Our timing in Singapore was perfect and as our hours remaining dwindle, I lay in bed writing this post to memorialize our second and third night in the Eastern city that never sleeps. Unlike Singapore that doesn’t have much open until 10 am I have somehow morphed into a morning person that is wide awake before the sun gets up. Well actually I don’t know what time the sun rises as our room has amazing blackout curtains, but hopefully, you as the reader understand where I am coming from.
The second night had me wide awake, while Grant snoring away. This has become a pattern in these posts, but instead of listening to Grant’s nose and throat airways vibrating I got up and began wandering around Chinatown again. While the stores were closed there was plenty of light to see some of the street art and gawk at the architecture. My favorite thing I stumbled upon was a vending machine that squeezed fresh oranges and dispensed delicious orange juice.
It wasn’t long after this revelation that Grant woke up and wanted to meet up. We rendezvoused at the Maxwell Hawker Center again and stood in line to eat at the famous Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice stand. I thought it was great, but Grant gave it a mixed review. From there we hopped on the Blue line to continue our site-seeing adventure of the city. We went through Orchard Row and learned that there were only 3.3 million people in the city/country and that that the majority lived in subsidized housing provided by the government.
At stop 12, we got out and found ourselves in Little India. Both Grant and I have a fond appreciation for Indian culture and food. The streets were lined with produce and souvenirs shops highlighting the Indian culture. We stumbled upon a quaint little shop in the middle of a busy street that had some items that we hadn’t seem ten times over. Grant quickly bonded with the merchant and went nuts buying souvenirs for us and friends. She provided him with water, business cards, and even a recommendation for Indian cuisine.
Not wasting any time or hearing any of my doubting comments Grant whisked us over to Banana Leaf Apolo where we ate some great food with our hands-on banana leaves. Grant wasn’t into the finger cuisine so he asked for silverware and they quickly obliged. We inhaled the food and were licking our leaf plate clean. Grant stated that this was the best Indian food he has ever had so I guess the recommendation paid off.
From Little Indian, we “Grabbed” back to the bay, but this time we went to the other side where we met my spirit animal the Merlion. A made-up creature with a fish body and lion head this strange statute shot water out of its mouth for no apparent reason. I, of course, wanted a few selfies and made sure to get a statute to memorialize my visit to this weird amalgamation of an animal. After a bit of a discussion, we decided to head to Sentosa Island early to see what this island had to offer.
Sentosa Island was about 8 minutes from our hotel and served as a local and tourist trap alike. The island seemed to have been owned exclusively by Resort World, which is where we stayed at in Manila. When we arrived we realized that we had moved from the Las Vegas of the East to Sentosa Island the Orlando equivalent of the East. The island had multiple theme parks, indoor skydiving, a casino, and any other touristy thing you could imagine all in one spot.
My feet were killing me as I had walked nearly 30k steps in crocks that morning so I needed to find a way of getting off my feet. Thankfully, we stumbled upon the Luge, which takes you up a hillside in a ski lift and then you get in a plastic car sled contraption and race down the hill. It was a blast racing down the hill and passing all the slow cars. I angered an old Asian man as a zipped past him for being to slow. The way you bought a ticket it wasn’t an option to just go down once, but rather each ticket sold let you go twice. So, we climbed back up and did it again.
The beach entrance was at the bottom of the hill so we took a look at what they considered a beach. Living in San Diego we know what a beach is suppose to look like and Singapore could not compete. We took a quick look, snapped a photo, and said pass. This led us to explore Resort World a bit more before heading back to the hotel so I could ice my feet.
The night was still young, but I was ready to call it on account of my feet looking and weighing me down like bricks. However, Grant coaxed me out of bed as he wanted to see the Garden by the Bay in person rather than on top of the MBS. We had met a random girl the night before and she texted that she saw the late show of the lights at the Garden in person and thought it was better. So we trekked down there and got a front-row seat under the largest of the Supertrees. The lights came on and it was spectacular. Well worth it and so I praised Grant for dragging me out. Our hotel was only 10 minutes away and we turned in for the night.
The next morning was reserved for Universal Studios Singapore. Our favorite theme park in the states we wanted to make sure that we saw the only version that we had not been to before. Grant was wide awake by 8 am so we grabbed a pastry from the bakery across the street and chowed down before our Grab arrived. We ordered everything that we generally like, but I ordered a chicken floss with mayo pastry as I had no idea what it was. The chicken had been dehydrated or cooked somehow which made it have the texture of cotton candy.
In the blink of an eye, we were on the island and in line for Universal. The gates opened a smidge before 10 am and we bolted to the Battlestar Galactica ride. This ride is one that is completely new and not found at any of the other parks. It was literally a blast and was probably the smoothest rollercoaster I have been on. Next, we made our way to the Mummy, which is slightly different at each park. This one was decorated the best and utilized their animatronics the best. Not sure if it was our favorite version, but fun seeing the differences.
Jurassic Park was up next and was a ride I was looking forward to as I knew we would get wet. With it being extremely hot, I was excited to have liquid poured on me and not pouring out of me through perspiration. This ride was spectacular. The boats were a bit different, the ride was twice as long, and the drop was terrifying as you were raised by an elevator. This was a complete surprise and a checkmark for the best version in my book Universal Studio's scorecard.
However, as soon as we got off the ride things took a bit of a turn. Everywhere you looked—children. They had somehow infiltrated the gates and began infecting the lines with their presence. The once quick 5 minutes wait ballooned up to 50 and some even to 120 minutes. As spoiled brats who only want “front of the line” privileges, this was unacceptable for us. We completed a circle and went on a few non-thrill rides/shows and called it. Overall, we saw, we rode, and we completed all of the rides that made us want to go to the park in the first place.
Our hotel had a Ramen restaurant that had been awarded a Michelin Star so I had to try that. The non-Ramen stuff was great, but the Ramen itself was a bit too fishy for me. It was very flavorful, but not the flavors I prefer. We headed back to the room to relax for a bit. It wasn’t long before Grant took off to wander around and see the Fullerton Hotel and Riffle Hotels. He mentioned that these were big celebrity hotspots. I wandered over to Chinatown again, unsupervised, and bought more souvenirs then had room for.
Grant suggested that we eat at the Indian place again for dinner, which is not very like Grant when it comes to Indian food so I took him up on the offer. We ate much of the same food but tried a few new things. Our night ended with a ride back to the hotel on a full stomach and me writing this blog up. We are deciding to call it an early night because we have to wake up early for our 9 am flight to Beijing.
Part 3 ending. Part 4 and final part up next.
