24th – 25th of September – Departure and arrival

Having had bought the tickets as such short notice and having had to pack and prepare I obviously didn’t have time to get much sleet. Not promising considering my sleeping (or lack of) habits during flights.

Having already checked in from home and only bringing a carry-on the process at the airport was nothing but going straight to security, much easier than what I am used to. Felt a bit weird considering how much I usually end up travelling with.

We departed and arrived in Singapore at 0630 the next morning according to schedule. And of course I barely got any sleep. I blame Fate of the Furious, Power Rangers (I refuse to acknowledge this – the series from my childhood can hardly be even more cheesy. Right? Right??!?!), The Wall, King Arthur, The Mummy and 1½ episodes of Scream Queens for keeping me awake.

With a slow immigration queue I didn’t get to exit the airport until around 0800, and decided to aim for what I deemed was near enough to the center of the city without having to do any complicated change of trains on the way. I took the MRT to a random station and planned on starting exploring from there and realized I had put myself in the middle of the not very touristy area of the financial district. Standing completely surrounded by tall buildings near a crossing with no obvious signs, sidewalks and pedestrian crossings it was hard to figure out what way to go. With a bit of trial and error and basic navigation I soon found myself near the Marina Bays Sands Hotel. It is a weird but massive building; three curved towers with a curved roof across the top. I wouldn’t say it’s an ugly building, but rather… different. From there I had a walk through the Bay Gardens, a park with some fancy-looking built trees, some botanic buildings and activity areas. I settled with just having a walk around, still recovering from the lack of sleep. Also, the heat combined with the humidity did not make things any more pleasant.

Gardens by the Bay

When getting close to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel you start realizing how curved the building actually is.

The hotel on the inside.

Downtown to the left, Marina Bay Sands Hotel to the right (with the Gardens by the Bay further to the right outside the photo).

From there I went back through the financial district, through Chinatown and towards my hotel where I arrived at around 1230. I was starting to feel a bit smashed so I was glad I was lucky enough to be able to check in a bit earlier than informed. I took a short 1½ hours break before venturing back out into the sauna. I realized that I might have been more exhausted than I thought so a few hours later I returned to relax and get ready for dinner.

Waking up I left to go to Little India to have dinner at a restaurant which is known for their fish head curry. The fish head was fallen slightly apart when I got the bowl with the dish (after less than 5 minutes after ordering!) so I never really got the feeling that I was being observed while eating. But that wasn’t quite true, though, as I was being observed; apparently one of the waiters got frustrated at my lousy attempts trying to separate the meat from the bones so he came to my table, grabbed utensils, took the meat which he put onto my plate, added sauce and rice, gave me a gruff “there!” and wandered off. Huh. The fish and curry was absolutely delicious and a great start to the visit – a bit spicier than I had expected very delicious none the less.

One of two elephants where you entered Little India.

After dinner I returned to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and went up onto their observation deck. Here, in the dark, the lights from Bay Gardens really did the area justice and looking in the opposite direction you had an excellent view of the Singapore downtown skyline.

Gardens by the Bay, the large steel trees in the center and two (very) greenhouses to the left (Flower Dome and Cloud Forest).

Downtown (with the mall connected to the hotel in the lower left).

There was a nightly light show in the Marina Bay.

A bar on the rooftop. How considerate!

Returning to the hotel around 2300 I crashed in the bed almost immediately. It was some very much needed sleep I finally got. And the bed was so nice!