Formula 1 track “Marina Bay Street Circuit”
Our day started with a visit to the Formula 1 track “Marina Bay Street Circuit”. Here you can simply walk along the pit lane and look at the start-finish area. Much of the route is on public roads, but this part is right on the bay and is always open, except for events like the Singapore Grand Prix, of course.
Singapore Flyer
The Singapore Flyer is also right next to the racetrack. The 165 m high Ferris wheel is the second highest in the world. At 33 SGD (approx. 22 EUR), we don't find it cheap to ride the Ferris wheel for just one round. Since we had a guided tour at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel anyway, we didn't have time to go along. You can find a report about the Marina Bay Sands here.
Basler & Hofmann Singapur
After our personal tour of the hotel, we drove to the hotel by taxi Basler and Hofmann Singapore. This subsidiary belongs to the same group of companies in which I work. When I'm in town, I wanted to stop by and see what our company is designing, planning and building in this part of the world. You should make an exception and combine vacation with work. ;)
It was very interesting to learn about the country, the people and working conditions in Singapore from a European point of view. As it turned out, everything here is just the complete opposite of our ideals and ideas. No matter how western this Asian country looks, if you live here, it still seems to be quite a change: the housing market, values, the position of women, buying a car and then the working conditions for planners and site managers on the construction site. We were very surprised, but somehow also fascinated. All matters that you simply have to get involved in!
Merlion
Then we actually wanted to go to the Gardens by the Bay. But by the time we got out of the office building, it was already dripping, and when we were standing on a nearby flyover, it started pouring rain. The rain and thunderstorms were so heavy that we couldn't get away. During a short break in the rain we ran to the next house to take shelter. So we "hopped" from building to building and had to watch how streets became rivers and how the sewage system could no longer absorb the masses of water.
We really wanted to do Gardens by the Bay when the weather was nice. Even though it had stopped raining in the meantime, it was still hazy and cloudy. Not the best weather for such a great garden. We decided to take the tube from Burgis station to Raffels Place, changed today's schedule and walked to Marina Bay to walk along the shore to the Merlion. The water-spewing Merlion is half mermaid, half lion, symbolizing the strength of the city (lion's head) and origin in and connection with the sea (fish's body). Fraser Brunner created this character as a logo and landmark for the city. There are always a lot of tourists here and you always have the feeling of running through the picture of people. You hardly have a chance to take a picture of the Merlion yourself without the strangers on it.
Raffel's Hotel and Sin Swee Kee
From the Merlion we walked to the Raffels Hotel. This very chic and old colonial style hotel was opened in Singapore in 1887 and named after the founder of Singapore (Thomas Stamford Raffles). The hotel features a tropical courtyard garden, museum and Victorian-style theatre. In addition, the slightly more expensive shops and many bars can be found here. As a tourist, without being a guest of the hotel, you can simply walk through the porches and courtyards. We kept peeping inside the restaurants, man, that looked very, very classy and expensive!
Crossing the hotel we arrived at Seah Street. We wanted to eat here because we had read a recommendation for Sin Swee Kee in a food blog. And there it was, we were right in front of it. So we sat down and ordered a roasted chicken rice menu for €7.80. The service wasn't very friendly, but oh well. The food came surprisingly quickly and we threw it in. Unfortunately the chicken was cold and we weren't sure it was supposed to be. The vegetables were warm and the rice was delicious.
We paid and walked down the street past the other small eateries and were shocked to discover that we had eaten at the wrong restaurant. We went to Swee Kee and not Sin Swee Kee. So don't make the same mistake, because the actual Sin Swee Kee looks a lot friendlier and better! It would definitely have tasted tastier.
Since we had already walked around quite a bit for the first day, we were exhausted and made our way back to the hotel in the early evening. It worked so well and easily with the taxi in the morning that we decided to use it for the return trip and not take the bus, as we had actually planned. Unfortunately, the taxi was a bit more expensive than expected, but well, the main thing is no bus stress.
Are you still looking for a suitable hotel in Singapore?
You can find a hotel that suits your budget through the various online travel agencies such as Agoda, Booking.com, ebookers.de, Expedia, Hotels.com, lastminute.de, otel.com or Venere.com.
It is noticeable here that there is little traffic, at least for a big city. But that is probably due to the high prices for a car. Because according to the advertisement in the daily newspaper Strait Times, a Ford Focus costs the equivalent of 75,000 euros. There is also a fee for a license plate license. That's an additional 40-50,000 EUR on top of that. The madness! But this is how Singapore curbs the traffic problem and chaos.
