Singapore: Summer 2019

Capsule Hostel

My Indonesian adventure was a breakneck run around only a fraction of the country. All told 17 days including the few in Bali. A combination of VISA mixups and a promised trip to visit someone stopped me spending the full 6 weeks of my holiday in this paradise.

Inside of Capsule

I had originally been planning to stop in Hong Kong but with what's going on there, travel to and from to China is tricky and not advised. I was contacted by the agency I booked my flights through who offered me three or four other cities to fly though instead of trying my luck in HK. Singapore was one of them and as they were waiving all fees, I jumped at it.

I was in Singapore last time when I was ten so my memories of the city are a little fuzzy to say the least.

After a few weeks in a very cheap country, Singapore felt very expensive. I kept forgetting and stopping for beers that were easily ten times the price of this I was buying only a few days before. I booked into a capsule hostel (basically a plastic coffin with a TV) near the Indian district. As it happened, I really lucked out here! The hostel was cheap and in a fantastic location. There was an Indian food festival in town for the exact dates I was there so I ate at the indica market for almost every meal. It was a food court style place and had a great atmosphere. I had a blast and some fantastic food! Chinese food is great but they really can't do a decent Indian curry and that is what I now crave above everything else.

My four days in Singapore we a fairly leisurely unplanned mess of shopping lists and curries. The shopping in Singapore is second to none, if you can't find it here, it doesn't exist. I had a wonderful time just wandering about aimlessly.

The only thing that actually planned, was meeting up with an old student of mine from my Shane days. He's in his last year of university now but it still felt strange when he ordered a beer in the restaurant. We decided to venture over to Sentosa Pleasure Island and check out the Aquarium. I love aquariums so this plan suited me fine. Looking back at pictures of Sentosa when we were there as kids, the place has changed so much. It's a giant collection of theme parks, hotels, water parks and activity beaches. I still liked it but was a little overwhelmed by just how big and busy the island was. The aquarium was amazing though!

There is one massive tank towards the one of the aquarium that is just mesmerising. There were sharks, rays and so many different species of fish that we lost count. We bought some snacks and sat down just staring for about an hour at a literal wall of water. It was so immense that my camera couldn't take a picture of the whole thing in one picture. I tried though.

Sentosa was a busy and crowded day but it's always nice catching up with old students and seeing where they end up.

I spent my last afternoon walking to and in singapores famous "gardens in the bay" which although criticised for being a tourist stunt, really was beautiful. Its basically a giant botanical garden next to the harbour. Personally I loved it and thought it was beautiful.

For me, the highlight was the record breaking indoor waterfall and tree top canopy walk. It got busy but it never felt claustrophobic and crowded and I never had to queue for anything.

Singapore turned out to be a fantastic end to a wonderful few weeks as it was so completely different from Indonesia.