We had a good time visiting Singapore for two days. This very busy town is very clean and well organised. There is no major buildings to be seen but different areas of the town to experience.
*Sightseeing*
Chinatown
We spent a few hours visiting the very busy Chinatown, all decorated for the coming Chinese New Year celebrations (6-7 February). We were impressed by all the cheap watches (S$5-10) sold every two shops! We saw some Chinese and Indian temples with well decorated facades. We also noticed those sticks to hang the washing fixed at the windows of the high blocks of flats, very strange...(see picture)! We managed to escape the buzz of the busy streets and had a very nice coffe in the very quiet and nice Club Street. We finished our visit by having a quick look at the Far East Square, typical Chinatown streets reconstitued under a glass dome, where you can find cafes, shops and restaurants.
Little India
We liked the colourful and animated streets of this area. It really has a special atmosphere with shops playing Indian music and selling typical Indian clothes.
Business Centre
We were impressed by the Business Centre, in its large streets between the high rise buildings you meet very well dressed executives and the animation is intense on Raffles place, the heart of this area.
The river side
It was very relaxing to wander at nigth, and also during the day (!), along Clarke and Boat Quay...except when you walk along the very touristic restaurants and end up being offered to eat every 30 seconds. In the quiet parts you can have a rest and enjoy nice views on the high buildings of the city centre. A walk to the Esplanade, an exhibition centre, also offers nice views on the city and the famous lion statue symbol of Singapore (Singapore means the island of the lion, it was called this way as a sultan from Indonesia thought he had seen a lion on the island....even it has never been any wild lion in Singapore!).
We also walked a bit along Beach Road and saw the famous Raffles Hotel. We did not get a chance to check out the expensive shops on Orchard Road or visit one of the parks.
*Shopping*
Singapore is a heaven for shoppers, there are shops everywhere. We had never seen that before, multi-floors shopping centres specialised in cameras and/or computers. If you know which products you are after and are aware of the market price in your own country, there are bargains to grab....but you will have to use you negociations skills of course! For cheaper products like t-shirts, watches, backpacks.....there are a lot of shops in Chinatown and Little India (...but most of the products are just copies of famous brand). Walking in town you soon realise that there are shopping centres nearly at each street corners!! It is very hard to not spend more time shopping than visiting the town.
*Food*
There are plenty of cheap options to eat in Singapore, especially in the numerous food courts, that can be very modern in the business centre or more traditional in places like Chinatown, but all are organised the same way and the prices are similar. The main dishes cost S$3 to S$5, on the menus you have pictures of the dishes but no description of the ingredients. As all those meals were new to us we had a lot of questions but they could not be answered by the Chinese people that hold those stalls as most of them do not speak English...so we had good but also bad surprises! The cheapest meals we had costed only S$2.5 and they were pretty good. It is then understandable that most people in Singapore do not cook but eat in those food courts or cheap restaurants.
*Transport*
We mainly walked as all the main areas to visit are not that far from each other and we travelled by the very good MRT (local name for the metro) to get to the city centre from our hotel (single tickets costs S$0.9 to S$1.40).
*Sightseeing*
Chinatown
We spent a few hours visiting the very busy Chinatown, all decorated for the coming Chinese New Year celebrations (6-7 February). We were impressed by all the cheap watches (S$5-10) sold every two shops! We saw some Chinese and Indian temples with well decorated facades. We also noticed those sticks to hang the washing fixed at the windows of the high blocks of flats, very strange...(see picture)! We managed to escape the buzz of the busy streets and had a very nice coffe in the very quiet and nice Club Street. We finished our visit by having a quick look at the Far East Square, typical Chinatown streets reconstitued under a glass dome, where you can find cafes, shops and restaurants.
Little India
We liked the colourful and animated streets of this area. It really has a special atmosphere with shops playing Indian music and selling typical Indian clothes.
Business Centre
We were impressed by the Business Centre, in its large streets between the high rise buildings you meet very well dressed executives and the animation is intense on Raffles place, the heart of this area.
The river side
It was very relaxing to wander at nigth, and also during the day (!), along Clarke and Boat Quay...except when you walk along the very touristic restaurants and end up being offered to eat every 30 seconds. In the quiet parts you can have a rest and enjoy nice views on the high buildings of the city centre. A walk to the Esplanade, an exhibition centre, also offers nice views on the city and the famous lion statue symbol of Singapore (Singapore means the island of the lion, it was called this way as a sultan from Indonesia thought he had seen a lion on the island....even it has never been any wild lion in Singapore!).
We also walked a bit along Beach Road and saw the famous Raffles Hotel. We did not get a chance to check out the expensive shops on Orchard Road or visit one of the parks.
*Shopping*
Singapore is a heaven for shoppers, there are shops everywhere. We had never seen that before, multi-floors shopping centres specialised in cameras and/or computers. If you know which products you are after and are aware of the market price in your own country, there are bargains to grab....but you will have to use you negociations skills of course! For cheaper products like t-shirts, watches, backpacks.....there are a lot of shops in Chinatown and Little India (...but most of the products are just copies of famous brand). Walking in town you soon realise that there are shopping centres nearly at each street corners!! It is very hard to not spend more time shopping than visiting the town.
*Food*
There are plenty of cheap options to eat in Singapore, especially in the numerous food courts, that can be very modern in the business centre or more traditional in places like Chinatown, but all are organised the same way and the prices are similar. The main dishes cost S$3 to S$5, on the menus you have pictures of the dishes but no description of the ingredients. As all those meals were new to us we had a lot of questions but they could not be answered by the Chinese people that hold those stalls as most of them do not speak English...so we had good but also bad surprises! The cheapest meals we had costed only S$2.5 and they were pretty good. It is then understandable that most people in Singapore do not cook but eat in those food courts or cheap restaurants.
*Transport*
We mainly walked as all the main areas to visit are not that far from each other and we travelled by the very good MRT (local name for the metro) to get to the city centre from our hotel (single tickets costs S$0.9 to S$1.40).
It was interesting but tiring to visit this town, the constant heat makes you very tired. Moreover all those shops around makes it hard to resist spending a lot of money! Also accomodations are not cheap (we paid S$19 for a bed in a very small dorm) so it is not a good idea to stay too long in this town for budget travellers!
