We left the hotel at around 6:00pm and our initial plan was to get some dinner and then go to Gardens by the Bay. We got to explore a bit of the Bugis area because we got lost looking for a money changer haha. Bugis is huge! And there are a lot of things to do and places to visit. If you have the time, you could opt to do a walking tour around the area. But for us, we just walked across Liang Seah St. to the end and then when we saw a mall, we went inside and looked for something to eat haha. Turns out, the mall is the Bugis Junction. This mall is located at Victoria Street, Middle Road and North Bridge Road in Bugis. It consists of a shopping mall, an office tower, and the Intercontinental Singapore Hotel. Just across it is the famous Bugis Street, which has lots and lots of "tiangge" like stalls selling all kinds of stuffs, souvenirs, clothes, shoes, bags, etc. It's like the Divisoria/Baclaran of Singapore. Anyway, we got to explore Bugis Junction a bit, there's a legit money changer somewhere inside so you could have your money changed there. But what we won't forget is this amazing ramen restaurant in the basement called Menya Musashi Takatora. You order your food using the provided iPad thing, and then in just 15minutes, you have your hot ramen in front of you. One order costs 17SGD and it is good for 2 people already. It was very tasty and worth the price. So if you find yourself in this mall, try out this ramen resto!
After our sumptuous dinner, we walked towards the Bugis MRT to get to Marina Bay Sands/Garden by the Bay. The Singapore Train Line is very very easy to use. They have signs all over, and of course, online maps of the different train stations. And in each station, there are maps posted in the walls showing you the surrounding area and where to exit if you want to go to a particular area. It's very convenient because sometimes there are multiple exits in one station. And of course, don't forget to load up your tap and go card, and just tap away!
HOW TO GET TO MARINA BAY SANDS/GARDENS BY THE BAY FROM BUGIS:
- Take the Downtown Line Bugis Station going towards Chinatown.
- Get off at the Promenade Station which is just 1 station away.
- Transfer to the Circle Line and take the train going towards Marina Bay.
- Marina Bay is just 2 stations away from the Promenade Station. Alight there.
We exited thru the one where you would be right beside the Gardens by the Bay. Unfortunately (and this is our 3rd mishap for this day!), we arrived at around 8:00pm and the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest located inside the gardens closes at 9:00pm, so we decided not to go there. Also, the shuttle around the gardens closes at around 9:00pm as well. You can explore the outdoor gardens until 2:00am, however, you have to do it by foot since there are no more available shuttles. The entrance to the outdoor garden is free. We opted to just go up the bridge seen there and take pictures of the SuperTree Grove and the amazing structure of the Marina Bay Sands. We decided to just return there probably on our last day so that we could explore the area better. Anyway, we still enjoyed the view and the lights which were amazing! The Marina Bay Sands at night is just a huge towering beautiful building! After some picture taking, we decided to go thru Marina Bay Sands and explore the area ahead.
Marina Bay Sands is an integrated resort fronting the Marina Bay in Singapore. Inside it is The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands mall, which is a very high-end mall with a canal running through it like the Venetian Mall in Macau, a museum, some theatres, a lot of expensive stores and restaurants, and a casino. At the top of the Marina Bay Sands is the SkyPark which has the world's longest elevated swimming pool. It also has restaurants, gardens, and an observatory area wherein you can see the views of the Singapore skyline. Of course, since it was already a bit late, we weren't able to explore the area, we just passed through it to go to the area where you would be able to see the Esplanade, the helix bridge, etc. Our original plan was to walk towards the Merlion statue, but when we got there, we realized it was a looooong walk, so plan scrapped! Which brings us to our 4th and last mishap for this day. We then decided to go to Orchard Road to explore the area there since we didn't want to go back to the hotel just yet.
After resting a bit, we walked back towards the Marina Bay station to board the train to go to Orchard Road. By the way, the walk from the MRT to the Marina Bay Sands is a long walk! You have to go through a very luxurious looking hotel, past a long bridge, and then up the Marina Bay Sands, across it, to go to the area where you could see the views. So, yeah, we had to walk back up that direction so just imagine how tired we were haha. Tempers were running a bit high at that time.
HOW TO GO TO ORCHARD ROAD FROM MARINA BAY:
- Alight at the Marina Bay Station and take the North South line heading to Jurong East.
- Get off the Orchard Station which is just 5 stations away.
And since it was around 10pm, the malls around the Orchard Road area were already closed! No ice cream vendors, no malls, nothing hahaha. And here's our last mishap for the day! So we just decided to call it a night and go back to our hotel to rest up. We were able to walk towards Newton Station (we have no idea how!) and we alighted the Downtown Line heading towards Chinatown and got off the Bugis Station which is 3 stations away. And that's our first day in Singapore! Read on for our 2nd day, and a much improved day at that!
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