Even as it was only late November, Christmas was certainly in the air when this writer and his family went on a pre-Christmas jaunt to Singapore, an opportunity that only comes rarely considering the ages of his children.
trip to Singapore. Images by Janis Cinco
My son, who works at Megaworld, was attending a Philippine Property Exposition in Singapore and he suggested we make it a whole family trip. He would pay for the lodging and most of the meals while the plane tickets for me and the missus and youngest daughter were courtesy of PAL as trip privileges earned by my wife prior to her retirement. My other daughter would pay for her ticket. These were very convincing arguments, indeed.
My son also gave his mother and sisters some spending money and that certainly made the trip easier on this writer’s pockets, but it was the kind of trip I would not normally have experienced.
This one was traveling as real tourists, spending our hard-earned money, scrimping where possible in lodging, meals and transportation and seeing the other side of Singapore.
We booked ourselves in a hostel near Mustapha, the giant Indian retail store. It was a place for backpackers with limited budgets. We were not backpackers but we sure were on limited budgets, too. The group consisted of the five of us plus my daughter’s boyfriend, who flew in from Macau just to see her. We stayed in an eight-bed dorm-type room with double beds—no TV, no tables, no bathroom. The beds were all there were. No windows, too, and if one is claustrophobic, booking a room here is not advisable.
But the common bathrooms were clean and with running hot water, but bring your own personal toiletries. But those who would use the rooms only to sleep, at the cost of around Singapore $32 per person, it was worth it.
For transportation, this was the first time this writer used mostly buses and the subway to move from one place to the other and you have to give it to the Singaporeans, their public transportation system is so efficient and user-friendly, a far cry from our own MRT and LRT. Sometimes, we would take cabs but it was much more expensive with a flag down rate ranging from around P120 to P175. But the drivers are very honest and friendly, all charge by the meter, no haggling.
For our meals, we avoided big restaurants, at times eating hawkers’ food in small restaurants or at fast food outlets in malls. They are called Food Republic, and a good set meal will cost around P140 to P200, higher priced set meals will be double that or even more.
But of course, with Christmas just around the corner, shopping was at the top of the to-do list of my wife and kids, and Bugis, the Singaporean equivalent I guess of Greenhills, was the first destination. Using P35 as the exchange rate, we readily set a price ceiling of around Singapore $10 to $20 as the general limit and that range covers a lot of choices from clothes to toys to souvenirs to chocolates. One trip to Bugis turned out to be not enough though. Chinatown was another bargain center with stalls along the streets up to night time. Too bad that when my culturally-inclined daughter and I went there, the Chinese Heritage Center was closed for renovation while the museum for Buddha’s tooth was already closed the night we visited Chinatown.
to discovering its other attractions.
What we were able to visit was the Indian temple right there in Chinatown where there were a wedding and a baptism going on. We passed up on Little India and just settled for buying some things at Mustapha. Marina Bay Sands Casino was on the list, too. We even signed up for membership to get a chance to win instant prizes. This casino, with its three separate buildings with a boat shaped club sitting on top of it was an impressive site along with its gigantic lobby full of signature brand stores, something I avoided, just as we avoided Orchard Road where moneyed tourists go. Marina Bay is also one of the best places to see the Singapore skyline at night, and if you follow the schedule, you can watch the dancing fountains show there, something we missed by minutes.
Sentosa, with its Universal Studios, was a must-go for my daughter and her boyfriend. The rest of us settled for walking around the area and posing for photos. We also visited Singapore’s newest attraction, the Alive Museum at the Suntec Convention Center, which opened last June. The place is very popular among local and visiting tourists, inside, one can pose with 3D pictures of celebrities, personalities and funny situations.
But the biggest difference for me in this trip was seeing Singapore’s other side. On our second day, we visited Fort Canning, where Singapore’s original royal family lived. We also saw the first light house built by the British. We were not even able to go around because the place turned out to be big and with a lot of stairs to climb, not good for someone who turned 39 20 years ago. The place offers a lot of greens, trees and plants, a far cry from the Singapore shopping mecca mindset.
My daughter and I rode a bus to visit MacRitchie Water Reservoir, Singapore oldest water supply system completed in 1868, which has a manmade lake with a forest hiking trail 11 kilometers long. Unfortunately for us, when we got off the first bus going there, we crossed to the other side and took another bus. After more than two kilometers of traveling, we disembarked only to find out we had to go back to where we originally got off as that was the entrance to the nature park.
We wanted to reach the hanging bridges but a Frenchman, one of the many fitness enthusiasts jogging, running, walking or kayaking in the lake, told us it would take us a good two hours to reach the place. Had we gone all the way there and walked back again, we would have ended up maybe walking a total of 12 kilometers at least. We opted for an hour’s jog walk then had a good breakfast at the park’s Mushroom Cafe.
The jogging trails even have mini fitness gym equipment at certain stops and we did try it and were successful only in trying.
The best part of this family trip however was the bonding time with the kids without their iPhones and iPads and tablets, walking and eating together, and just enjoying what life has to offer.