The first leg of our trip was Singapore. I'd heard a lot about the city so I was very much looking forward to seeing it. If I could pick one word it would be: modern.
Singapore is like seeing a little slice of tomorrow. Not the whole piece but enough to leave you wanting more. The entire place looks like it's been built this morning. Except this morning was in the not so distant future.
Everything is glass from top to bottom, brand spanking new and nothing has been left to look old. I was kind of afraid to touch anything in case I broke it.
Overall, it's an amazing city visually. I have never seen a cityscape to compete with it. Everything you see around the bay is gorgeous.
However, Singapore lacks a certain amount of charm. Yes, the buildings are polished to perfection and the streets are cleaned to within an inch of their lives but there is a lack of character.
When you think of Paris or London, you don't think of the gleaming new buildings. You think of the narrow streets, the art galleries and, overall, the history. You know that change makers have been here before you and they will be here in the future.
You don't get that in Singapore. It's a beautiful city but that's about it. The buildings are amazing but it's hard to know what they are trying to tell you when they are only a few years old. Yes, Chinatown is brilliant but does it really seem traditional when they are trying to sell you fake Ray Bans and iPhones?
This lack of history/character holds Singapore back.
However, it has an amazing amount to do for a city of its size. We were only there for a few days but managed to fit a lot in. First off, there is Sentosa. This is a massive man made island in the city which offers so many activities. There's swimming and water sports along with Universal Studios, an aquarium, a casino and various tours of the island (by foot, tram or Segway - remember those things?).
Bear in mind that it's a complete tourist trap though so it's crazy expensive. We only hung out on the beach and tried to abode spending money. Lunch out there cost us nearly as much as a night's accommodation in our hostel.
We also had a great day hanging around Chinatown. You can get loads of food and any kind of merchandise you want there. The hostel we stayed in was called 'a Beary Good Hostel (literally teddy bears all over the place) and it was right in the middle of Chinatown. I would highly recommend it.
SIngapore isn't a particularly big city so I would also recommend seeing the sights on foot. We spent one day just walking around and it meant we got to see most things without paying for them. This is important because Singapore is really expensive. Especially when you are a backpacker.
On this day, we basically just got the MRT to the furthest point and walked back to Chinatown. It took a couple of hours but wasn't complicated and meant we could take as many pictures as we want and not hold anyone up. It was actually the best day we had there. We saw just about everything for free. I can't overstate how important that was to us.
The important thing to remember in Singapore is that less is more. You can get food fairly cheap but apart from that you have to be careful what you do. More booze means more money. More touristy things means A LOT more money. You need to be careful what you want to do.
Alcohol is heavily taxed so even just having a few beers is costly. The best thing we did booze wise was to go to Clark Quay, sit on the bridge and have beers from 7/11. As one of my friends put it: "It's expensive as f**k to buy drink but at least you can sauce in public!'. This seems to be the general opinion on Clarke Quay so it's good craic there.
It seems to be a popular spot for the foreign college students so there was a lot of people around giving it a good atmosphere and the view is pretty spectacular along the river. Again, I can't overstate the beauty of the city.
It is a paradise for food though. And even though it's an expensive city you can eat really well for relatively little. It's still a whole lot cheaper than Dublin!
If you go to hawkers centers you can get dirt cheap food. These are like food courts but the food is about 100 times better than food you'd get from a food court at home and it's much, much cheaper than eating in restaurants. The one thing I was surprised about was how few foreigners we saw in there. Every time we went in we seemed to be the only westerners.
Maybe we are just used to being the only foreigners because of our time in Taiwan but it doesn't make sense to me that other backpackers weren't eating in these places. A guy we met in our hostel said he was happy to get his dinner for 10SGD but we were getting 3 dishes for less than 10SGD - i.e. dinner for both of us.
And the food was super delicious.
Overall, Singapore was a really cool city and I'm glad we went there but it is overpriced and a little bit soulless. Great experience though.
Rundown of out stay:
Accommodation: A Beary Good Hostel in Chinatown - 15 euro per bed in dorm.
Highlights: food, our walking tour, Sentosa
Lowlights: general expensiveness, lack of character, expensive booze
Daily Budget: circa 80 euro for the two of us
Next Destination: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Direct bus from Singapore.
Singapore is like seeing a little slice of tomorrow. Not the whole piece but enough to leave you wanting more. The entire place looks like it's been built this morning. Except this morning was in the not so distant future.
Everything is glass from top to bottom, brand spanking new and nothing has been left to look old. I was kind of afraid to touch anything in case I broke it.
Overall, it's an amazing city visually. I have never seen a cityscape to compete with it. Everything you see around the bay is gorgeous.
However, Singapore lacks a certain amount of charm. Yes, the buildings are polished to perfection and the streets are cleaned to within an inch of their lives but there is a lack of character.
When you think of Paris or London, you don't think of the gleaming new buildings. You think of the narrow streets, the art galleries and, overall, the history. You know that change makers have been here before you and they will be here in the future.
You don't get that in Singapore. It's a beautiful city but that's about it. The buildings are amazing but it's hard to know what they are trying to tell you when they are only a few years old. Yes, Chinatown is brilliant but does it really seem traditional when they are trying to sell you fake Ray Bans and iPhones?
This lack of history/character holds Singapore back.
However, it has an amazing amount to do for a city of its size. We were only there for a few days but managed to fit a lot in. First off, there is Sentosa. This is a massive man made island in the city which offers so many activities. There's swimming and water sports along with Universal Studios, an aquarium, a casino and various tours of the island (by foot, tram or Segway - remember those things?).
Bear in mind that it's a complete tourist trap though so it's crazy expensive. We only hung out on the beach and tried to abode spending money. Lunch out there cost us nearly as much as a night's accommodation in our hostel.
We also had a great day hanging around Chinatown. You can get loads of food and any kind of merchandise you want there. The hostel we stayed in was called 'a Beary Good Hostel (literally teddy bears all over the place) and it was right in the middle of Chinatown. I would highly recommend it.
SIngapore isn't a particularly big city so I would also recommend seeing the sights on foot. We spent one day just walking around and it meant we got to see most things without paying for them. This is important because Singapore is really expensive. Especially when you are a backpacker.
On this day, we basically just got the MRT to the furthest point and walked back to Chinatown. It took a couple of hours but wasn't complicated and meant we could take as many pictures as we want and not hold anyone up. It was actually the best day we had there. We saw just about everything for free. I can't overstate how important that was to us.
The important thing to remember in Singapore is that less is more. You can get food fairly cheap but apart from that you have to be careful what you do. More booze means more money. More touristy things means A LOT more money. You need to be careful what you want to do.
Alcohol is heavily taxed so even just having a few beers is costly. The best thing we did booze wise was to go to Clark Quay, sit on the bridge and have beers from 7/11. As one of my friends put it: "It's expensive as f**k to buy drink but at least you can sauce in public!'. This seems to be the general opinion on Clarke Quay so it's good craic there.
It seems to be a popular spot for the foreign college students so there was a lot of people around giving it a good atmosphere and the view is pretty spectacular along the river. Again, I can't overstate the beauty of the city.
It is a paradise for food though. And even though it's an expensive city you can eat really well for relatively little. It's still a whole lot cheaper than Dublin!
If you go to hawkers centers you can get dirt cheap food. These are like food courts but the food is about 100 times better than food you'd get from a food court at home and it's much, much cheaper than eating in restaurants. The one thing I was surprised about was how few foreigners we saw in there. Every time we went in we seemed to be the only westerners.
Maybe we are just used to being the only foreigners because of our time in Taiwan but it doesn't make sense to me that other backpackers weren't eating in these places. A guy we met in our hostel said he was happy to get his dinner for 10SGD but we were getting 3 dishes for less than 10SGD - i.e. dinner for both of us.
And the food was super delicious.
Overall, Singapore was a really cool city and I'm glad we went there but it is overpriced and a little bit soulless. Great experience though.
Rundown of out stay:
Accommodation: A Beary Good Hostel in Chinatown - 15 euro per bed in dorm.
Highlights: food, our walking tour, Sentosa
Lowlights: general expensiveness, lack of character, expensive booze
Daily Budget: circa 80 euro for the two of us
Next Destination: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Direct bus from Singapore.
