I had the pleasure of visiting Singapore for work last month, I’ll leave the work part out of this post and share the best bits from this humid city I grew so fond of.
I really loved Singapore, for me it was the perfect mix of Asia & western culture. If you want to sample local dishes and eat proper asian food - you can, if you want your comfortable, everyday brunch with avocado toast - you can have that too. The people are lovely and proud of their country so go out of their way to make you feel welcome.
One of the first things we discovered was a) there's a Hello Kitty Cafe in the airport & b) Uber doesn't exist there and they use an amazing alternative called Grab. Grab does everything Uber does but also allows you to pay cash & collect rewards on the rides you take. Talking to locals the reason Uber failed in that region is because they didn't adapt to the market, which is still very heavily cash focused.
If you have limited time in Singapore these are my recommendations based on our time there. (You can also check my Instagram story for most visual content - astondarley )
Lau Pa Sat & Gardens By The Bay
I saw Crazy Rich Asians before going to Singapore and fell in love with the locations & the cast. One of main places I wanted to visit was a Hawker Centre which is pretty much a bunch of food stalls that sell different asian dishes for super cheap.
The hawker centre from the movie is actually outside of the city/centre of Singapore so we didn't get to visit that one, we settled for La Pau Sat which did not disappoint. A recommendation if you're visiting is to head out to the pedestrianised street next to the hawker centre to try the satay chicken. You can never go wrong with satay chicken!
With full stomachs & happy hearts we left the hawker centre to visit Gardens By The Bay - if you haven't watched Planet Earth 2 narrated by the legend that is Sir David Attenborough - I recommend you do. During the episode, Singapore is named as the city richer with species than any other in the world and Gardens by the Bay Super Trees as perhaps the most spectacular example of city greening.
Our intention was to be on the walk ways between the super trees around sunset. As we were unorganised and didn't book, the que for the walking bridge was an hour and half long. This actually worked in our favour as we spotted a sign for a rooftop bar. (It's a gift). It cost $20 to visit the top of one of the super trees and the $20 gets you a free drink at the bar - so it's worth every penny.
The views were of the city at dusk are unbeatable.
There are two light displays at the super trees, and they look the best viewed from below. We headed down 5 minutes before the show started and laid on the floor looking up at the trees.
What followed was a magical light & sound show that felt like an adult Disney show. There was something about the mix of the warm air, lying on the ground, a couple of cocktails mixed with jazz music and colourful lights shows beating in rhythm that truely made this experience the highlight of my trip.
I cannot recommend this enough - if you only have one night in town, do this.
Common Man Coffee Roasters & Haji Lane / Arab Street
Common man coffee roasters in in the Quay area of Singapore. It's really popular and we had to wait 15 minutes for a table. The food was great, it was the kind of brunch I'd choose to have on a normal weekend in Sydney.
Living in Australia you get used to a certain quality of coffee - basically we're spoilt so everywhere I go on holiday I always hate trying the coffee. Two Man Coffee Roasters on the other hand, got it right.
Here's what we ate:
The first picture is the Common Man Veggie Wonderland - Two free-range organic eggs
in any style, halloumi, spinach, fresh pesto tomatoes, portobello
mushrooms, avocado, lemon & chilli, with artisanal sourdough
or wholemeal toast <--- with a side of chorizo baked beans because I love meat.
Monisha had the Turkish Common Man Breakfast, phyllo-wrapped soft-boiled
organic egg, crispy feta, fresh cucumber, tomatoes, olives
& hummus with pita bread.
After breakfast we walked along the Quay and got a grab over to Arab Street & Haji Lane.
Haji lane is really colourful & full of cute odd shops and quirky cafes. There's art and graffiti painted on the walls and music playing from the bars into the street. It's an instagram dream.
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Marina Bay Sands & Jumbo Chilli Crab
Singapore is home to the infamous Marina Bay Sands. MBS is a hotel, a shopping centre, a lifestyle resort & is the world's most expensive standalone casino property costings $8 billion. Bargain.
The three pillars and the boat shaped infinity pool that sits on top is part of the Singapore skyline and when you see it in real life the size of it is impressive. Our conference was in the conference area of the MBS and that alone was a maze of corridors and levels.
I also need to mention there is a small river running through the shopping centre and the Louis Vuitton shop that is comparable to a museum.
You have to be a guest of the hotel to get into the rooftop pool. (Unless you can hustle spare room key from one of the guests.) However, if you want to got to the top there are also restaurants & bars at the top that give stunning views of the city and a lovely place to appreciate the vibes of Singapore.
After a beautiful sunset at the top of the Sands we headed to Jumbo.
One dish that was recommended to me before our trip was the chili crab. We chose to eat at Jumbo by the Quay - which was packed and involved a ticket system to wait for a spot.
The food was AMAZING. We were given bibs to wear and covers for our handbags - they knew we were going to get messy. We pulled, cracked, sucked, broke & picked our way through the shell of the crab but the effort & mess were totally worth it. I think the locals were entertained watching us trying to tackle it too.
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PS Cafe & Bak Kut Teh
This lovely little hidden cafe feels like its hidden in a jungle. It's really hard to access from the road and if you didn't know about, I'm not sure you'd be able to find it.
It's in a place called the Dempsy Area and there are a lot of lovely little brunch spots around there. It's a bit out of the way so we had to get a taxi there but its worth the 20 minute journey.
I had the chorizo chilli hash & poached egg with confit potato, house pimento jam & potato skins.
After our amazing brunch, we had a quick meeting and then we headed for Bak-Kut-Teh which is a rib dish cooked in broth popularly served in Malaysia and Singapore. The name literally translates from hokkien (dialect) as "meat bone tea"and at its consists of meaty ribs in a broth of herbs and spices (including star anise, cinnamon, cloves, dang gui, fennel seeds and garlic) for hours.
I actually only just found out there is no tea in the dish itself, apparently the name refers to a strong Chinese tea which is served alongside the soup which is believed to dissolve the amount of fat consumed in this pork-laden dish. Lets hope it worked as we ate s-h-i -t loads of it. It's a really salty dish and we had these doughnut type lumps things (the official name) that sucked up the flavours.
It was a really traditional way to end the trip and I'm glad we got to sample more of the local cuisine. If I hadn't have been shown what to order or to go there I would have missed out so if you want a more transitional side to your trip I recommend heading to a place that service Bak Kut Teh.
I didn't get any pictures of our food but this is place we were taken:
11 New Bridge Road #01-01 Singapore 059383 Nearest MRT: Clarke Quay.
This was our last meal before we headed back to Sydney.
Singapore Airport needs it's own shout out in this post, it has free foot massage machines all over the airport that are an absolute dream.
I can't wait to head back to Singapore and go to the night zoo, I've heard really good things and there's still a lot of places left to try.
As a summary here are my list of suggestions if you find yourself looking for things to do in Singapore:
Things to do:
- Gardens by the Bay
- Haji Lane
- Robertson / Clarke Quay
- Marina Bay Sands
Brunch:
- Common Man Coffee Roasters
- PS Cafe
- Shake Farm - Opposite La Pa Sat - good for smoothies/brekkie
Dinner:
- Lau Pa Sat - Hawker Center
- Jumbo chilli crab
- Bak Kut Teh
Drinks
- Marina Bay Sands - C'est La Vie
- Lantern Bar - Rooftop bar at the top of Fullerton Bay Hotel
- Oxwell & Co - Rooftop gin bar near Club Street
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