SINGAPORE AND BACK TO DA NANG

After passing through customs at the Malaysia/Singapore border, the bus drops us quite close to our hotel.

Obviously, hotel prices in Singapore are higher again, even hostels and guesthouses become expensive here, there’s barely nothing under 30-40usd per night, so we decided to add some luxury to end our second journey towards Vietnam, by booking the cozy Boss Hotel Singapore (about 60€/night).

By the time we settle in our room it’s already dark outside, we are a little bit tired from the bus trip from Melaka to Singapore city, but the desire to see the iconic Marina Bay which we just saw from distance from our bus windows, is very strong and off we go.

We need to walk some km before getting there, passing through the Malay District where we have a kebab for dinner at the night street market, and becoming familiar with the well known cleanliness of Singapore: the sidewalks are always spotless, large and super spacious. Finally we make it to the Bay, luminous skyscrapers enlighten the water, as we walk on the asphalt that just hosted the F1 Grand Prix few weeks ago. We are stunned by the view, the modernity and luxury of this area is absolutely impressive.

After taking some photos and videos, we call it a day and get back to the hotel to enjoy its comforts, we have a long day of sightseeing ahead us tomorrow.

In the morning we jump on the metro to reach Chinatown, then we walk up to Fort Canning Park, a nice green area right in the middle of the city, before going back down to Clarke Quay along the Singapore River.

We have already walked and seen much, but the best has yet to come as we head towards the famous Gardens by the Bay: everything here is so fascinating, modern, clean, spacious and colourful, a perfect mix between natural and artificial; of course the Gardens are man made, but the feeling is to be somewhere else deep in nature.

There are several attractions to visit, including the Flower Dome, the Cloud Forest, the Supertree Grove, the Skywalk. We don’t have time (and money) enough to see them all, we opt for the Cloud Forest, a recreation of a forest ecosystem inside a huge dome: as its name suggests there are literally clouds all around us, humidity is very high, but the temperature is cooler than outside, sometimes chilly like a proper forest, let’s just say they made a really great job building this artificial environment!

When we get out, the sun has just set, meaning that lights switch on and take the scene all around the Gardens and the Marina Bay: it’s a mesmerizing spectacle, kind of a fairy tale world. We let the photos speak for themselves.

We walk inside the Marina Bay Sands, and decide to give ourselves one more special treat: a good pizza for dinner. We don’t want to leave without seeing the view from the top of the hotel, so we reach floor 57 where the rooftop bars are. Drinks start from 26sgd (around 20usd), we just spent almost 80sgd for 2 pizzas, so we just peek for a few minutes.

It was another long day of walking, sightseeing, evaluating the pros and cons of human made creations, and wondering how can some places on earth be so different; in few hours we can go from being in the middle of nature, jungle, forests, mountain views, surrounded by green and clean air, to being in a masterpiece of modernity and technology, concrete jungle and skyscrapers all around us.

The world is a big beautiful various crazy place!

It’s October 18th and we have our scheduled Singapore-Da Nang flight today. One last swim in our hotel’s pool, and we take the MRT to Singapore Changi Airport, one of the most big and modern in the world. It’s almost more an amusement park than an airport, there’s literally every sort of entertainment around.

We are a bit tired, both mentally than physically, it has been an intense month of backpacking and in just more than 30 days we went from London’s Westminster Bridge to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, from Sri Lankan amazing landscapes, to Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Towers, and now from the perfection of Singapore back to our buzzing Da Nang again.

There’s nothing we would have changed, we would do everything again.

TAKE A BREAK FROM WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND GO LIVING THE LIFE!!!

Accomodations:

• Boss Hotel Singapore: from 60€/night, modern rooms, AC, city view, swimming pool.

FIND HOTEL DEALS IN SINGAPORE

Transports:

• Bus, Melaka to Singapore: from 10$/person, 4 hour-trip;
• Singapore MRT/SRT: from 1$/trip;
• Flight, Singapore to Da Nang, Jetstar Pacific, Air Asia: around 100€/person;
• SEARCH HERE CHEAP FLIGHTS TO SINGAPORE.

Fees:

• Gardens by the Bay, free entrance;
• Cloud Forest: 35sgd/person.