- What major problems did we have on the first leg of our journey?
- How did we trick Rosie and Lottie that jet lag wasn’t a real thing?
- What were the highlights of the first leg of our journey?
“Are we nearly there yet?” – Rosie Williams (but only once during a 12 hour flight)
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Singapore in Summary
Although you’re probably desperate to read every intricate detail of our time in Singapore, including when Catherine played a joke on Rosie that made her cry, we thought it would be useful to provide a summary of our opinions.
Would we recommend it? And would we go back?
Yes. And yes.
There were tonnes of different things to do, from the cultural sights and sounds of Chinatown and Little India to the glorious man-made wonders of the Gardens by the Bay. There’s lots of variety whether you’re travelling as a family, on your own or as a couple and there were lots of things that we missed out on doing because we didn’t have time.
The major downside was the weather – warm rain almost the entire time we were there. Although we were told that this was unusual and we were a bit unlucky.
Our Top Three Highlights
- Chinatown – Great place to wander around for half a day with some amazing temples (the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum, in particular) and food
- Gardens by the Bay – Awe-inspiring gardens. The walk to the gardens along the esplanade is also definitely worth doing, especially at night
- Sentosa Island – The cable cars were a great way to see the city from a different angle. And the man-made beach was good even when it was raining
Here is Rosie’s highlight
And here are the out-takes of that video
And Lottie’s most memorable moment
Singapore – The First Stop on our Journey
So our trip was finally here. “At last”, we hear you say, after we’d managed to fill five blogs before we’d even left the UK!
And the first mini-crisis hit barely after we’d left our flat… Rosie’s child seat that turned up with the taxi to take us to the airport didn’t have straps to tie it to the car itself. But after one slightly nervous (and slow) drive to Gatwick, we were well on our way
Catherine’s ability to entertain a child is amazing as Rosie only said “are we nearly there yet?” once in the entire 12 hour flight. The rest of the time was spent pretending to be various Disney princesses. The new Kindle she got for Christmas stacked with activities and videos certainly helped too. Although this picture doesn’t show her at her best…
But Catherine did let herself down with the second mini-crisis. We’d received new bags for Christmas, but had forgotten to tie a ribbon to them so that we could identify them as ours. Read the blog about our Top 10 Travel Mistakes to see what happened to our bag at Pisa airport and why we need to do this… Apparently we don’t learn from our mistakes!
But, we arrived, picked up the correct bags and were off to our hotel in no time.
Day 1 – Jet Lag, Culture and Frog’s Legs
The third mini-crisis was our arrival time and how we were going to trick Rosie and Lottie that jet lag doesn’t exist.
Thanks to the wonders of time travel, we left London at 10:50am, flew for 12 hours and then arrived at 7:30am in Singapore the next day. Rosie had a total of two hours sleep and we needed to make the decision to either force her and Lottie to stay awake for the entire first day to get their bodies back in sync. Or let them sleep during the day and then hope that they weren’t awake all night.
And being the sadistic parents we are, we forced them to stay awake and take in the cultural delights of Singapore.
Luckily we checked into Hotel Bencoolen which had the friendliest staff around – they
immediately helped with all our baggage and we got a free room upgrade. They must have read about us from our world-famous blog!
In an effort to appear vaguely sophisticated and cultured, we went to the National Museum to learn a bit about Singapore’s history and heritage. Although the highlight was the awesome flower and light show. Not to be missed, especially if you have kids.
Then it was off for a pilgrimage to the impressively decorated Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple – built in 1881 in dedication to the Hindu goddess Kali – and a wander around Little India.
We thought we’d sample some real culture and stop for coffee at Starbucks, before heading off the see the Raffles Hotel, which was supposedly a ‘must-visit’ place and a good stop for a Singapore Sling cocktail…
Unfortunately, we didn’t heed our own advice from a previous blog about checking whether things were actually open before heading there. After taking in the marvellous sights of some scaffolding, we came to the realisation that it was under renovation.
Our final stop for the day was at Clarke Quay to grab some food. Thanks to Alan Henderson for the tip to go here for some delightful chilli crab.
One of Catherine’s objectives of the trip is to be more adventurous. And after passing up the opportunity earlier in the day to sample duck tongue, she made up for it by trying frog’s legs for the first time.
And although we went through most of these 23 Signs of Jet Lag, we had a pretty good first day. Finishing in true style by going to bed at 6:30.
Day 2 – Charming Chinatown and the Glorious Gardens by the Bay
Day 2 started in dramatic fashion…
Despite not having them herself, something about watching her parents eating Kermit the Frog’s legs the night before had clearly not settled well with Rosie. And at breakfast she threw up in spectacular fashion in the dining area which faced directly out on to the main street and all over Catherine’s clothes… 1 – 0 Rosie.
And probably not a good advertisement for the Hotel Bencoolen’s breakfast menu.
Although we have to give a lot of credit to the incredibly polite receptionist who told us not to worry about a thing. This was despite the fact that she was wearing one of those face mask’s to protect herself from germs. And so having to navigate a three year old’s puke was probably her worst nightmare.
So whilst Rosie went upstairs for the morning to recover, it was time for Daddy and Lottie to explore the sights and sounds of Chinatown.
Chinatown
Chinatown was a delightful little area with brightly-coloured souvenir and food shops with lots of luck-bringing paraphernalia like numbers, cats and laughing Buddhas.
Lottie and I got a lot of attention as we wandered the streets, which I’m sure was all down to my red (ginger) hair being a good luck symbol for Chinese people. Rather than the cute 5 month old baby I was with…
We were keen to gain some new experiences though. So, ignoring Bill Bryson’s advice to not use guide books when you get to a new place, we headed for the Masjid Jamae mosque, which was recommended in our guide book. It was built in 1826 and is recognised as a national monument.
And after I’d struggled to put my shoes and socks back on (the rule about no footwear in mosques was clearly invented before people wore baby carriers), Lottie was inspired to see the practices of a different religion. So we made our way to the curiously named, and incredibly impressive, Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum. 
The temple had hundreds of ornate statues of Buddha and captivated Lottie’s attention due to the swathe of different colours and depictions of strange shaped creatures. We both agreed that it was a highlight of the trip so far.
On our way back to the hotel, we picked up some ‘traditional’ BBQ-style beef and BBQ-style prawn Bak Kwa, which is similar to jerky, but much, much better tasting!
Who knew the cure for being sick was spending a couple of hours pretending to be Disney princesses with your mum? But Rosie was looking a whole lot better. And after we’d sampled some more traditional Singaporean delights from Starbucks, we were on our way to one of the landmarks that we’d been recommended almost unanimously by everyone we’d spoken to about Singapore
Gardens by the Bay
If you’ve ever typed ‘Singapore’ into your web browser, you’d have probably seen pictures of the spectacular and award-winning Gardens by the Bay. Even the names of the attractions were awe-inspiring – the Flower Dome, the Cloud Forest and Supertree Grove.
But a lot of the big attractions were pretty expensive to get in, so we ended up meandering slowly through the beautiful gardens, coming across some good picture opportunities for the blog.
The awe-inspiring 25 – 50 metre high tree-like structures in SuperTree Grove were the best part of our time here. These 18 ‘trees’ are covered in 163,000 plants and more than 200 different species.
Unfortunately, many of the other facilities were closed due to the ‘inclement weather’, including a lot of the children’s area. It had been continuously drizzling with warm rain since we arrived, but nowhere near enough to mean that things should be closed… In our opinion, anyway… Which is probably why Catherine and I aren’t in charge of health and safety at children’s play areas.
The water fountains that were open were cool. And, after another deep and meaningful conversation with Lottie, we decided that Gardens by the Bay was on our ‘definitely recommended’ list.
And Catherine provided the comedy moment of the trip so far after finding a fish tank with huge, ugly fish. When Rosie turned her back, Catherine pretended the fish were sneaking up on Rosie and about to eat her, leading to tears for about 10 minutes from Rosie. 1 – 1 between Rosie and Catherine.
The Light Show
Rosie had been an absolute trooper all day, despite her breakfast experience, and so we rewarded her with some plain rice for dinner… Followed by letting her wear her favourite Disney princess dress and promising her a spectacular light show, which was supposed to look something like this.
Our anticipation was building considerably as we took in Singapore’s wonderful skyline lit up at night as we were prepared to be blown away….
Unfortunately, we were either in completely the wrong position for the show, or our expectations of a light display have been skewed since we watched the fireworks at DisneyLand Paris. Because after the building shot a couple of lasers and changed colours a few times, it was all over, and we were left with a feeling of serious underwhelm-ment (a new word we made up to describe the feeling). In fact, the light display from Rosie’s puke at breakfast was more impressive. To the point at which we’re thinking of charging people to watch that in future.
The important thing was that Rosie didn’t seem to mind (although Lottie said that it was on her ‘definitely would not recommend’ list).
Day 3 – Splashing on the Sentosa Island Sand
After taking a different table for breakfast than the previous morning, so as to avoid any remaining sick, there were two things we wanted to try – The cable cars and beach on Sentosa Island and the Botanical Gardens.
Unfortunately, for the third day in a row it was overcast and drizzled the whole day. Again, not enough rain to stop us doing anything, but just enough to mildly annoy us.
We headed off to Sentosa Island in the morning as we wanted to see the city from a different angle from the cable car. We all loved the views although we can only imagine what must be going through Lottie’s head when we take her on things like this…
The island itself was quite odd. Filled with major attractions like Universal Studios, a water park and luxurious hotels. Not much culture around, but a great place for kids
And, like the true Brits we are, we headed straight to the man-made beach, despite the rain.
We spent quite a bit of time on the beach and so didn’t make it to the Botanical Gardens. But it gives us a reason to come back to Singapore again.
And we ended up heading back to Chinatown for dinner for some of the best Satay chicken and szechuan prawns we’ve ever had from the imaginatively named Chinatown Seafood Restaurant. A great way to end the trip.
Things we Missed
There were a number of things that were highly recommended but didn’t have time to see, including:
- Singapore Zoo – Which included a night safari. We chose not to go here, because Rosie was too young for the night safari, plus we’re going to see a lot of zoos over the next few months
- Botanical Gardens – We really wanted to go there, but the weather played a part in our decision not to
- Raffles Hotel – Was unfortunately closed
Next Stop – Perth
And our fourth day in Singapore was preparing to head to Perth for the second leg of our journey.
These are some of the places we are planning on going to over the next few days
And here are some quick facts about Perth, according to Wikipedia:
- Indigenous Australians have inhabited the Perth area for 38,000 years
- Founded in 1829 by Captain James Stirling and named after Perth, Scotland,
- Fourth-most populous city in Australia, with a population of 2 million
- One of the most isolated major cities in the world – The nearest city with a population of more than 100,000 is Adelaide, 2,130 km away. Only Honolulu is more isolated
- Average temperature of 25 degrees Celsius in January
- Major things to have happened there include gold rushes, mining boons and serving as a base for submarines in Wold War 2
- Famous people associated with Perth include Heath Ledger, AC/ DC lead singer Bon Scott and Rolf Harris…
Tell Us Your Top Tips for Perth
Have you been to Perth? What did you think of it? And what are your top tips?
Let us know on Facebook, Instagram, the comments at the bottom of this blog or using the Contact Us page.
Hmmm… What should I read next?
- Why are we taking on this adventure? What will we write about? Who are we?
- Read our last blog – 6 Things We’ve Learnt in the Week Before Setting Off on the Trip of a Lifetime
- Or the blog before that – An Interview with Bill Bryson
Williams Oz Travels (WOT!) 
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