Freckled Faces + Favourite Places: Singapore, so much to do, so little time...

Awe Singapore.

I heard Singapore was a clean, friendly, and safe city. But, what I didn't expect was how clean, friendly, and safe it truly is.

From the moment we disembarked from the plane and entered the arrival hall of the Changi Airport it was like I entered a whole new world. Because we are budget travellers we decided to take the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) rather than a taxi to the hotel. So off we went to the train following the ever so helpful way signage. After a few stops to ask for directions on which MRT line to take to our hotel, we headed to the electronic ticket dispenser where we weren't the only tourists. It was here where we experienced our first dose of helpfulness. Here stood an elderly gentleman giving all, and I mean all, the tourists in line directions on how to use the ticket dispensers. He literally went from one person to the next, kindly asking where they were going and then proceeded to show them exactly how to obtain a ticket and map out their route.

Here's the deal, Singapore has a population of over 5 million people but one would never know it. Transportation using the MRT, LRT or bus systems was a breeze. The trains arrived on time, the passengers were courteous and the maps were well, Shelley friendly, and trust me if I could figure out how to get around, anyone could figure out how to get around. Sometime I can be a wee bit directionally challenged.

Best travel advice before you head there...check how close your hotel is from the MRT line. We ended up staying at Oasia Hotel which unbeknownst to us was literally steps from one of the main MRT lines. The convenience of being right next to a major shopping centre and transportation was well worth it. After arriving at our hotel we quickly dropped our bags and headed out for our first misadventure, er I mean adventure. First stop, China Town. We had a list of places we wanted to hit up in the few days we were in Singapore and China Town was top.

Even though we went to Singapore January 2 Chinese New Years
decor was everywhere.

It was just after lunch when we arrived in the city and we were starving. So of course any place that had anything that resembled food I was ready to pounce. Lucky for me we happen to come across Bee Cheng Hiang which sells some of the best jerky in Singapore. We bought chili beef jerky. Not sure if that was such a wise choice since it was middle of the afternoon, and scorching hot and we add in some spicy meat to top it off...like we didn't need to drink enough water already. But, all in all it was delicious and I'd have it again every day, I mean, any day.

Shortly after purchasing our spicy beef jerky we came across a local chinese restaurant, and it was packed, so we decided that it must be a good place to eat and plunked our bags down for a rest and some lunch.

Enjoying my rice and dumplings.

Dumplings...at a Chinese restaurant in Singaopore. I'd tell you what the
name was but I couldn't read the sign, see below.

All I could read was $4 BBQ Stick...good enough for me when the place
is full you know the food is good.

After our quick bite to eat we were anxious to do some exploring. So we managed to hit up the market, wander the streets and visited the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum, a must if you are China Town. Following our tour of China Town we then went to the harbour where all the cruise ships come in and of course more shopping. Then that evening we headed to Clarke Quay, a place that is, the place to be in the evening hours. We hadn't planned on going to Clarke Quay until I read about it during the flight. Thanks to Malaysia Airlines in-house magazine and an article on the Singapore sights we made another checklist of stops. We wandered around and decided that we would have a supper at, you guessed it, the only 'mexican' restaurant along the riverfront, which is where Clarke Quay is located. So, here we sat in what we thought was an authentic mexican outdoor restaurant only to find out the owner was from the Philippines. But, in all honesty I am positive his is of Mexican descent, he really knew how to cook up a mean taco and home-made guacamole.