We had a great few days there and left feeling like it was the perfect entry point to gently ease us in. All signs were in English, it’s super safe (a friend we met up with said we could abandon our phone on a table whilst going to the toilet and it’d still be there when we got back - and I believe it), and it’s super easy to get around.

Map, Journey and Costs

Note: prices are for 2 adults with baggage

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From	To	Mode	Duration	Cost
🇬🇧 Barcelona (BCN)	🇸🇬 Singapore (SIN)	Plane	18:50	£669.70

Accommodation is notoriously expensive, so to avoid emptying our bank account in the first week we opted for a mixed dorm… with a twist 🚀🚀🚀

Space-pods! You feel like an astronaut, it slightly improves privacy in a 12-bed dorm, and the screen reduces the snoring of astronauts on other ships down to the white noise you’d expect from space travel. What more could you want?

It worked pretty well for us. Certainly won’t win any cleanliness awards, and some fellow astronauts gabbing away well into the early hours wasn’t ideal - but for £37 per night, we were over the moon to not be paying astronomic prices in Singapore.

Singapore is by far the cleanest city either of us had ever seen.

Whilst COVID-19 restrictions and entry requirements for tourists were quite liberal, mask-wearing is very strongly enforced on public transport. Guards actively check when you enter the metro, and everybody keeps them on at all times.

There is absolutely no food nor drink allowed on public transport, a S$500 (£309) fine is actively enforced. Similar story for the streets too.

It’s also by far the greenest city either of us had ever seen.

There are highways - but all of them have a nice plant bed running alongside.

There are skyscrapers - but most have a middle and/or top-floor garden that’s very visible from the street.

And whilst it’s a super-dense manufactured urban environment - they have set aside some areas for flora and fauna to flourish.

Accessible in just under an hour for just over a dollar, one of the highlights of our stay was a TreeTop walk by MacRitchie. It starts off looking like a nice pleasant boardwalk stroll, and then BAM - you’re basically in a jungle.

On a roughly 7k walk we got up close and personal with monkeys, wild boar, water monitors (eww), and lots of cool trees and insects. A very welcome break from the metropolis.

Right slap-bang in the middle of the city is a complex of botanical gardens that makes The Eden Project look like the allotments in Poynton.

They’ve recreated mountain conditions in a giant multi-story greenhouse with a waterfall.

They generate energy and expel heat through gigantic steel super-trees, covered by wild plants. A couple of super-trees have lifts and walkways for tourists to get a good view, and they all perform a light show at 8 pm every evening.

Basically, they’re not messing around. If you ever get the opportunity and enjoy nature, don’t hesitate to dive in as it’s quite spectacular.

We’re always up for working a Parkrun into the trip, and this was no exception. With Singaporean Parkruns starting at the eyewatering time of 7:30 am, it was quite a mission to get there. But totally worth it, and we were ultimately glad at how early the run started given how hot and bothered we were with the humidity by the end.

It was an out and back, and flat as a pancake. The park was really heavily used by runners/cyclists not participating in Parkrun - probably trying to squeeze in some miles before it gets too hot. Decent views out onto the Singapore Strait. At one point you run alongside a beach, which we later learned was artificial. Due to the harbour tide (or lack of) a truck comes and dumps more sand there every now and again.

Food and drink are also big parts of our trips, and Singapore didn’t disappoint. There were a couple of local specialities we wanted to sample.

Standard toast with a sweet sweet twist: coconut butter. It’s served with dippy eggs and very sweet coffee (made with condensed milk) and goes down a treat. It was tasty and quite cheap (£7.05 for both of us with coffee).

It also confirmed that Laura is definitely over the aversion to the taste of eggs that COVID-19 brought 💪

This is a gin based cocktail that dates back to the early 20th century when women weren’t allowed to drink alcohol. A barman at a fancy hotel saw an opportunity and made a cocktail that looked like fruit juice.

It tasted great, very tart due to the cherry liquore in it. We got them from the fancy hotel it was originally made it, unwilling to share the price but luckily it counted as my Christmas present to Laura 💥

Not as gross as it sounds. There’s not a carrot is sight: it’s actually radish based and you have it with soy sauce and noodles.

This was a bit of a fail on our part though. We tried to get it on 3 separate occasions and failed miserably. Think we were just unlucky, as it seems like it’s a common dish. Hopefully, we can grab some in Malaysia.

Who knew that cauliflower could taste so good? Had these recommended a few times, but never stumbled across them in the UK. Definitely got our fix in Singapore and will be grabbing whenever possible in the future!

Singapore had its fair share of quirks:

There was an art/science museum where you could colour-in your own fish, have it scanned, and it would come to life in a digital ocean of hand-drawn sea creatures

There was a waiter-bot that brought food to you after you placed an order using a QR code on your table and took back dirty dishes

There was a more useless robot labelled “Ministry of Finance” roaming the streets near the parliament buildings. Unsure what it was meant to be doing, but it was spending a lot of time driving into a pillar repeatedly

And a man-made river in a shopping mall, with rowing boats. I decided it would be cheaper to buy some extra underpants elsewhere

We’re now on towards Malaysia - catch you soon!