Jun 09, 2013 11:30 PM
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I had went to Singapore on May 2013. Want to share my experience.First of all my advice for whoever planning for the trip, there is no need to take any tour packages just book everything yourself and you save lot of money. Singapore is a small modern city and have very good public transport system for roaming around. Most of the tourist attractions are close to MRT (Singapore Metro) stations.
My tour planning started by booking tickets in Tiger Airways (Bangalore- Singapore- Bangalore). I had booked one month in advance so I almost I paid 38000 INR for 2 people as flight ticket. For visa I took help of a travel agent and I paid 5000 for visa (for 2 people). I had stayed in Fragrance Riverside Hotel which is a budget hotel and paid around 470S$ for 4 days stay. Hotel is very basic and very close to Clarke Quay MRT station which made my transportation easy. I had booked through hotel website.
http://www.fragrancehotel.com/..Always book a hotel near to an MRT station. Next thing I did was booking tickets for Universal Studios. This is again a suggestion to avoid long queues in front of the Studio for tickets. https://rwsentosa.com/. This is wht I did from India before going to Singapore. There are few apps available for mobile which can be very useful while roaming around Singapore. I had installled Singapore MRT app and tripadvisor Singapore guide app in mobile both of them work without internat.
Landed in Singapore 8.30 AM but hotel booking was from 3 PM. I called the hotel they were ready to give me the room by 2 PM so dont want to waste precious 5 hours. I took Singtel SIM card for 18 S$ (this is more than enough for 5 days) and went to Changi Airport MRT station. I took MRT EZ pass for 12 S$ (7S$ in account and 5S$ is non refundable deposit). Take EZ pass which help you to avoid rush in train stations and you can recharge your card for multiples of 10S$. These are very easy procedures to get sim card and railway pass. Only your passport is sufficient.
Day-1
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9 AM I was out of Airport and caught MRT to China Town. There was one MRT ambassador in the train we just inquired her about rules in MRT and she explained us more than we need to know. So after that we had no confusion in getting in or out of MRT. There are different lines (Purple, Yellow, Red etc ) in MRT so change the lines depending on your destination it is very easy using the MRT map which is available everywhere. We roamed across china town for an hour then went to Buddhist temple. It was more than seeing places we were getting used to the place and discovering our first experience in the wonderful country. After that we went for Lunch in MacD and we were done by 1 .15 PM. We catch next train to Clarke Quay from China Town MRT and reached hotel around 1.30 PM. Hotel was just 5 min walk from MRT station which was very useful for rest of our trip. Room was ready once we reach there. We slept for few hours and took bath and was ready by 5 PM. Our target was attractions in Marina Bay.
We went to Garden by the bay and other attractions we just roamed around Marina Bay till 8 PM. There is one place called Cloud Forest which is very good I heard unfortunately we missed it. There was a musical show in Marina Bay we have scene that as well. We were unfortunate to miss Singapore Flyer due to lightning. As we dont want to waste time we went to Orchard Road (One of Asia's shopping paradise) and did some window shopping. We called off our day and headed back to hotel and went to swimming pool to relax and had a sound sleep.
Day-2
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We already had reservation in Universal Studio. Took MRT to harbour front MRT station and took Sentossa Express to Sentossa Island. It is advisable to avoid Universal Studio in weekends as it will be crowded. We were there on Friday still it was crowded. I got in by 9.30 AM as we have tickets with us. We spent the whole day there till 7.30 PM (they close by 7PM normally) . There are lot of things to do in Universal Studio lot of shows to watch and a camera is must as you will never get bored taking pictures there. It is a must watch in Singapore. Entry ticket is 74S$ per person but we took Fuji film package for 156S$ (Entry for 2 people + 2 Photographs + Souvenir worth 10S$ ). I felt this is good as if you pay these things individually you may have spend around 180 S$. After universal studio we went to a casino in Sentossa island. Entry is free for foreign tourists and you get free drinks inside casino. We just roam across casino and had some drinks. After this came back to the hotel around 9 PM. There are too many things to do in Sentossa as we dont have time we planned them for another day.
Day-3
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Morning we went to Singapore Botanical Garden and Orchid Garden. This is huge area lot of greenery. We felt it can be avoided if you are not a nature enthusiast. Lot of places to take pictures. Only Orchird garden has an entry fee of 5 S$. If you have time you can visit this place there was not much crowd inside but Orchird Garden worth the visit. After lunch we went back to Sentossa this time we took cable car (26S$ per person) and reached Sentossa again. It was raining I the evening again. Our target was Dolphin show and watch Song of the Sea show. We just missed Dolphin Show as we were late and it was raining also. We took ticket for Song of the Sea (15S$) and it was amazing. After that we went to Marina bay again (in cable car) to watch Lazer show which was free. We missed 9.30 PM show and next show was at 11 PM. We roamed around the shopping malls till 11 PM and watched the lazer show in Bay front there was live rock band performance also. We reached hotel around 11.45 PM.
Day-4
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Target was Bird Park, Zoo, River Safari and Night Safari.
Unfortunately we were late to start and they spoiled our plans. We were planning to reach Bird park by 9 but we reached there by 11 only. We need to take train to Boon Lay MRT and from there 10 min in Bus. We tooks a 4 in 1 pass for all four attractions (Bird Park, Zoo, River Safari and Night Safari) it will cost 89 S$. After lunch went to Zoo again rain troubled us in Zoo. We missed too many things in Zoo and we were in a hurry as we need to finish River Safari also by 6 PM (Park closes at 6). We missed atleast 50% attractions in Zoo and River Safari. We need to blame ourself to starting late in the morning and rain also. Night 7 PM Night Safari opens. Night Safari was amazing experience and there couple of amazing shows. Zoo River safari and Night Safari locate in same place. You need to get down Woodlands MRT and 10 min in bus from there. After Night Safari we came back to hotel by bus.
Day-5
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We kept this day as reserve. We checked out from hotel in the morning but we kept our languages in hotel only. First target was Singapore Flyer which we missed due to lightning in Day 1. We experienced the tallest flyer in the work (33 S$) and honestly I dont like it much.Still for an experience you can do this. After this we went to Singapore River Cruise (18 S$) which take you through the major part of city in 45 mins. It is recommended as u really get a feel of colonial and modern cultures of Singapore. We got down at bayfront and went to another casino in bay front. Its the biggest Casino in Singapore. After that we went to China town to buy some Souvenirs for friends and relatives and came back to hotel collect bags by 7 PM. We took MRT to airport (Flight @ 10 PM) and reached Bangalore by 12.30 AM local time
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