Day One
When Nico and I arrived in Singapore, we found the MRT train to take us to the city. It was a little confusing at first but eventually we figured it out and arrived in Chinatown. From the train station, we walked through Chinatown, following the directions to our hostel. The directions led us to the 5footway.inn Project, Chinatown 2, though I thought I had booked the 5footway.inn Project, Ann Siang. Sure enough, we were at the wrong hostel. Luckily, the correct hostel was located just down the street.
After checking in (by making a Skype call to reception on an ipad mounted to the door haha) and dropping our stuff off, Nico and I went to find food. Thankfully, the Chinatown food street was located just across the street. We walked through the stalls and ended up ordering BBQ chicken on a sizzling hot plate. It was pretty delicious.
After dinner, we went back to our hostel to relax and go to sleep. This hostel had no common area. Instead, we had closed off little pods in a room with no windows.
Day Two
For breakfast, Nico and I headed to the sister hostel, Chinatown 2, for our complimentary "meal." In the crowded little room, Nico and I helped ourselves to toast with peanut butter and then decided to find better food elsewhere.
So, we went to the Maxwell Food Center, where there are lots of stalls set up to sell street food. This place was a little more authentic/less touristy than the Chinatown food stalls. We got dim sum pork buns, which were not the best I've had. I could tell the market had lots of other good options but we didn't get around to trying them.
After breakfast, we took the MRT to the downtown area to check out, specifically, the Ritz-Carlton (because Nico and I used to work at a Ritz) but also the other sites in the area. When we arrived at the Ritz, we began to explore the property. We found the spa where a very friendly front desk agent gave us a tour and was enthusiastic about hearing about the RC Lake Tahoe.
After exploring the Ritz, we headed toward some of the other downtown buildings. We walked through the Marina Bay Sands and across to the Gardens of the Bay. We took a few pictures and then purchased tickets to enter the Flower Garden and Cloud Forest.
First, we went to the Flower Garden, an enclosed botanical garden divided into sections for different climate zones. I enjoyed the California section; it smelled like home.
After exploring the Flower Garden for a while, we decided to head back to the hostel before returning to see the Cloud Forest. We got food again at the Chinatown food street. We went to a fried food stall and had Shanghai dumplings with fries.
When we finished dinner, we went to the mall to get Nico some fancy shoes because we were planning on going to a fancy rooftop bar later with a dress code. He picked a pair out from H&M and then we headed back to get ready.
Once ready, we went back downtown and headed to the Cloud Forest to walk around for a bit. It was very cool and beautiful. The sun started to go down as we were exploring, giving us a nice golden light to take photos. There was a beautiful cascading waterfall and a walkway that wrapped around a plant mountain, all contained inside a glass dome.
After walking through the cloud forest, Nico and I headed out for the rooftop bar. It was called I-Altitude and was on the 63rd floor of a downtown building. There was a deal going on for martinis, which isn't usually my drink but I decided to try an apple martini. It was delicious! Later, I tried a white chocolate martini, which I didn't like as much.
After hanging out at the bar for a bit, Nico and I got hungry and left. Most things were closing up since it was so late so Nico and I stopped at the first restaurant we could find. It was pretty overpriced but we ordered sweet and sour pork anyway. It really wasn't good. We ate it all because we were hungry but it didn't have any flavor.
Day Three
Nico and I slept in as best as we could. Someone kept going in and out of the hostel room with no attempt to keep the noise level down. When we got up, we packed everything up since we had to change rooms (because we extended one night) and brought our bags to the desk to be stored.
Then we began walking to a crepe restaurant I had read about on TripAdvisor called Entre-Nous Creperie. I had a four cheese crepe and Nico had one with avocado but neither of us liked them very much. Mine must have had a very strong blue cheese, which was overpowering.
Afterwards, we just walked around the area. It got pretty hot though so we decided to go to a movie. We were eventually able to find wifi and look up movie times and how to get to a theater. Then, we took the train out of the city for a ways and went to see the latest Pirates of the Caribbean Movie, Salizar's Revenge (keeping up with our recent theme). It was really good! We both were pleasantly surprised by how it turned out.
That night for dinner, we went to a restaurant called Noodle Man, which was delicious. I had hot & sour soup and Nico and I split some fried pot stickers and noodles.
After dinner, we went to Gardens of the Bay to watch the light show, which was a little disappointing for all of the hype. We thought all of the tree branches would light up or something but was all just projections on the trunks with a bit of music. It was worth a walk through the gardens at night though to see all the "trees" lit up.
That night, we tried to book flights to Bali but Lion Air wouldn't accept our credit cards. So after a lot of frustration, we decided to just go to the airport tomorrow and book them in person.
Day Four
Nico and I woke up still with a lot of stress about flying out of Singapore. We quickly packed up all of our things, checked out, and got on the MRT to the airport.
At the airport, we first struggled to even find the Lion Air counter. We started in the wrong terminal and then when we were finally in the right terminal, we walked the whole thing before finding Lion Air at the very end.
Having never bought plane tickets from an airport before, we didn't really know where to go. We first walked up to the check-in counter, which redirected us to a ticketing counter around the corner. Tickets, of course, were a lot more expensive than what we had found online last night. But even when we checked online that day at the airport, they were shown as no longer available. So, we decided to bite the bullet and buy the tickets. We needed to get on a plane somewhere and were running out of options.
After purchasing our tickets, the lady at the counter said that we'd need to show proof of a departing flight in order to check-in. Since we had a decent amount of time to kill, we sat down and started looking at flights from Bali back to Bangkok. We wanted to have at least one full day in Bangkok but the way flights were looking, it was cheaper to fly on the 18th and spend three full days instead. So, booked a flight from Jakarta to Bangkok.
Then it became time for us to check-in to our flight. We walked through customs and explored the terminal for a bit. There was a butterfly garden in the airport, which we walked through and then went to get some food. The airport had a cool "street food" court. Nico and I ordered lemon chicken and rice, but the chicken was cold. I decided to go to a 7-11 to buy snacks and drinks instead. But as we began walking to our gate, I realized we hadn't gone through security yet. I thought I'd take my chances with the drinks since they were still sealed but security told me that if I wanted to bring them, I'd have to go back and get a sealed security bag.
So, I ran back to 7-11 and the cashier sealed my drinks. I made it back just in time to board the plane.
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