Singapore Again
Since we weren’t able to go to Singapore for New Year’s Eve, we decided to get out of the Philippines while the Pope came to visit in January and head to Singapore. We were able to be there for four nights and booked a tour guide. Last time we went to Singapore, Matt had to work and I just found things to do with the kids on my own. Unlike other SE Asian countries, Singapore is relatively easy to navigate without a tour guide. But, it is just stress-free if there is a tour guide telling you where you are going and the history and they know the best time to be at certain areas. Again we booked through Viator.com and this time ended up with two different tour guides for the two days we were there. Both guides were very good with our children and easy to work with. And then we spent our last day on our own exploring Sentosa Island, although we didn’t take many photos of all the fun activities that we crammed in (iFly, Luge ride, Adventure Cove).
Inside the Fullerton where we stayed and had this amazing view while walking to the elevators
The Fullerton staff spoiled our children and gave them their own plate of sweets. One of Matt’s co-workers has a sister who works at the hotel and played a part in this. We love how friendly people are throughout Asia.
Day 1
Our first destination was Jurong Bird Park where we watched two different bird shows and got to see lots of different birds.
We ate lunch like locals at the hawker stations
Kalani got a henna tattoo that lasted about a week
We spent the afternoon at Gardens by the Bay
Cloud Forest with the tallest “indoor man-made waterfall”
The Flower Dome was decorated for the upcoming Chinese New Year
Day 2
The “wet market” in Singapore is found in one building in Chinatown
We visited a Hindu temple called Sri Mariamman Temple. The outside roof is full of characters
The ceiling inside Sri Mariamman Temple is covered in paintings
We visited the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
Our tour guide took us to this model of Singapore. It shows what developments they plan on making in the next 5,10, & 50 years!
We got to ride in the Singapore Flyer and get a different point of view of the country
We all were able to fly a plane with a real pilot in “Flight Experience”. We chose what airport we wanted to fly to and then were given different flying experiences (daytime, night time, bad weather, engine out)
To end our 2nd day we took a ferry boat ride and did the River Explorer
View of the Merlion of Singapore that we saw on from the ferry boat
Day 3
We spent the last day on Sentosa Island
iFly Skydiving experience was awesome. It is for 7 year olds and older, so Matt, Tia & Kalani participated.
Our last night we went over to Fullerton on the Bay hotel and had some snacks and drinks at “The Lantern”. We had a wonderful view of the Marina Bay Sands light show and were spoiled by the restaurant manager who is Matt’s co-worker’s brother-in-law.
More photos of Singapore here.
