Singapore - Land of Man-Made Wonders...Part 2

👉Lesson No.1 - Never plan a hectic schedule on the day of arrival.

This advice is simple, sensible and full of common-sense. However, in the excitement of planning, sitting in the comfort of our home, we tend to overlook this adage. We forget that there is no joy in standing even in the most beautiful place on earth, if you haven't slept well the night before. So repeat Lesson No.1 to yourself every time you review your plans.

I, of course, did not repeat it to myself. So I had planned the trip to the zoo on the day we reached.

My logic was very sound and went something like this - The aircraft lands at 7:15 AM. We should be out of the airport by 07:45, metro by 08:00 and in our holiday home by 09:00 max. One hour for bath and change, and we should be ready to leave for the zoo by 10:00.

Reality - we were dragging our luggage over cobbled paths, still not having reached the homestay at 10 AM.

So, again, repeat after me - Never, ever...............

👉The above debacle directly leads us to Lesson No.2 - Don't create a tightly packed schedule with each event precisely fitting into the jigsaw plan. Leave abundant amount of free time in between.

This lesson was especially painful because I thought that my plan was very relaxed compared to my previous attempts. Unfortunately I had not loosened enough.

With the schedule of the first day unfinished, we had just packed even more into the rest of the days. And since there really wasn't any slack in them, the plan just got a whole lot more hectic.

What We Finally Saw

So enough lessons for the day - let us get on with what we actually did see. Here is our final, actually implemented, boots on ground, itinerary.

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Tue Oct 11, 2016

Morning	Reached Singapore
Forenoon	Trudged to the homestay
Afternoon	Strolled in Marina Bay Sands Art-Science Museum

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Wed Oct 12, 2016

Full Day	Universal Studios
Night	Dinner at Little India

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Thu Oct 13, 2016

Full Day

Sentosa Island

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Fri Oct 14, 2016

Forenoon / Afternoon	Singapore Zoo & River Safari
Late Evening	Gardens by the Bay Cloud Mountain & Supertree Grove

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Sat Oct 15, 2016

Forenoon	Botanic Garden & Orchid Garden
Afternoon	Shopping
Late Evening / Night	Night Safari

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Sun Oct 16, 2016

Forenoon	Jurong Bird Park
Evening	Clarke Quay / Riverfront
Night	Marina Bay Sands – Laser Show

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Mon Oct 17, 2016

Morning	Gardens by the Bay (Flower Dome)
Forenoon	Mariamman Temple
Afternoon	Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
Evening	Masjid Jamae
Night	Lau Pa Sat

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Tue Oct 18, 2016

Early Morning

Return Flight

Planning Tips

Though we enjoyed this itinerary, here are a few suggestions based on our experience.

• The ArtScience Museum can be given miss. Though, there were a few installation which were great, the overall experience wasn't. It is probably a good place to visit if you are in the city for a long time. However, in case of a short trip, the time may be better spent in other places. The museum is located in the Marina Bay Sands waterfront, and a photograph with its unique architecture is probably enough.

• Try and visit the Universal Studios on a weekday as the crowd can have a major impact on your experience. More people would mean that you would have to spend more time in the queues for each ride. Passes are available for skipping the queue, but they increase your costs. In my experience, the passes are not required on weekdays. We did have to wait for over 45 minutes for the main roller-coaster ride. However, the wait for other rides were very less. All attractions have a board outside showing the approximate wait time. I would suggest that you time your visit to the main roller-coaster either first if you reach early, or later in the afternoon when the crowds have spread out. The park closes at 6 PM, so plan what rides you want to take so that you don't miss any.

• The Singapore Zoo is not very large. Half a day is more than enough. However, one of it's main attractions, especially for kids, is the live shows. There are four different shows, each held twice a day. The latest timings and details can be checked here. Among these shows, the Splash Safari Show featuring a Seal is very popular. This show is held at 10:30 AM and 5 PM. So plan your visit to be there by 10 AM (cater for walking time from the gate to the amphitheater) so that you can see all the shows and head back to the city for lunch. If leaving early is not an option, plan for an afternoon visit, reaching at around 2 PM. Reaching there after 11 AM leaves you in the awkward position of whiling away your time till 5 PM, when the Splash show is held. You, thus, end up using an entire day instead of half a day.

• The River Safari is a zoo with a focus on river ecology, including riverine fish. It is not particularly great. However, they have a pair of Giant Pandas - Kai Kai and Jia Jia. So if you want to see Pandas, this is the only place to see them in Singapore. And knowing what most tourists come to see, they have smartly laid out the place in such a way that you have to walk through all the exhibits before you reach the Pandas, at the far end. So your call. If you have bought a Multi-Park Pass (more on this later), this can probably be a dash to the Pandas and back.

• The Gardens by the Bay comprises of the Flower Dome, Cloud Mountain and the Supertree Grove. You can easily spend an hour in the Flower Dome, assuming you like plants. The Cloud Mountain would need at least 45 minutes to walk through. It is a twenty minute walk, or 5 minute cart ride (if you pay for it) from the ticket counter to the domes. The Light and Sound show at the Supertree Grove, held every evening at 7:15 and 8:15 PM, is also a must watch. So my suggestion is to visit them later in the afternoon, say around 4 PM. You have around 3 hours to see the Domes, and exit them just in time to see the Light and Sound show.

• And finally, keep aside at least one entire evening just for strolling around the Riverfront, Orchard Street, etc.

In the next post, I will discuss the details of expenditure, money saving tips and suggest an itinerary for you, based on our experiences.

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Singapore - A Land of Man-Made Wonders

Singapore is a wonderful holiday destination for the entire family, with the focus being on the kids. For such a small country (4716 times smaller than India), it has a lot to offer. In fact, Singapore is among the Top 5 tourist destinations in the world and got over 10 million visitors in 2015. In comparison, India, with all it's history, culture, architecture, mountains, beaches, etc managed to attract only 8 million the same year.

And amazingly, most of the attractions have literally been created from what was once a swamp, by sheer human ingenuity and engineering. Even the nature reserves have probably been meticulously designed to give it a 'natural look'.😇

We recently went to Singapore for a week long holiday. In the next few posts, I will give you my planned itinerary, the problems and what we actually managed to do and, finally, a better itinerary incorporating the lessons we learn't. I desist from calling the final proposal an ideal itinerary because I am learning with every new trip that 'No itinerary survives contact with the first day of the holiday'. 

At the end of every holiday, I spend a few days agonizing over the mistakes, lost opportunities and how we could have done it better. That is followed by the blame-game - didn't plan enough, the weather didn't cooperate, didn't anticipate travel time, etc. But finally, in life, I hope to reach the stage where I remember both the good and not so good parts of the holiday as an experience to cherish. A holiday is a journey, and not a destination with a tag of success or failure.

Duration.     How many days is good enough to see Singapore? The answer, as always, is subjective. But suffice to say that there is enough to keep you and your family occupied even on a month long trip. Unfortunately, we tend to club Singapore with a trip to Malaysia and Indonesia. This leaves only a few days in Singapore, which I think is grossly insufficient. The logic of going to Malaysia, at least for Indians, has always been that we should see it since we have gone all that far. However, this is no longer a valid argument as the cost of an air ticket from India to Malaysia/Singapore is comparable to the cost of going from Singapore to Malaysia. The Visa charges remain the same. So there really isn't any great saving by going to both in the same trip. Each place deserves your undivided attention.

Planning.     Our methodology for booking Hotel rooms and air tickets remained the same as that in our trip to Europe. The details can be found here.

Visa.    You can apply for a visa only 15 days in advance. For getting a visa, the hassle-free method is to download the list of authorized agents provided at the  Singapore High Commission website. Select the agent closest to your place from it. The visa application, Form 14A, can be downloaded from the same site. There are some specific requirements for the passport size photos which is also available on the website. However, most agents have a photographer available nearby providing the necessary services. It took just 2 days to get the Visa.

Planned Itinerary

After considerable deliberation, we decided to go for a 6 day trip. All our planning indicated that it may be too less. Our earlier experience of a minute-to-minute plan going awry had persuaded us about the importance of free time in any travel arrangement. However, the constant litany from others, who had been to Singapore, saying that the duration was too long, dissuaded us from increasing it further. The final itinerary when we left Indian shores was as follows -

Tue Oct 11, 2016	0730	Reach Singapore
	Forenoon	Singapore Zoo,
	Afternoon	River Safari
	Night	Orchard
Wed Oct 12, 2016	Full Day	Sentosa Island
	Late Evening/ Night	Little India
Thu Oct 13, 2016	Full Day	Universal Studios
	Late Evening/ Night	China Town
Fri Oct 14, 2016	Forenoon	Asian Civilisations Museum
	Afternoon	Gardens by the Bay
	Night	River Cruise
Sat Oct 15, 2016	Forenoon	Jurong Bird Park
	Afternoon	Botanic Garden
	Night	Night Safari
Sun Oct 16, 2016	Forenoon	ArtScience Museum
	Afternoon	Chinese and Japanese Gardens
	Night	Lau Pa Sat
Mon Oct 17, 2016	Morning	Singapore Flyer
	Forenoon	Peranakan Museum
	Afternoon	Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
	Evening	Chinatown Heritage Centre
Tue Oct 18, 2016	Early Morning	Return Flight

💥💥💥

It did not even survive the first few hours in Singapore. 

😄😄😄

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