At 9:00 am we took off on our 5 hour direct flight from New Delhi to Singapore. Due to the time change we landed around 5:00 pm local time. I know I speak for both of us when I say landing in Singapore felt like a huge weight off of our shoulders. We had spent the better part of the last couple months in the most difficult to travel countries of our trip, and Singapore was the exact opposite. Before leaving the airport we explored the Jewel. It has the worlds largest indoor waterfall and it was spectacular.

After checking off my Singapore airport bucket list we made our way to the airport train which we took one stop in order to take the metro. This took about one hour, but was one line, easy to navigate, clean, and air conditioned. In Singapore we stayed in Chinatown at a pod hostel. This was Nick’s first time staying in a pod, and my first time staying in a double bed pod. It was surprisingly spacious and the perfect temperature. Once we checked in we headed out for our first evening adventure. This started with a dinner of steamed pork buns and pork soup dumplings from Din Tai Fung. They were absolutely delicious.

We then walked around 30 minutes to the harbor to watch the big light show they put on in the evening. It was beautiful with many colors, songs, and light projections. Following the light show Nick and I walked around the full harbor, taking in the views of the skyline from all angles. It was a very futuristic place. Even the Apple store was cool. There was also a group of young women filming what looked like a music video.

Nick and I walked about one hour to a predominantly Muslim neighborhood, Kampong Glam, known for its colorful buildings, mosque, and shopping. We enjoyed walking the streets there and people watching. We were told it wasn’t very busy that day due to the public holiday. This was surprising since it still felt pretty busy. I guess it wouldn’t have been as nice if it was shoulder to shoulder with people as we were told it usually is.

After the neighborhood we made our way by foot to the Old Airport Road Food Centre, a hawkers market. This is a large food market with all sorts of stalls. This was the best food we ate our entire time in Singapore. For drinks we had a mango avocado milkshake from Fresh Juice Ice Blends QQ, and a mango passion fruit juice from the same stall. Nick enjoyed a sugar cane juice from Xin Kee Hainan Hot & Cold Drink.

For food we got 3 things to try. First was the Seafood #2 from Minced Pork Bros, which was noodles in a savory broth with minced pork, a piece of pork, a dumpling, shrimp, and some roe. It was my favorite dish and was so hard to share (because I wanted to eat it ALL). Our second dish was the roasted duck with noodles from Roast Paradise. This was a very long line but so worth the wait. It was the best duck we had in Singapore by a long shot and was so delicious and soft. The sauce was also sweet and amazing. Our last dish was a curry puff from Hong Lim Curry Puff. We got the chicken potato one. It was pretty good with a crispy crust.

After all that delicious food we made our way to Chinatown which took just over an hour. There is metro all over the city so we never needed to walk that far, but we enjoyed being able to see all the nice neighborhoods and work up an appetite for more food. In Chinatown we met up with an old coworker of mine for dinner at Hawker Chan. There we tried the apple tofu, seasonal vegetables, and the tourist platter which had crispy pork, chicken, duck, and rice. Everything was delicious as usual.

We then wandered around Chinatown some more looking at all the stalls and alleys. A highlight was trying ice cream milk tea with boba, and the brown sugar pearl sundae from Mixue. These were so incredible we ended up going back there 2 more times during our visit to Singapore and got the same items. The only thing that was maddening was that the store played the same 30 second song on loop over and over again. We wondered how the staff remained so sane.

There were a few durian stalls, but we opted to not eat the stinky fruit.

Our final day in Singapore included lots of food and walking, just like the first one. After my 7-Eleven breakfast we walked just over an hour to the Singapore Botanical Garden. This is free to enter, except for the orchid section, which we skipped to get to lunch quicker. There were many ponds, flowers, trees, lizards, and birds here.

After the garden we continued our long walk to the Adam Food Center, another hawkers market. I think if we had done this one before Old Airport Road, it would have been good, but the comparison did not do it any favors.

We tried the chicken wing meal from Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak first. Nick absolutely loved it. It was fried chicken with rice, an egg, beans and a sweet and spicy sauce. The sauce was too spicy for me, but Nick assured me it was phenomenal and made the dish.

Next we tried Fishball Mee Pok from Adam Fishball Noodle. This was fine and but had less flavor compared to other noodles we had gotten but this stall had a long line and most people got the laksa. I assume we just ordered wrong. This was followed by some duck with rice from House of Braised Duck. The duck was fine but not nearly as good as all the duck we had in Singapore at other places. To end off our stop we got thai milk ‘bubble’ teas from Adam Drinks Stall. The tea was bitter and the bubbles (although advertised as boba) were fruit jellies I did not enjoy. They just didn’t go with thai milk tea. Overall I did not enjoy that market, but Nick thought the first place was really good.

To end our day we visited the Gardens by the Bay. The walk included a stop for mango soft serve from The Berry Spot and walking past many cool apartment buildings.

Once in the park our first stop was dinner at Hawker Chan, which we had before but wanted to have again. The fried dumplings were a bit too greasy but the rest was delicious.

After dinner we visited the Flower Dome. The Flower Dome was incredible with lots of varieties of plants all organized into sections by geography or plant type. The dome was made from glass windows and the view was fantastic.

A favorite area of mine was the ‘Aloes in Wonderland’, which I thought was hilarious.

After the Flower Dome our next stop was the Cloud Forest for sunset. The Cloud Forest was also in a dome made from glass windows. There was a great view from inside to the famous Marina Bay Sands hotel. The forest was so lush, had real rain and clouds, a tall waterfall, and many levels to explore by walking along the canopy bridges. There were flowers and different interactive rooms. The sunset made for beautiful lighting inside.