Apple Photos reminded me about our latest trip to Singapore as a family of four.
I distinctly remember that during the trip, I quickly did some doodles for the blog post about how we met on the last night of our trip.
The overall trip was great. But rather than going chronologically, I’ll break it down by category instead.
The flight
One lesson learned is that if you got a 2-year-old, it’s best not to get the kid their seat… My 2-year-old didn’t sit on her seat. Also, going economy should suffice if you’re all in one row. Just set the armrests in an upright position, and you got one whole row to move around. Also, I enjoyed my meal on the economy flight to Singapore compared to the business class back to the Philippines. AC enjoyed the business-class food though, so I guess I just chose the wrong food.
One good thing about business class is the exclusive lounge access that isn’t accessible for special credit card holders. The buffet food was acceptable and is definitely a comfortable way to kill time while waiting for your flight. They even got complimentary massages.
The stay
Our first stay was on a very spacious Airbnb, which I think is even bigger than our own house in the Philippines. It was a very pleasant stay, where even the sofa was very comfortable to sleep on overnight.
I would definitely recommend this place to anyone looking for a stay in Singapore. It’s a little pricey though compared to other options, but the location is quite decent. It’s in Chinatown and is around a 5 to 10 minutes walk away from the Chinatown MRT station. It costs around 17-18k a night.
Our second stay was in Sentosa Island, in a hotel called Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa. It had its own private jacuzzi, a large bathroom, and what seems like to be a common theme, is larger than our house in the Philippines by floor area. The hotel restaurant was just ok, nothing spectacular considering the price of the food, but not disappointing either.
The staff was very accommodating, and they even have a shuttle service to bring your belongings to your suite. The hotel itself is quite near Palawan Beach Walk, where you could hitch a free shuttle to go around the beach road.
This one is a lot pricier than the Airbnb one as was expected, costing around 25-30k a night.
What we did
We went around the south of Singapore a lot, but a week definitely isn’t enough to fully enjoy Singapore. Nevertheless, we did visit a couple of places that AC recommended based on her previous stay in Singapore when she was sent there for a business trip.
Marina Bay Sands
We went to Marina Bay Sands twice, the first time to buy my Apple iPad, and to simply explore the mall itself. My eldest was able to go for the gondola ride, but my youngest was asleep so she missed all the fun.
The second time we went there, we went to the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. The kids had fun in the Flower Dome, did some painting activities, and took plenty of pictures… Pictures we were not able to retrieve because of an unpleasant event that occurred later that evening. There are a couple of pics that I took using my own phone though, but since my phone’s main camera lens is broken, I rarely used it for photos…
In the Cloud Forest, my youngest fell asleep before we even went up the bridges, so we weren’t able to capture much of her reaction. My eldest was tired all the way, so I had to carry her the whole walk… It wasn’t the best experience due to how heavy she was. We should’ve brought a stroller.
Dinner at the Chinese restaurant wasn’t exceptional considering the price, apart from my discovery of the Hakaw, which instantly made it my favorite dumpling. One unique experience though is that we order using our own phone through their website, and they’ll deliver it to our table. It was a nifty experience tbh, but one that expects their customers to all have phones with internet.
Later that evening, during our walk back to Marina Bay Sands, AC lost her Galaxy S22 which she bought around 5 months prior. The whole evening was ruined due to that experience. We reported it to the police and checked the location of the phone using Samsung’s own findmyphone service, and we found the phone was in a location far away from Marina Bay Sands. The police were very responsive, even messaging me at midnight, but we weren’t able to retrieve the phone as a findmyphone location isn’t enough for a warrant to search a private residential area.
Mandai
We quickly let go of that unfortunate event, and visited Mandai where I ran out of energy. I got really exhausted in that large zoo. The next time we go for a similar activity, I’ll make sure to travel light and bring a bottle or two of energy drinks. The kids enjoyed it a lot though.
The first trip was to the River Safari, which I did enjoy, mostly because my body batteries were still fully charged. The Pandas (dunno why it’s part of the River Safari, and not the Zoo…), the crocs, and the large fishes were the main things to see there.
The Zoo itself has a lot more to see, but I was out of energy by then. There are a lot of shows too, wherein we were able to catch the dog show, the Splash Safari where we watched the Sea Lion show and is also the place where I was able to regain my energy by drinking like 3 bottles of sports drink.
We also learned a lot there, especially the baboons. The longer the hair, the more alpha they are. I half wished that there was a lion cub there, could’ve witnessed a Lion King live-action.
The kids also enjoyed the mini waterpark inside the zoo, while I toiled away trying to recover my energy by eating some food that went cold.
Ah, and there were large crocs too.
The beach and the Wings of Time
During our first stroll in Sentosa, we went over to the beach, and in the evening, we were able to catch the Wings of Time water/light show. It was the event that I really liked the most on the whole trip… The visuals and story were great, plus the wind on the beach was very refreshing. It’s something that I really needed during the trip, something to refresh my body.
Aquarium, Luge, and lots of Cable cars
We also went to Sentosa S.E.A. Aquarium, caught the dolphin show, and were able to see a lot more aquatic species than what we saw in Mandai. This is an easy recommendation if you got kids 4 years old and above.
The Luge was also a fun one, the kids loved it. I mean it’s a kart going downhill, what more can I say…
We capped off the day by buying a new pair of shoes for my eldest and also a couple of shoes for AC. We also purchased AC’s new iPhone 14 Pro since we were pretty sure we won’t be able to retrieve the stolen Samsung S22…
Final thoughts
While writing this down after almost 3 months since our trip, I’d say that 1 week isn’t enough to fully enjoy Singapore. We weren’t able to do everything that Sentosa could offer, and we weren’t able to explore China Town and Little India in the main island. Even with the short trip, it was certainly worth it, and I would love to do it again, if not for the other countries begging us to experience them as a family.