For Spring Break in 2019, my annual solo traveling adventure landed me in Singapore. My not so great reason for initially choosing Singapore was based off of the book “Crazy Rich Asians”. After reading about the food, glamor, and sights from the story I had to go! Thanks to the movie, Youtube bloggers, and Pinterest, I was able to add a list of places that I wanted to visit while there. When researching the country, what drew me to it even more was the fact that it was frequently listed “safe places for solo female travelers” to visit. No country is without crime, so I made sure to take my regular safety precautions just in case. From my research, I also learned that doing things around Singapore could be expensive, so I did my best to find reasonably priced lodging and activities that weren’t going to break the bank (I did have one little splurge that I will mention below). Discovering the “most important things to know” about Singapore was very helpful. I was shocked to learn that chewing gum is illegal to maintain cleanliness (so make sure that you pack mints or breath strips instead)! Packing summertime clothes was a joy since it was snowing where I lived at the time. I was not prepared for how humid it actually was there!
Here are a few highlights from my short trip in Singapore:
Day One:
My not so exciting first day was my travel day into Singapore. I vividly remember getting off of the plane and the weather being super humid and how I almost immediately started sweating. Although I landed late and did not have a chance to explore Changi Airport, it’s one of the most beautiful airports that I’ve ever been to. The airport has a swimming pool, butterfly garden, movie theater, a beautiful indoor waterfall. Fancy huh? I used an app called Grab (which is basically like Uber) to get to my hostel in the Chinatown area. Doing so was super easy using the app on my phone. Since it was late, I passed out once I was settled at my hostel.
Day Two:
I had always wanted to do a bike tour so thanks to TripAdvisor, I was able to book a well rated bike tour around the city. My GPS told me that I had a 15 minutes walk from my hostel to the meeting place. After the first five minutes of walking in the heat, I quickly realized that I should have used Grab instead of walking. I pushed through and finally found the meeting location. Of course I was late *shrugs* We were briefed on bike safety and rules to follow during the tour. The 4-hour tour was amazing and took us through the Kampong Glam district (infusion of Arab and Malay culture), Chinatown (I was so amazed by architecture of one of the temples that I almost ran over a monk with my bike), Raffles Hotel (where the famous Long Bar is located), Bussorah Street (also known as little Istanbul), and of course we were taken to a scenic view of the Marina Bay Sands hotel. Marina Bay Sands is one of the most interesting hotels that I’ve ever seen. Besides being super fancy, it’s known for having the highest rooftop pool in the world with a beautiful view of Singapore. During the entire tour, the weather was perfect for bike riding. Towards the end of the tour, it started to rain. Thankfully, we’d just grabbed our ice cream and we were able to enjoy the rain while sitting on the covered steps of a building.
After the tour, I went back to my hostel to freshen up. Even though I was exhausted and I probably should’ve taken a nap, I went back out to explore. My first stop was to go to Lau Pa Sat (one of many hawker stations that can be found throughout Singapore that has cheap food) to find a well known dish of Singapore called Hainanese Chicken and Rice. The dish simply has slices of chicken over a bed of rice. I learned about the dish after watching an Anthony Bourdain show and was intrigued. The dish was pretty tasty!
My next stop was to get the recommended Singapore Sling drink from the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel (they had peanuts where you could throw the shells on the floor). The drink has gin, lemon juice, cherry Liquor and soda water. I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t super impressed with the drink. Nevertheless, it was cool to have the experience of having a drink where it was originally invented.
My next stop was to Little India where I visited the Bugis Street Market where I bought jewelry and got a henna tattoo!
My next goal was to head over to the other side of town to go to Gardens by the Bay. I was unfortunately unable to go to the Merlion Park since it was closed due to construction. If you have ever done a Google search of Singapore, you have probably seen pictures of Gardens by the Bay (it’s also in the one of the ending scenes of Crazy Rich Asians)! Thanks to Klook, I was able to get my ticket in advance and avoid the long ticket line. I started by going to the SuperTree Grove area where I walked along the OCBC SkyWay. The view was beautiful but I was a little afraid because I felt the walkway sway a little. After leaving the SkyWay I went to the Cloud Forest exhibit which is another attraction that is very “Instagrammable”. I was able to get a decent picture even though there were so many people around. Once it got dark, I headed back to the SuperTree Grove area where there was a 15 minute light show called Garden Rhapsody. I thought that the SuperTrees looked beautiful during the daytime, but they were even more beautiful when lit up at night. My plan was to go to Clark Quay which is an area with several bars and restaurants. Instead, I headed back towards my hostel and decided to eat at the Lau Pa Sat hawker station again. I tried chicken satay (skewered chicken with a delicious peanut sauce) for the first time and I personally favored over the chicken and rice dish.
Day Three:
The next morning, I headed to Sentosa which is an Island resort south of Singapore. My goal was to find a bridge that led to the “Southernmost Point of Continental Asia” sign. I had plans to meet friends who were also enjoying spring break in Singapore, so I didn’t spend much time in Sentosa.
After meeting with friends for lunch, I headed out to Haji Lane where you could find a lot of cool street art. Via Pinterest, I found a coffee shop called #SelfieCoffee. You take a selfie, choose the type of coffee that you want, and your selfie will be neatly placed on top of your coffee as a super heavy cream. The coffee was surprisingly good! I thought that the coloring of the cream would destroy the taste. It began raining once I got my coffee and I was able to sit back, relax, and people watch until the rain settled.
I headed back towards the Marina Bay Sands area and went to a teamLab exhibit entitled “Where Art Meets Science”. teamLab museums are super cool interactive works of art .There’s a section where you color an object of your choice on paper (ex: human, animal), you send it through a machine, and it “comes to life” on a projector where the work of others virtually interact. “Crystal Universe” is probably the most popular and “instagrammable” section of the entire exhibit. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen!
To end my awesome Spring Break trip, I decided to splurge a little and I had dinner at CUT by Wolfgang Puck which was located in the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands. To cap off my night, I went to the Sands SkyPark Observation Deck located at the top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel. From the top, I was able to watch a light/water show from down below.
Day Four:
My not so adventurous last day ended with super early flight out of Singapore. I’d like to shoutout Changi Airport for having great customer service and for having free massage chairs near the terminals. I didn’t want to leave!
The flight was ~6 hours long and I remember sleeping through almost over half of it. The flight attendant was nice enough to save a breakfast plate for me! I caught up on the rest of my nap as soon as I returned home!
Cheers to another solo trip under my belt!
P.S., This post was very therapeutic to re-live since Ms. Rona has ruined my 2020 Spring Break trip and I’m sure it has for others.
Braids and Airplanes 
I sounds like fun, thanks for sharing.
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