Before starting to write about my Singapore adventure I want to take the opportunity to praise travel agencies. It’s been a while, namely four years when I planned a trip to Cuba, since I last checked-in to one. But when I was trying to figure out the flights to my very last-minute trip to Asia this year, I broke down after five or six hours of trying to get my flights done. From Germany to Taipei to Manado and then back to Germany from Jakarta or Bali. Sounds simple enough? It was not. Sometimes I was not sure if I could check-in luggage (needed for this trip) and as soon as it got outside of Germany all the flights were quoted in Taiwan Dollar and Indonesian Rupiah. How the heck should I know how much billions of Rupiah are in Euro?
Long story short, the next day I sought help for the flights as I was about to go crazy. The travel agent didn’t only manage to save me about two days travel time thanks to better flight connections I would have never found on my own, but also managed to get me some discounts I would not have gotten without him. Since there were no direct flights from Taipei to Manado he asked me if I was ok with staying one night in Singapore, as the flights were a bit better if we did it that way. And this is how I ended up in Singapore for a night without even planning to.
Given that I had no clue about the city and just imagined it a boring place with lots of skyscrapers, I thought about possible ways to spend my time. Since I got into the taste of infinity pools two years back in Kuala Lumpur I checked the infinity pool scene in Singapore and scored: One of the nicest pools possible is found right at the bay on top of the Marina Bay Sands… Too bad though that the rates were a little out of my budget and they just didn’t want to give me the 90% discount I kindly ask of them via e-mail. Not sure how they could say no to someone with no popular blog and less than 150 followers on Instagram. Luckily, for not-so popular persons like I am, we have agoda.com. I found a good deal for another hotel with an infinity pool and already thought of my lazy self chilling at the pool the entire day.
I could not have forgiven myself though if I had have been to Singapore without exploring the city at least a little and so off I went at six in the morning after storing my luggage at the hotel. Singapore was as clean as expected from a city where you are not allowed to chew gum in public, but also way greener than I expected it. Right next to the hotel was a big park with interesting information about Singapore history. I walked further along the river to Chinatown with an important temple, because I hadn’t seen enough temples yet back in Taiwan.
Wondering through the streets I could not help but thinking of Penang – the houses were as colourful and there was street art in every corner, remembering the history of Chinese immigrants to Singapore, which was quite heartbreaking at times. The bay area in general is surprisingly small. I counted in much more time, but you can easily cover most of it in four hours, including one hour for breakfast. If you have more time there are also tons of museums to explore, but my brain was not really ready for these things after four hours of “sleeping” and I thought five hours of exploring is enough for a day. I decided to head back to the hotel where I checked-in to my queen-size bedroom with all the accessories and comfort you can expect from a hotel with an infinity pool on the roof. The pool itself was just perfect. The good thing if you don’t stay in the Marina Bay Sands directly is that you can actually watch it from afar, and it is a truly beautiful building with some laser shows at night. I spent the entire day and night at the pool with just a short walk to get a taste of Singapore’s hawker scene.
Because Singapore takes its street cleanliness to the next level there is not much space for street food, the only thing I missed a little in that city. But they found a workaround and opened hawker centres where you can sit and buy your street food and enjoy a little people watching. I enjoyed the food, but I enjoyed the pool more so I quickly went back to the hotel after dinner and watched the city by night with a cocktail in my hand to celebrate life.
