I went here for dinner, and the food was amazing. A lot of traditional Singaporean and Chinese dishes, all made vegan. I had:

• Oyster mushrooms
• Mala - Chinese dish of mushrooms in a spicy dry coating.
• Sambal King - mixed veggies in a chilli paste.

Maxwell Food Centre 🍣

For cheap, quick and tasty food in Singapore, go and explore the local hawker markets. Popular amongst locals, the food is perfectly safe and hygienic here (due to strict quality assurance), making it a great spot anytime. I had tried some fresh sugarcane juice, as well as vermicelli noodles and rice paper rolls.

Greendot 🍱

With a few locations around town and in the Jewel, Greendot is a nice spot for lunch. I had a chilli beancurd wrap and vegan shrimp dumplings.

The Kind Bowl 🍛

The Orchard region of Singapore is home to The Kind Bowl, a Vietnamese restaurant. I tried their pho and salad. Both were yum!

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream 🍦

If you have a bit of a sweet tooth, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream will for sure satisfy your cravings. With ice cream made using oat milk, I felt it was a lot richer and creamier that soy based ones. The churro and fudge oat ice cream went down a treat.

Gokul Raas Vegetarian 🌶️

Given away by it's name, this restaurant in Little India has a good selection of Indian food you can try. Not 100% vegan, but fully vegetarian, there is plenty of choice.

Makan Vegan 🥮

On my final night in Singapore, I walked to Makan Vegan, a hawker spot in the Geylang region that serves vegan versions of popular Singaporean dishes. Relatively cheap too, I tried wanton noodles for the first time accompanies by a lychee iced tea.

A huge shoutout to my friend Shreya for showing me all these awesome spots, and for being a great host whilst I was in Singapore! Co-creator of the "duck dive" blog, be sure to check out their Instagram page for more content around plant-based living!

If you haven't been able to tell already, I've really enjoyed my week in Singapore - an amazing city and place to explore for so many reasons. It's fascinating how much progress they've made to develop in the last 3 decades, and the way that city planning is conducted here is very smart. It really is an anomaly in some aspects, in a region of the world where development can vary so much a few hundred kilometres away.

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