Is the Night Zoo really that bad? Hmm, guess I'll give that a miss then unless I get a different opinion from a local.
Depends on what you are looking for and expecting to see. It is a small zoo with mainly night active animals and subdued lighting. If you are looking to see animals you would not see during the day then it can be quite interesting but by its very nature, it is dark and so you may not be lucky and get to see everything. Walking through the bat aviary is quite good, the 'jungle' path can also be nice to take a stroll along but it will most likely be hot and humid and possible wet depending on the season. There is a tram that tours around the 'habitats' so you can see the animals without having to walk and it has a number of stops so you can get off and take a stroll. They also have shows which are reasonably good and very popular. Just remember the night safari is fairly small (compared to the Singapore zoo) but most of the animals are not 'exciting'. My wife and kids love going there, me not so much after the first couple of times, but it is pretty expensive. Website is
here.
The zoo is a lot bigger, has a tram ride and has recently opened a boat ride as well. They have a couple of places to eat in the centre and a few shows at various places. If you have kids then bring their swimming stuff as there is a kids water park area with some slides, water guns, tipping bucket and all in within the rubber padded floor area so falls are not a concern. There is also a KFC and Ben & Jerrys at that location. There are other food places just outside the front of the zoo. The zoo and night safari are next door to each other so you can go from one to the other, if you have the energy, easily and get a joint ticket for both.
Jurong bird park is fine for a bit of a walk but like most of Singapore, it is concrete paths everywhere. The landscaping is pretty nice but the main attraction of the tree walk is really very small and gets pretty crowded. If I was to give one of the three a miss then it would be this one.
If you want a bit of sand and sun then
Sentosa is great but the water is not so clean, mainly from all the container ships and tankers just off the coast waiting to go in to the port. The sand is golden and fine and the girls in bikinis can more than make up for the state of the water. There are changing and shower buildings along the beach but as they are for general public use they can tend to get dirty. The beaches cannot compare with somewhere like Thailand but they are good enough for a bit of fun with golden sand. There are a fair number of places to eat and a free golf cart/tram type thing that goes up and down the beach front. There is also an internal bus service which is also free. The luge is fairly good and you can get some good speed if you try. There are some 4d type shows / games but they are quite small (20 people or so at a time) and they can have long queues. The aquarium is good with its underwater tunnel and being able to feed the rays by hand. They also have a dolphin lagoon but I have not visited it. For a bit of history there is Fort Siloso where the British defence force was stationed during WW2 before the Japanese occupation. There are a number of old cannons, walks through the underground trenches and buildings and a few exhibits. Lots of up and down on steep hills there though so midday sun id best avoided. The Casinos are, well just casinos and Universal Studios is fairly good. A number of roller coasters, a big water ride and a few eating places. Worth a visit but they limit entry numbers so book the tickets early. Also the lines can be very long for some rides unless you get an express pass but that is almost double the ticket price and only entitles you to jump the queue once for each ride. Sentosa also has the Flying Fox (405m aerial runway) and iFly the skydiving simulator. Images of Singapore is fairly good for a basic museum showing the history of Singapore with a little show and then wax models of life at various stages of Singapore history. Songs of the Sea is the water jet and light projection show which is fairly good for something a little different.
There is also a board walk type area known as ECP (
East Coast Parkway). The beach is tiny but the walk (you can also hire bikes if you want) is nice enough and there are places to stop for a drink or eat like East Coast Seafood where you can get a full black pepper or chilli crab. There is the Parkway Parade shopping centre near by which should do for a bit of retail therapy and even has a M&S if you fancy a little reminder of home.
Shopping,
Vivo city is one of the biggest malls and is where you can catch the monorail or a bus to Sentosa. It is located at the Harbour Front
MRT (underground train) station. Orchard Road is the equivalent to Londons Oxford Street including the prices. Retail therapy is a big past time in Singapore so you will find shopping centres everywhere. Tampines (25 mins green line east from the central area) has three smaller malls and is a better place to go if you would rather get out of the tourist trap areas. Trains are reliable and come every 3-5 minutes usually. Fares are also pretty cheap with the MRT system using an Oyster card like prepay system. 5 days a week, 25 mins travel each way per day costs me around 25quid a month in travel on the MRT. People do have a habit of 'me first' and charging in and off of the trains especially the older generation but this stems from the fact that Singapore has gone from mud huts to sky scrapers within 50 years and a lot of the the older generations roots have been village life where age demands respect.
The Singapore flyer is ok if you like The London Eye type attractions and the F1 pit lanes sit next to it.
Marina Bay Sands is ok if you like Casinos but the shops are expensive. The Art Science museum was very disappointing and very expensive especially if you have kids. The skypark is meant to be good at the top of the hotel but I have never been up to the top yet so cannot comment from experience. Having worked in a building across from it with a view from the 49th floor I would imagine the view would be just as good from the SkyPark (i.e. fantastic). The infinity pool is really tempting.
The various other museums are good if you like that kind of thing. The
Science centre is a little out of the way but is great for kids with quite a lot of hands on stuff and an IMax theatre. There is also a small water park so if you take kids, take their swimming stuff or they will miss out. Checkout timings of attractions because some, like the fire tornado, are a once a day events.
Bukit Temah, as someone else mentioned, has a well respected
nature reserve and somewhere I am still planning to go. It is worth noting that there have been cases of people straying off the path in to the rain forest and getting lost only to be found some time (days, weeks etc) later dead. Going off the paths is a bad idea as it is not like taking a walk through a forest in the UK.
Wild, Wild Wet is a water park at Pasir Ris (end stop, green MRT line East). The shopping centre (
Downtown East) it is next to also has a bowling alley and numerous food places as well as a little village of apartments called
Costa Sands. The rooms are fairly cheap, you can hire BBQ pits and stay a couple of nights for somewhere out of the city centre with a few bits to do.
For cash, just be aware that money changers outside of the airport can only change err money
. By that I mean they are not allowed to charge to a credit card or the like. You have to withdraw the cash then change it up if you do not have local currency. Cash machines are plentiful and Mastercard / Visa are accepted most places. NETS is the local debit card system here so be aware it is not the same as credit card services. Exchange rate is more or less 2 SGD to 1 UKP. Hawker center food will come in around S$3, food courts in shopping centers are closer to S$5-S$7 and fast food places are around the same.
For computer parts then
Sim Lim Square is the main place to go but make sure you know what you want and the standard market price. Sim Lim is a cut throat place for pricing and so if they see a non-local they may well try to overcharge. 6 or so floors of computer shops but beware of anything on the 1st (UK ground floor) up to the 3rd floors as some dodgy people operate there. 4th floor and up is usually fine. The service quality and dodgy pricing I got there was the main reason I started my own PC retail business over here. For consumer electronics, try
Funan IT mall. Peninsular Plaza is good for camera stuff along with Funan but as always, make sure you are educated as the shops will try to make maximum profit especially from non-locals. Adelphi is the place for your HiFi desires. The last 3 are all in the same area with Sim Lim being a bit further away. Shops here still work very much on the 'drag them in and hard sell' techniques and very few like to give out prices (rare to find on-line prices for example). Lots of places have websites but not shops so comparing prices can be more than a bit difficult.
Local VAT is called GST and is currently set to 7%. You can generally reclaim at the airport although I have not tried the process out for a while.
Boat Quay is the tourist place for food by the main Singapore river and Clarke quay is the tourist drinking spot. Most drinking places are centralised to avoid problems with drunken people staggering around residential areas all hours of the night singing songs about little goblins
. ECP, as mentioned, has a few nice quiet bars away from the hustle and bustle. There are a few bars along Emerald Hill located by Somerset MRT which I used to visit to get away from the tourists even though it is right by Orchard Road
.
Another walk worth doing if you like that sort of thing is the
Southern Ridges including Henderson Ridges Bridge and Mount Faber (cable car station to Sentosa at the top).
Anything else then just ask. Have a search for my replies to other requests for info for Singapore or this region as there may be other links.
Oh and after 5+ years living here, no, I still don't get the MerLion but the girls in miniskirts and other eye candy soon makes me forget that
.
RB