Southeast Asia Part 2: Singapore

View of the Singapore skyline from the Celebrity Century

We had two full days at the end of our cruise to spend in Singapore. With clean and reliable train service available throughout much of Singapore we planned out our two days of sightseeing using a map of Singapore's train stations. Since we were planning on using the train so much we bought EZ-Link cards at the Singapore Airport on the day we arrived in Singapore.

Day 1:
The Celebrity Century was docked at the Marina Bay Cruise Centre. It is a 10 minute walk from the cruise terminal to the closest train station, Marina South Pier.

We took the train from Marina South Pier to Raffles Place station. After exiting the train station we walked towards the direction of the water to see the famous Merlion statue. We also got great views of the Marina Bay Sands hotel located on the other side of the water.

Merlion (foreground) and Marina Bay Sands hotel (background)

After we were satisfied with all the photos we took we went back to Raffles Place station to take the train to Harbourfront station. Harbourfront station is connected to the basement of VivoCity Mall. If you turn right at the entrance to VivoCity Mall you will see a food court full of Asian food. We ate lunch at this food court instead of the international cuisine of Food Republic on the upper levels.

Our next stop after lunch was Sentosa Island. We took the escalators to Level 1 of VivoCity Mall and followed the signs labelled "Sentosa Boardwalk". When we exited through the automatic glass doors we saw the boardwalk leading to Sentosa Island. It takes about 10 minutes to walk along the boardwalk and arrive at the Resorts World Area of Sentosa Island. The boardwalk is open 24 hours if you are paying by EZ-Link card and there is a fee of $1 to enter Sentosa Island by boardwalk. The more expensive option is to take the cable car to Sentosa Island from VivoCity Mall.

Sentosa Merlion

There are a lot of cool things to see at Sentosa Island. We made stops at the Sentosa Merlion statue, a large candy store called Candylicious, an Orchid Garden and several beaches.

The display outside Candylicious

A free hop-on-hop-off bus takes you to different beaches throughout the island. At Palawan Beach we walked across the suspension bridge to be on "the southernmost point of Continental Asia".

View of Sentosa Island from the southernmost point of Continental Asia

As the day drew to a close we took a free shuttle bus back to Harbourfront station from Sentosa Island. We walked around VivoCity Mall for a bit before making our way back to the cruise terminal for our overnight stay aboard the ship.


Day 2:
Our second full day in Singapore was also the day we had to disembark the ship. We took the train from Marina South Pier to Farrah station and walked to our hotel located in the Little India district.

After relaxing in the comforts of our air-conditioned hotel room for an hour we made our way by train to Chinatown. There were plenty of street food stalls to pick from.

As Singapore is the third richest country in the world it came as no surprise that things are more expensive here than the rest of Southeast Asia. However, Chinatown had lots of shops selling cheap souvenirs.

Souvenirs at Chinatown

After eating lunch and browsing the shops in Chinatown we took the train to Bayfront station to check out Gardens by the Bay. There was so much to see and we spent several hours there.

At the Supertree Grove there are two light and sound shows every night called Garden Rhapsody. Since there was still time before the first show started we went to check out Marina Bay Sands hotel up close.

View of Gardens by the Bay with the Supertree Grove on the right

Inside Marina Bay Sands hotel is a luxury shopping mall, The Shoppes at Marina Bay, which was very impressive. They have a canal inside the mall replicating the canals in Italy. There is even a row boat with a paddler available for a fee.

The Shoppes at Marina Bay

When it got dark enough outside we walked back to Gardens by the Bay to secure our spots for Garden Rhapsody. It was a nice way to end our time in Singapore!

Light and sound show at the Supertree Grove

Read Part 1: Brunei and Vietnam here
Read Part 3: Thailand here