Vacationing in Singapore and Malaysia

We took a much needed vacation this month. Our annual vacation trip this year was to Singapore and Malaysia. We booked our hotels and tickets through Expedia. We did all the planning looking through multiple websites online.

Singapore Street art

We landed in Singapore on a Saturday evening and didn’t waste any time. We headed straight to Jumbo Sea food at Clarke Quay to have the legendary Chilly crab. It was everything we hoped for and much more. We couldn’t have enough. We walked through the beautiful Clarke Quay and then retreated for the night.

Clarke Quay

Black Pepper Crab

Our stay was at the Orchid Country Club in Yishun, which is away from the city centre. We started our second day with traditional Singaporean breakfast at the hotel – Kaya toast and kopi . After breakfast we headed to the Zoo. We spent around 3 hours walking around the zoo. Look out for the animal feeding times as it makes great photo opportunity.

Kaya Toast and Kopi

An orangutan at the free range walkway

In the evening we headed to the Merlion Park to see the iconic skyline of Singapore. There is a light show you can catch around 8.30pm. We sat at one of the restaurants and had some snacks enjoying the show. We later walked to Raffles Hotel and headed to Long Bar which is a must do during a visit in this city. We had the original Singapore sling and enjoyed the bustling atmosphere with some  live jazz music. It was late and we had to have some Hawker street food for dinner, so we hopped in to a taxi and headed to Lau Pa Sat for some Satay and Roti prata. 

Day three, we took the day slow, went in for a swim in the hotel’s “Fun Pool” and then after a late brunch (we had some Hokkien mee – egg noodles and rice noodles stir fried with eggs and prawn) and then headed to Mustafa Centre in Little India for a little shopping spree. Mustafa centre is a 24 hour supermarket and has everything under the sun. It is a great place to pick up souvenirs, chocolates, electronics and perfumes.

Picking up some Kaya jam to bring back home

Day four was spent at the Universal Studios in Sentosa. We needed a whole day here to make the most of it. Our little boy was allowed in to most rides so we had a great time as a family. He hadn’t turned four so he didn’t need a ticket either. We bought our tickets at one of the counters at the Changi airport. Ensure you buy the express pass so you save time and need not queue up for the popular rides.

 

Our last day in Singapore before we headed to Malaysia was spent at the Botanical Garden and the Jacob Ballas Children’s park. This beautiful park is a must visit if travelling to Singapore with kids. With a large space , lots of greenery and plenty of activities the kids will have enough to do keep them occupied for the time spent there.

the Tree house at Ballas Children's park

The next leg of our travel was to Malaysia, though travelling to Kuala Lumpur is cheaper by bus, we decided to take the flight to save time. Our first night in KL was spent at the Petronas towers and a nice drive around KL. We had to have Nasi Lemak for dinner. 

On day two we headed to Batu caves by taxi. We climbed all the way up in to the caves to see the temple inside as well and then on our way down had lunch at one of the restaurants at the foothill which was coincidentally where one of the scenes of the Rajnikant super hit movie Kabali was shot.

The Kabali fever was catching up on us as well and we managed to book tickets for the night. It was a great experience watching the movie in the city where most of it was shot. We cheered and whistled Indian style at all of Rajnikant’s antics and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

We headed back to Singapore for one last evening in the city before our holiday came to an end. We had one more thing on our list to check off, so we headed straight to the Gardens by the bay. We bought tickets to both the Flower dome and Cloud forest. The flower dome has some beautiful orchids, and the Cloud forest is like an indoor garden. If you are running out of time in the city you can give this a miss and just head for the light show at 7.45 which is worth a watch. We had dinner at Satay by the bay here.

Singapore is also gearing up for their National Day in August, so we also got to witness some awesome fireworks up here. Our holiday had come to an end and we made the most of our week.

A few tips when in Singapore:

·         MRT is quite convenient to travel within the city. You can just use top up on the ticket you get at the station for each travel.

·         Take a local sim card at the airport, it is convenient and also has data so is handy if you need the internet.

·         If you want to take taxi , use the app GRAB. It is cheaper than regular taxi and is quick and efficient.

A few tips when in Malaysia:

·         The GRAB taxi app works here as well.

·         Local sim cards are cheap and can be taken at the airport

·         Be aware of your surroundings, it is not as safe as in Singapore. Our friends warned us about pick pocketing and mobile grabbing so we were careful.