Spectrum of the Seas Review: Day 6 – Singaporefeatured

My nose was to the window when I woke up the next morning. Not literally, of course. There was plenty of space between my actual face and the window, but it kind of felt like I woke up with my nose to the window, these large floor to ceiling windows in the hotel putting us in the middle of the city, right into Merlion Park and the downtown skyline.

The sky was clear and bright blue, but if Singapore was anything like Kuala Lumpur, it was only a matter of time before that turned, so we quickly began shuffling through the room as we began our day.

My status at Hilton gets us free breakfast at most properties and while I’m sure there are many more options within the city, it doesn’t get much better than free and downstairs before our day really begins. Usually, hotel breakfasts are generic and milquetoast, over-scrambled eggs, soggy bacon and burnt bread, nothing really to write home about. When we checked in, the person working reception mentioned that it was our lucky week because the restaurant that usually served breakfast for Gold elites was being painted or renovated or something, which meant our breakfast would be in another venue, one that was four times as big. It felt like an exaggeration that I just kind of let roll off, but he wasn’t kidding – it was literally, perhaps, one of the most expansive hotel breakfast buffets I’ve seen outside of Las Vegas. The numerous stations spanned the traditional (omelet bar, pastry station, cereal station) to the non-traditional (dim sum, anyone?) to things like honey right off the comb, a kaya toast bar, a BYO Nasi Lemak bar, SO many things. And gelato! There was an ice cream station – at BREAKFAST! I was overwhelmed by the choices. Overwhelmed, but I totally persevered because, you know, I’m a champ like that.

Full and fueled for our day, we headed out in search of a Hop On Hop Off bus. Our hotel was steps away from the Suntec Center, yet another full service shopping mall that was one, huge, but two, quiet except for commuters in the early morning hours. For the life of us, we couldn’t find the Hop On Hop Off bus until something clicked with Stephanie and she found a sign that said Hippo. I guess here, Hippo is the name of the HOHO (but not the brand – it’s City Sightseeing and Big Bus here, and apparently they’re in the process of merging so our option was HOHO, not a particular brand) and we finally found the desk, purchased two two-day tickets and hopped on the first bus we found, bound for the big sights of this new city.

I’ve said it so many times before, but it always bears repeating: I love Hop On Hop Off buses and if we’re in a new place and it’s an option, nine times out of ten, we’ll spend at least one day on them (but probably more). If you know the city you’re in or you have a set plan, these buses probably aren’t the most efficient way of traversing a city (especially in a place like Singapore, with it’s robust network of MRT stations). For us, though, it serves a number of purposes: it helps acquaint us with the city, its layout and its landmarks and on a nice day, it allows us to spend time outside, being in the city and learning about the city without having to make much effort – we just sit there, listen, observe and snap pictures. And we learn a ton. Apparently, apartments in the city center here? Two million dollars US. Medical tourism? It’s a huge thing here, generating tens of millions of dollars annually via numerous private hospitals that people come all the way to Singapore for. Oh and traffic? Not much of a thing because the cost of owning a car in Singapore is so high. Not only do you need to buy the car, you need to buy a permit to get the car and those are highly regulated. The cost of car ownership can run upwards of $50K and it’s only good for, like, ten years anyways. We learned about the Hawker Centers and the dibs rule where you can leave anything on a table (literally, a pack of Kleenex or an umbrella) and how that will save it for you and people will respect that. We learned that though Singapore has a rigid set of rules and laws to prevent anti-social behavior (including that infamous no gum chewing law), these are more so deterrents than they are strictly enforced. All these little facts just kept building up, popping into my head, inspiring a chat or at least a quick note with Stephanie but over all, just helping me learn more about this unique city.

The bus offered a number of different lines. We hopped on the first one that showed up, the Yellow line, which took us through downtown to a number of the famous sites. We drove past the Singapore Flyer ferris wheel, down to the Marina Bay Sands, a multi-billion dollar resort that is grand only on a scale found in Las Vegas for comparison. We drove through the financial district, by the parliament house and down to the botanical gardens (which is a UNESCO site!). We passed the Ministry of Communications, an old police building flanked in colorful window shades in every hue of the rainbow. The loop was an hour and we felt like we saw so many things on our list.

Our initial plan was to start hopping off to the places we wanted to explore after our first loop – the Merlion Park, the Ministry of Communications building and a few others – before heading to the ArtScience Museum, where Stephanie had pre-purchased entrance tickets for us, but the weather had other plans. Not long after we set out on a second loop of the Yellow Line tour did the skies darken up, throwing a wet wrench into our plans. We decided to transpose our plans and do the museum first and then tour, hoping that the weather would be similar to Kuala Lumpur’s, where the afternoon storms were strong but brief. We hopped off at the Marina Bay Sands, making our way to the famous Shoppes at Marina Bay, another stunning shopping mall filled with luxury boutiques for just about every major label you can think of, as well as beautiful art installations and even boat rides through the canal.

We were hoping to cross over to the museum before the rain started, but Mother Nature had other ideas and the skies absolutely opened up, keeping us in the mall until she let up. But it was fine – we discovered the Rasapura Masters, what us Americans would consider a food court, but in Singapore, it was almost a mini Hawker Center.

If you aren’t familiar with the concept of Hawker Centers, they’re Singaporean food courts with anywhere from a small handful to dozens of stalls. Each stall usually sells just a few things, but they’ve become masters at them (some of them even have Michelin stars awarded to them!). I had so many plans to eat at Hawker Centers across the city, but for our lunch while we were waiting out the rain, this quasi food court mall Hawker Center would have to do…and boy did it! We feasted on dim sum, on bubble teas with cheese topping (my fave!), and on so many dumplings. Each thing I tasted was better than the last. We were only on our first day here, and the food was already impressive beyond all of the rave reviews I’d read ahead of our trip (and we’d only eaten at the hotel and at this mall!).

When the rain finally let up enough for us to make the quick walk across the promenade to the museum, we shuffled over through the last of the drizzle. The entrance of the museum featured a lily pond with koi fish, an understated but beautiful display that I was immediately taken by.

The ArtScience Museum is one of the more popular attractions in Singapore. It features a handful of interactive exhibits that aim to inspire creativity through art and science expressed through different mediums. It’s a lot of words to say, people flock here to take pictures for Instagram because it’s exhibits are colorful and interactive, and it has an exhibit called Crystal Universe that’s like one of those beautiful mirrored infinity rooms, but one that has constantly changing lights glittering around you. It’s truly stunning.

The rain finally lifted when we wrapped up our visit to the museum. You don’t need a ton of time here – an hour will probably suffice. We took a walk along the boardwalk, taking in views of the skyline, the Raffles hotel and Merlion Park before heading back into the Shoppes and back to the bus stop to pick up the Yellow Line.

We didn’t wait long for a bus, hopping off again at the Ministry of Communication to take some more pictures of the rainbow window shutters. This was my number one photo stop in Singapore and it didn’t disappoint! Even better was the fact that all these places we were visiting…they weren’t crowded. I couldn’t tell if it just wasn’t tourist season or if it was just because it was the middle of the week, but in any other city, there’s a flock of tourists outside posing just about everywhere we go. Here, today? Relative peace. I wasn’t used to it, but I took it nonetheless!

Instead of hopping back on the Yellow line, we walked about a block back towards the Parliament building to hop on the Red line, which would visit some of the cultural neighborhoods in Little India, Chinatown and Arab Street. The stop we hopped on at was towards the end of the line, but we did get to drive through Chinatown and when we got back to the bus terminal at Suntec, we got off to grab some water bottles (the heat in Singapore is no joke!) and hopped right back on to do a full loop through the neighborhoods, deciding to hop on and off the next day.

After an hour long loop, we headed back to the hotel to rest and relax before making plans for the rest of the night. As we made our way through the Suntec Center on our way back to the hotel, we found a Lush and with that gorgeous huge bathtub at the hotel, we had to stop in to get some bath bombs! Fun fact: I worked at Lush in college. It is a wonderful company. I still love the products, even ::whispers:: 10+ years later.

Before we left for this trip, I kind of unilaterally decided that I only wanted to eat dinner at Hawker Centers while we were in Singapore. They’re inexpensive, they’re casual and completely informal, they’re robust with options and the food is supposed to be amazing, a perfect mix of things I love. There were a number of them to choose from, so we started our first night with Lau Pa Sat, famous for satay (amongst other dishes!). Our hotel was close to an MRT station that would go door to door, so we decided to take public transit and I can’t say enough great things about the public transportation system in Singapore. I learned earlier in the day through the bus narration track that the city invests a ton of money into the foundation and upkeep of public transit here because they try to deter citizens from car ownership so strongly and it really shows. The lines are easy to navigate, the cost is low (S$1.50 each way) and the stations and trains are immaculate. It was shocking to me to be at a train station that was so clean and pleasant. No trash (littering is illegal), no gross stuff (spitting, gum chewing and all kinds of other bad habits are also illegal), didn’t smell like pee — it was the complete opposite of the public transit I take back home.

We got to Lau Pa Sat at just the right time – it was busy but not unbearably so. We did a few laps before we just went for it and started ordering a ton of food. Braised pork belly. Salt-crusted chicken. Char siu bao. Garlic naan. Sugar cane juice. It was a multi-national feast and everything we ate was the best thing we ever tasted. Like that braised pork belly? The only thing I can compare it to is the pork belly at Ji Ji on the Carnival ships and it was even better than that! And I *love* Ji Ji’s pork belly!

For dessert, we ordered Ice Kachang, which was shaved ice topped with condensed milk and red beans on a foundation of sweet corn, boba, gelatin and all kinds of stuff. It wasn’t awful, but it also wasn’t very…good? We tried it to say we tried it. We probably won’t order again (until the next time we do – I’m terrible at declaring nevers).

After dinner, we walked back to the MRT station headed back to the hotel. We stopped at a 7-Eleven for a big water bottle (Stephanie) and an iced Milo (…me) and back to the hotel, calling it an early night. For all of the riding around the city, I was exhausted and for as much as we did, it felt like we hadn’t even scratched Singapore’s surface just quite yet.