Plan the ultimate 2-day trip to Singapore with must-see attractions, top food spots, and travel tips to make the most of a short city adventure.
Singapore was our next stop. It was an interesting experience at customs. We had to fill out a form and get it approved before we arrived. This form was to be shown at customs and scanned.
Our Two Days in Singapore: Itinerary & Attractions
We were never asked for the form anytime we went through customs. The original form was for the two days we were in port. Completely unsolicited, we received a 90 day entry approval a few days after we left! We have no idea why.
Since Singapore was the end of the cruise for all but 17 of us onboard, there were no cruise tours being offered.
Hubby found a food tour via viator, and it was excellent.
Our first stop was Chinatown where we went to the hakkas for lunch.
Lunch was fantastic. From noodles to spring rolls to chicken and rice (a Singapore favorite) we had a dozen dishes, water, and a local beer for those that wanted it (a little early in the morning for us).
Everything we ate was truly excellent.
The hakkas are food stands where various dishes are made. You place your order and pay, they give you your food and you find a place to sit. It is basically a giant food court.
You must clean up after yourself. And woe to you if you do not. If you have leftovers, there are table clearers that will clear for you and take your leftovers to eat.
The building also has shopping on the floors below the food court. Discounted Chinese New Year goods were readily available. All you had to do was store the stuff away for 12 years, abd bam! what a deal!
After lunch, we went to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum which opened in 2007! There was a prayer service while we were there, and it was air conditioned so the place was packed. Things were heating up outside.
I could have spent a lot of time there reading about the artifacts, meditation rooms, relics, and more – but we were on a schedule, so it was off to do some shopping and more eating on the streets of Chinatown.
I did purchase a fan (they painted by name on it in Chinese) from one of the local vendors to add to my rather large fan collection from around the world. Some day I have to frame these beauties.
We walked down a side street to “enjoy” this smelly fruit. Absolutely nasty.
In addition to dry goods, Chinatown also had fruits and vegetable stands, small grocery stores, restaurants, and more. It was a fascinating little area.
After Chinatown, we took a very fast, very clean, very quiet subway ride to little India.
I do not care for Indian food, but I did enjoy a delicious mango lassi and some roti (Indian bread). Everyone else dug in, but with utensils and not their hands. Hubby was thrilled with this part of the tour as Indian cuisine is one of his favorites. He thoroughly enjoyed himself.
This part of the tour I was disappointed in. Little India had MANY shoppes and places to stop, as well as beautiful clothing and costumes. We had no time to shop and could have spent a few hours there!
After a short bus ride (meh, not that great compared to the subway) we had some gelato at a hipster place – because I always think of gelato when I think of Singapore. (yes, that is snark)
In between all the eating our tour guide gave us an in-depth history of Singapore, complete with photos. My how far it has come in 60 years. There are no natural resources or farming in Singapore, so all food stuffs are imported. But, the city is home to millions of people who enjoy a very nice quality of life.
We arrived back to the ship pretty wiped out. We had walked many miles in high heat, humidity, and sun – basically like home in the summer. And we know better to do that at home in the summer, but needs must when on vacation.
The next day we had a long day planned with a ship tour. We were to go to Orchard Road shopping district, Chinatown, and the Marina Bay cruise center to shop.
We knew we were only going to participate in two of the three stops, but the tour was flipped to start in Chinatown and they only gave us 1 hour and 20 minutes! As we had just been there the day before, we knew we could not eat in that time period let alone shop, so we bailed on the ship tour immediately.
We bought some tea, “window” shopped (there were no windows, it was open air), and then headed back to the hakkas for lunch.
Again, it was delicious. Hubby found us an oyster egg dish, coconut pancakes, some fried dumplings (blech – they were the only stinker in two days), spring rolls, and soup dumplings – which were excellent.
We then took a taxi back towards the cruise terminal to shop at the large Marina Bay mall attached to the cruise terminal. There was a Tim Horton’s coffee shoppe which I had to go to. I make it a point of stopping at every Timmy’s I find in when traveling.
This coffee was terrible. It was very dark, tasted like they added chocolate (not at all tasty), and we had to pay extra for creamers!
We purchased more tea in the mall (when we had it at home it was fantastic) and walked a few more miles (this was a large mall). There were thousands and thousands of people shopping. It was a very different experience from the dead malls we have in the United States.
As expected, Singapore was shopping, shopping, and more shopping. While we didn’t purchase a lot, we did have a fine time marveling at all the was available for purchase.
Our other stops on this long vacation:
● Bali, Indonesia | Two Days on the Island
● Adelaide to Perth: Our Australia Travel Stops
● Two Days in Melbourne, Australia: Our Itinerary
● Two Days in Tasmania: Short Stay Itinerary
● Exploring New Zealand North Island
● Auckland, New Zealand – Sightseeing and Our Itinerary
● For more travel posts on Ann’s Entitled Life, click here.
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