We took a 6-hour bus ride from Kuala Lumpur down to the tiny country of Singapore in hopes of experiencing that Crazy Rich Asians lifestyle. We intentionally chose a bus company with good reviews (Aeroline) so my mom wouldn’t have to suffer through our budget buses, but we were still surprised at how nice it was! Huge cozy seats and a “bus attendant” that took our drink order and brought us a full meal. We definitely didn’t get that treatment on any of our buses in South America!

The Sites

Even though our KL bus tour was a bit of a let down, we figured we’d give the hop-on hop-off bus concept one more try in Singapore. And thankfully Singapore is the perfect city for one of these tours – it has a lot of cool buildings/attractions that you can view from the road, it’s small enough that you can see the whole city in a day, and there is essentially no traffic! In fact, we learned on our tour that the government goes to great lengths to ensure there is no traffic. To own a car in Singapore you have to bid on car permits that are only released in a volume equivalent to cars being sold out of the country. There is an import tax of 100%, meaning you pay twice the price for any car you want. And on top of all of that, you pay an extra tax when you drive down busy roads. The result is only ~11% of residents own a car, and traffic is pretty non-existent!

The most famous and impressive site is the Marina Bay Sands resort. This giant hotel/shopping center/casino/convention center/pretty much everything else is located right on the waterfront. With a “skypark” sitting on top of three skyscrapers that looks like a spaceship? boat? it is truly a site to see. We went to the view point on top which gives a beautiful view of the city on one side and an incredible view of the harbor on the other.

We also stopped at the Singapore Botanical Gardens which has one of only two urban rain forests in the world (the other is in Brazil). We went on a rain forest walk and just nearly missed out on getting caught in a torrential downpour – definitely made the rain forest part more believable!

We ventured into the “Little India” neighborhood one morning, and while none of us have ever been to India, this neighborhood fulfilled our expectations on what it would be like! The sidewalks were jam packed with people, all of the shops and restaurants were Indian-run, and there were several temples that were crammed with people. We had a quick breakfast at one of the restaurants and discovered Dosai, almost like an Indian pancake, which has changed our worlds and we’ve had it several times since.

The Shows

Some of the biggest attractions in Singapore are the nightly light shows. Our first evening we went to the Marina Bay Sands fountain light show which was as exciting and impressive as it could be. The lights danced along the shooting water in rhythm to the very dramatic music. We enjoyed it so much we came back and watched it twice in one night!

The second light show isn’t far away at the Gardens by the Bay – the location of those iconic fake trees. We, along with thousands of other people, were herded into the “supertree grove” where we stood below the fake trees to watch the show. Just as we were starting to feel like we were in Avatar, the trees lit up in rhythm with the music for a special Chinese New Year version of the show. It was beautiful and unique, but over way too quickly!

Chinese New Year

We timed our Singapore adventure perfectly with Chinese New Year, which is a huge deal in the city. In addition to the special version of the light show in Gardens by the Bay, there were CNY decorations everywhere. Giant bunnies, red lanterns, huge floating characters – the city goes all out! We went to Chinatown for the day of Chinese New Year and visited the main temple in town (a very popular activity that day). Apparently Chinese New Year is close to a two-week celebration – a much bigger deal than our typical New Years!

With Sheila heading home after a quick three days in Singapore, we of course couldn’t send her off without us all trying the classic Singapore Sling cocktail. I ordered us three from a waitress that could not have been less surprised at the tourists ordering this cliche drink. They were very fun and fancy, but probably not a drink any of us will order again. But cheers to a great couple weeks in Asia and you being our favorite (and only 🙂 ) visitor, mom!

Christine