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We kicked off our world-schooling adventure through Southeast Asia in Singapore. It’s a vibrant city with plenty of flights, which made it a natural place to start. It’s also far pricier than the rest of the region, so we kept our stay short before moving on to places where our budget would stretch further. We still packed a lot into five days, even while getting used to the heat and a 15-hour time difference.
Our home base was Hotel Mi Rochor. We skipped the pricier hotels near the big sights and chose a more neighborhood feel, right between Little India and Bugis. Getting around was easy: we could see the Rochor MRT station from our window, and other lines were a short walk away. Like many big city hotels, the room was small, especially with luggage for 9 months of travel, but we made it work. We used the outdoor pool almost every day, and the cleaning robot was a big hit!
Day 1 – Touchdown and a Waterfall in the Airport
We landed mid-afternoon, and before leaving the airport we stopped at the Jewel to see the HSBC Rain Vortex. A Grab ride to the hotel took us through a real downpour. It was the only rain of our stay, and we welcomed it, since it cut the heat, humidity, and wildfire haze from Indonesia for a little while. After more than 24 hours of travel, we had a quick, tasty dinner in Little India and slept hard.
Day 2 – Pancakes, teamLab & the Supertrees
Rested at last, we explored on foot, checked out nearby neighborhoods, found fluffy Japanese pancakes for breakfast, and ate our first hawker centre lunch. In the afternoon we wandered teamLab’s interactive art. That evening we watched the Garden Rhapsody light show under the Supertrees.
Day 3 – Sentosa: Splash, Sharks & Soup Dumplings
This was our water day. We rode the cable car to Sentosa Island and spent hours cooling off at Adventure Cove Waterpark. Then we got a closer look at sea life at the Singapore Oceanarium, with its jellyfish, sharks, seahorses, and much more. We stayed on the island for dinner at Din Tai Fung. There’s one back home in Oregon, but their soup dumplings hit the spot after a big day.
On the way out we walked the Sentosa Sensoryscape, a garden walkway that lights up at night, before heading back to the mainland and the MRT.
Day 4 – Eating Our Way Across Singapore
Today was all about a daytime food tour through several neighborhoods and hawker centres, starting in Chinatown, which was our first look at that part of the city and its street art.
With full bellies, we took it easy and went back to the Little India hawker centre for dinner.
Day 5 – Chinatown, the River & the Merlion
On our last day we went back to Chinatown to explore more and ate lunch at Chinatown Complex, Singapore’s largest hawker centre. At Clarke Quay we boarded a bumboat for a cruise down the Singapore River into Marina Bay. Afterward we strolled Boat Quay for dinner. We ended the night at the Merlion, cooling off in its mist while the Spectra light show played across the bay at Marina Bay Sands.
We had a fantastic few days enjoying the sights, and especially the tastes, of Singapore. After five days in the big city, we were ready for our next stop: Bali, Indonesia. Stay tuned!
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