Singapore was the first station of our Far East tour, which is one of the city states in the world. Singapore means “Lion City”. Time is 5 hours ahead of Turkey in Singapore. Our flight had taken totally 12.5 hours by Qatar Airways by stopping in Doha. (Turkey-Doha 4 hours, Doha-Singapore 7.5 hours). We arrived at Changi Airport (SIN) after this long travel. Currency is Singapore Dollar (SGD). 1 Singapore Dollar was equal to approximately 1.5 Turkish Liras. Traffic works from left side in Singapore. Turkish citizens who have regular passports don’t need visa for 90 days in their travels. Arrival – departure cards are being filled for visa. Total flight tickets İstanbul-Singapur (25.06.2012) and Bangkok-İstanbul (07.07.2012) cost was 535 Euros.
Meanwhile, Qatar Airways’ food was very nice, also hot wet wipes being delivered before meals, I liked it a lot 🙂
Singapore is famous with its prohibitions and order. For example, chewing gum and to enter country with gum are prohibited. Durian fruit is forbidden in public transport and aircraft. Eating-drinking is also prohibited in public transport. There are a lot of prohibitions like these.
1. day – 27.06.2012
We had only two days to travel in Singapore and I do want to see National Orchid Garden in Botanic Garden. We determined our first day route accordingly. Weather was a little rainy. Firstly we wanted to see Mustafa Centre. It was quite large but we could not find something to buy that attracts our attention. Then, continuing from Little India, we saw Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple.
Restaurants we passed until we came here, were smelling garlic. And then, we went to see Masjid Abdul Gafoor.
And then, we went to Sim Lim Square to look for photo camera. Then, we saw Kwan im Thong Hood Cho Temple and Sri Krishna Temple.
Then, we passed in front of Singapore Art Museum and National Museum of Singapore, and went to Singapore Botanic Garden getting on bus from YMCA station.
We visited Singapore Botanic Gardens and National Orchid Garden(S$ 5). It was one of the best days of the holiday today for me.
Orchid garden exactly as I expected, everywhere was full of different kinds of orchids 🙂 After seeing all these beautiful flowers and taking photos, we walked through Orchid Road (Orchard Rd) and decided to see Merlion statue.
After walking on Orchid Road, we went to Funan Digital Life Mall to look for photo camera again. It was more expensive than Sim Lim Square. Then we saw Parliament and Raffles Statue. Raffles Statue was smaller than I expected.
Then, we went to Merlion Statue and took a lot of photos of Marina Bay Sands and Esplanade. Because, Merlion Statue was on maintenance once in 40 years and it came across to our holiday. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see lion-headed, fish-bodied statue which is symbol of Singapore 🙁 Then, we returned back to the hotel (V Hotel Lavender) from Raffles Place.
In a restaurant near the hotel, we bought a menu called satay, it was like chicken skewers but it had a sweet sauce (peanut sauce). Other menu we have bought was something like a chicken menu, but I don’t remember the exact name. Both menus had soup and rice. The taste of the soup was like broth, but it was also a little bit sweet. Rice was sauced, it was not like our rice with vermicelli. There were a few pieces more in the chicken menu, I had the taste of fish whatever. There were eggplant and omelette in satay menu.
2. day – 28.06.2012
We would fly (Tiger airways) to KL from Singapore in the evening at 20:40, so the second day in Singapore passed in rush. Today, we determined our route to go to Singapore Flyer. Firstly, we saw Masjid Jamae Chulia and Sri Mriamman Temple.
Then, we went to Pagoda Street and China Town. Then, we went to Singapore Flyer (S$ 29.5). When we visit a city, watching city from one of its highest points is one of my favorite things. We have a beautiful view of Singapore from Flyer 🙂
We ended up our Singapore tour here. I wish we had more than two days for Singapore, it wasn’t enough. If we had at least one more day, I would like to see Sentosa Island and get Night Safari.