First time visiting Singapore – The Lion City

It was our first time visiting Singapore and we were super excited about it. It was about 4:00 PM when we landed and we knew visa was not required in the immigration office. So, we’ve received a stamp for a period of 90 days.

From the airport, everything was easy and well linked to the place we booked.
Before visiting Singapore for the first time. We always heard that it’s not the best destination for budget travellers. However, after asking several people for a cheap place to stay, we found 5footway.inn Hostel. Located right in the heart of Chinatown and close to the metro.

The plan for the following days was quite tight, because we are only spending there three days.

If you are visiting Singapore for the first time and you don’t know what to do in this amazing city? Here you can find the best things to do in Singapore.

Before taking you to the places, we visited, let us tell you a bit more about Singapore.
The world’s only island city-state, also known as the Lion City, the Garden City or the Red Dot. Singapore is the most modern, civilized and expensive country from all Southeast Asia! Ranked 7th in the world on the cost of living index, higher than San Francisco (9th) but behind New York City (5th).

Singapore is truly a cultural melting pot and a very modern city. It has a significant combination of Chinese, Indian, Malay and Western influences. Amazing architecture, is incredibly well organized and clean.  Not to mention, delicious food, high street shopping, contemporary arts. Amazing parks and a lot of leisure activities. This city has everything it needs to make it “perfect”. As you can imagine, being the first time visiting Singapore, we were quite impressed. In the end, we comment with each other about living here for a while.

The fist place we visited was Marina Bay, where actually we spent most of our time. Is a popular and representative district which made us feel like in a futuristic movie. Impressive architecture, massive skyscrapers with a water reservoir in between guarded by the symbol of the city – The Merlion (famous statue and touristic point: a mix of fish and lion).

Wandering around Boat Quay, Clarke Quay and Raffles Places on foot during the evening. It was definitely, a romantic walk next to the Singapore River with all the colorful lighting fixtures reflecting on the water.
On our way to the water show next to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, we saw some boat tours, but they were short and expensive.

After repeatedly watching the Barcelona Magic Fountain and comparing it with the Singaporean water show. The one from Singapore is one hundred times better and way ahead of its time. This audiovisual performance made a huge impression on us, it was absolutely amazing. If you are visiting Singapore for the first time, don’t miss it.

Gardens By The Bay one of Singapore’s most popular and distinctive attractions it’s what we left for the next day.

Did you saw Avatar? It’s truly like being in the movie. 101 hectares of reclaimed land, a place of fantasy and space-age biodomes. The Cloud forest has super-sized trees. With the purpose to show the green space through the eyes of birds and to build a relation between plants and people. As well as, two mountains made of glass filled with the biggest indoor waterfall. Surrounded by tropical plants and the flower dome. We spent there all day, walking around through that utopian landscape. Surely if we would stay longer in Singapore, we would visit it again.

On the second day, we went to the Botanic Garden, honored as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a huge area with four zones for its visitors. The National Orchid Garden, Rainforest, Ginger Garden and Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden. It’s so big that we didn´t even saw half of it.

Little India was our next stop, considered one of the most vibrant and culturally authentic districts of Singapore, full of colors, happy people, cheap shopping, and food! Unfortunately, we could not eat anything because our stomachs were quite sensitive after several culinary experiments in Vietnam. Passing the food market we found plenty of shops selling cheap jewelry, clothes and Hindu decorations.
Do not miss Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple dedicated to the goddess and destroyer of evil and the oldest one in Singapore. We were lucky to be there during the ritual prayer.

We missed Sentosa Island, Universal Studios, Resorts World and the Underwater World, maybe for our next visit to Singapore, we will be able to go there. Now it was time to move,our bus was departing at 5:00 PM from the Queen Street Bus Terminal, $16 ticket plus a distance of approximately 236 km to Malacca. Read about our experience in Malacca.