The land of Singapore

During a one day stop-over in Singapore, Emily and I fell in love with the lovely city state of Singapore. We quickly learnt that all the rumours of Singapore only being interesting for a stop-over were false! As soon as we left the airport we were amazed at this bustling city. We spent the most wonderful day there only spending S$50 each! It was this day that made us vow to return to the small country and explore all it has to offer.

                                                    Navigating our way through orchard Rd.

About a year later we did return to Singapore during our big trip around Asia. We landed in the afternoon and not 2 hours later we had cleared immigration, customs and taken the train to our hostel! We stayed at the amazing Bunc@Radius hostel in Little India. A cosy, friendly and very communal hostel with cheap prices. We were right in our element being in the middle of Little India and enjoyed strolling around the streets that gave us that taste of India we constantly crave!
                                         

                                                          Our bed at Bunc.

                                                Catching the MRT through Singapore.

The next morning, after check out, we travelled by the MRT to Marina Bay on the south side of the country. There stands the Marina Bay Sands hotel made famous for the giant infinity swimming pool that stretches across the roof of al three hotel buildings. We had saved up some extra cash and booked one night of luxury for ourselves (we were really just interested in the swimming pool but the luxury was also nice). After much indecisiveness from the two of us, we finally decided to pay the extra $15 for a room with a city view. WORTH. EVERY. CENT! That night we moved the couch in the room up to the window, went out and bought take away Thai food to our room and ate it whilst watching the dazzling skyline of Singapore.

                                                The Singapore skyline from Marina Bay Sands.

                                                                                               
                                                                                        Strolling through China Town.
For obvious reasons, we stayed at the hotel right until check out time. When that time did come we were very sad to be leaving but we had more of Singapore to see! The MRT of course took us directly to China Town where we found another great hostel call 5 Footway Inn. Right in the heart of Chinatown, we were once again happy to be submerged in a new culture. This is where Emily and I became very lazy and complacent and didn't stray far from our Chinatown hostel. And why would we?! Surrounding us were incredible shops and great food! Just down the road from us was the Maxwell food hawkers market. It is here that you will find the food of different Asian countries all rolled into one. And so cheap! A full meal here costs us about S$5 each! Safe to say that we ate most of our meals here! Close to Maxwell, and very much worth looking at is the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum. The cost is a donation to the temple and you can then view many interesting artefacts from the buddhist religion. Worth the visit!









 Finishing a meal at Maxwell.

                                                Prayers at the Buddha Tooth Relic            Temple and Museum.

On the one occasion that we did decide to stray from our cosy setup in China town we ventured over to Orchard Rd. Known for it's designer brand shopping, Porsches, Ferraris and many rich internationals on weekend shopping trips. We, however, only came here to see a movie that cost us all of S$9. It was still amazing to see the famous Orchard Rd shopping area!

Our time in Singapore unfortunately came to an end and we were all of a sudden on the overnight train to Kuala Lumpur.

Singapore is full of rich history and culture. It is also quite cheap considering it is a developed Asian country and has many awesome things to do! It is worthwhile visiting whether for a stop-over or a trip on it's own.