The Lion city is readily one of my favorite cities as of date. Not that I’ve been to a lot of cities abroad but then Singapore for me is one of the cleanest and safest cities anywhere. I love that you can go walking around its streets even in the wee hours of the morning without fear of being mugged. Photo below of my mom and sister was taken at the Esplanade - Theaters on the Bay in one of our numerous strolls around Singapore.
On our trip here, we stayed at the Value Hotel Thomson, a cute high rise hotel located at the Balestier cor Thomson Sts. . The rooms are miniscule but clean and perfect for travellers on a budget. What I love about this hotel is its close proximity to a number of good eating places like the 2nd Kitchen at the ground floor and a lot of hawker stalls just a few minutes walk away. It is near the Novena MRT and the Velocity Mall. A good location for a budget hotel I must say. Plus it has a swimming pool for guests with kids on the 7th floor.
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| photos from the Value Hotel Thomson website |
One of the newest attractions at Singapore is the Marina Bay Sands, so on our 2nd day here, we took time to visit this unique hotel – it’s the one with a sort of big ship on its top floor. Its architectural design is truly one of a kind and is slowly becoming one of Singapore’s famous landmarks.
The Marina Bay Sands also houses a big Casino and one of the classiest malls in Singapore with big brands like Louis Vuitton, Chanel et. al under its roof. It also houses the Art and Science museum with elegant art masterpieces like the works of Salvador Dali, one of the 20th century's best known artist and the most iconic figure of the surrealist movement. Truly, a wonderful treat for true blue art aficionados.
We were lucky that during our trip there, there was a major rehearsal for the Singapore National Day parade. We were mighty confused since this rehearsal was complete with the actual firing of canons, helicopters were flying around in a formation carrying the Singapore flag, and the grandstands were filled with thousands of school children and an actual fireworks display which lasted for 30minutes! Imagine that! The expense would have been a biggie since this rehearsal was doing everything they were planning to do and its not even THE DAY yet! Very entertaining for tourists like us, I considered it an added treat.
Then on the way to Ikea at Alexandria (which I will blog about separately :), there was this very entertaining taxi driver Mr. Yeow Bee Hong ( I hope I got his name right). According to him, if you want your taxi driver to be really nice to you (I mentioned that taxi drivers in HK are rude) all you have to do is wave your dollar bills in the air when you hail a taxi. J And then he taught us how to make Bak Kut Teh...
Bak Kut Teh according to him is a Chinese soup which literally means “Pork Bone Tea Soup”, a sort of pork stew simmered in a combination of complex herbs and spices. It is one of the delicacies of Singapore that every tourist must try. It is comparable to our beef nilaga but with a certain twist in taste brought about by the combination of star anise, cinnamon, cloves, dang gui, fennel seeds and garlic thus the term Tea soup.And then he was rambling on and on about other sites in the city that are worth visiting. When we asked him where these places are though, he just answered..."you have to pay me, I take you there!" haha. Talk about a driver with an attitude... very amusing.
The last stop for the day was dinner at Chinatown. As it is already around 9 in the evening, we just had time to eat at one of the hawker stalls along Smith St. And my goodness! The food there is really mouth-watering! I was so hungry I even forgot to take shots of it, sorry! I think I ate a week’s supply of food there. Mental note to hit the treadmill double time when I reach home. J
Chinatown like most like it around the world is a tourist haven with lots of souvenir shops selling affordable knick-knacks for you to take home. Specifically, Pagoda and Smith Streets are the ones to go to for souvenir shops and hawker stalls. Other streets in Chinatown like Temple St, Trengganu St., Pagoda Sts, houses some of Chinatowns temples, a good place for taking pictures.
After an activity loaded day, we just had to retire late to our hotel laden with bags filled with trinkets and souvenirs and our camera full of snapshots. Its no wonder, we keep coming back to this magnificent city.
2 comments:
Hi Lynette. How much were the rooms at the hotel you stayed at? Will be visiting Singapore next month and we still haven't decided where to stay. Thanks
hi sometimes kim,
we booked our rooms via agoda. parang nasa S$80 per day lng ung room namin. we decided to stay there since value hotel thomson has good reviews over all. ang di ko lng gusto was the walls were paper thin that you can hear the other guests outside, but since we were out almost the whole time, it doesnt really matter :) have a great time at singapore!
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