The Travel Diaries: Singapore

I left Sydney on Sunday July 15 for Singapore on my way to Athens. I realised once I left the house that I had overpacked, I could barely put my pack on myself and when I checked it in at the airport, it weighed 17kg and my carry on was 7kg. Oh god.

I spent my last Australian dollars on a breakfast cider at the airport before I boarded my flight and sat out on the porch for about an hour with Roxy.

I flew with Scoot Airlines, my ticket was only $286 for a single journey to Singapore, but didn't include any amenities. It was average, the seats were really uncomfortable and I was really fidgety after about an hour and did lots of stretches and walked around a bit for a good 45 minutes.

The woman sitting next to me refilled her water bottle in the bathroom, returned to her seat and drank from the bottle. Ew.

After about 8 hours, we arrived at Changi, and I took a $9 shuttle bus from the airport to my hostel, I had to walk my gear up 4 flights of stairs to the hostel in humid, 28 degree weather. I was dressed in my heaviest clothes, and was about to pass out by the time I reached the 3rd floor. The hostel was great, the staff were really helpful and I got a free upgrade to a 6 bed dorm (I'd originally booked a bed in 26 bed dorm), went for a stroll around Chinatown for a bit, and had dinner (Spinach Mee) which set me back only $3! Got back to the hostel, had a shower, played Xbox Kinect with other guys at the hostel, met some really cool people from Holland and Germany.

Next morning, I woke up at 6am, got my things ready, had breakfast with 4 (very cute) French medical students from Lille, who were on an epic trip through South East Asia for about 6 weeks - they were travelling from Singapore, through to Malak, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. 

I only had a day in Singapore so I planned to do the zoo and check out Topshop on Orchard Road. I also had enough time to squeeze a walk to Marina Bay, only the Merlion was on 'holiday' and was being prepared for its 40th birthday.

The zoo was really impressive, I caught a couple of shows and gave myself a good two hours before it started to rain. I ran into a very bogan family from Perth and we caught the tram around the zoo two times to kill time until the rain died down. 

I caught the MRT to the airport during peak hour, it was pretty intense experience especially with the heat and all the stuff I was lugging around. A random stranger gave me $2 to pay for the train ticket since the machine didn't accept $10 notes. So it only cost me $1.20 to get to the airport. Win? I think so. 

See that black pack in the bottom right corner? That's me.

I bumped into another Australian family who were on their way home to Brisbane from Phuket and they gave me the rest of their sunscreen when I mentioned I didn't have any. I love it when fellow travellers just strike up random conversations with you and you get freebies out of it. Haha!

There wasn't all that much to do in Singapore other than shopping so I'm glad I only gave myself a day. If I hadn't packed so much already, I would have definitely hit up the shopping there, Orchard Road was insane! My only regret was not getting to try an ice cream sandwich. I also lost my American Apparel Circle Scarf somewhere in Changi Airport which was lame, but I'm going to try and pick up some fabric in Athens before I head over to Tanzania and make my own circle scarf.

Next stop? Greece!