Anybody who has read about Singapore has heard of the "hawker foodstalls" that exist in abundance and which are located in centralized "food courts" which are generally free-standing "markets". The difficulty for me, as you can imagine, was trying out these hawker food stalls for lunch, without ruining my appetite for dinner.
Each of these food courts counts dozens of independently owned and operated stalls which offer a very wide variety of asian food, consisting mainly of plates that include 3 choices, such as a meat, a vegetable, and a noodle or rice. The hawker center that I visited was a couple blocks away from the Intercontinental hotel and was adjacent to Bugis street.
The dishes were simple but very, very tasty! And they cost about US $2.00 each!
What was also remarkable about these places, is that they were full of patrons ranging in all ages, from grannies eating chicken and rice, to toddlers sharing soup with fish balls and noodles with their mother. And even more interesting, was the great gusto that the patrons showed for the food! I witnessed many ancient grannies chowing down on noodles with the enthusiasm of a teenager!
Accordingly, these Hawker food courts are a must-do for Singapore, and in fact I would dedicate all lunches to them while in Singapore, if not dinners and late night snacks as well. My only regret is that I did not have the opportunity to try more of them!
As previously mentioned, I used the Hop-on-Hop-off bus for touring. I originally discovered these buses while in Dubai, and they proved to be ideal for comprehensive and efficient touring of the major sites. At about $20 with buses visiting some 20+ stops at all major attractions every 25 minutes, it is just a fabulous way of seeing a city. There was an indoor air conditioned portion of the bus on the lower level, and an open-air upper level.
The bus took me through the Chinatown, Indian area, by several mosques, colonial government buildings, typical Singaporean "shophouses" (which are stores where people live above in beautiful pastel colours), the national library, the Raffles hotel, and even to the Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino integrated resort complex.
I felt that I got an overall feel for Singapore generally through the tour, at least the external touristy part. I did however feel that although there were numerous tourist spots and sites, really this was a somewhat familiar feeling city with little in the way of the exotic or particularly interesting. I therefore do not feel a long stay in Singapore would be justified from a touring perspective, and although it has a lot to offer as a city, as a tourist destination it is somewhat limited.
The Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino however, is a site to behold. This $5 billion+ complex is a true architectural marvel. The shops inside are beautiful and very high end. The casino itself was nicely done and far superior to the Macau ones in terms of environment, excitement, and quality of players and games. Interestingly, Singaporeans must pay $75 to enter, while foreign passport holders are allowed to enter for free. This is ostensibly to discourage Singaporeans from gambling.
I did go out of my way to try the Singaporean subway system, which was easy to navigate, and connected through a vast underground mall as well, which one would never have any clue existed unless one took the subway. There is an entire underground city with countless shops and restaurants, full of people, under the City! I did however find it disappointing that although there was a Marina Bay Sands subway stop, once I alighted it was a bloody far and humid walk to the actual casino, hotel and convention center.
One should also note that the taxi cab situation at the Marina Bay Sands is comical. From the early evening, there are queues for taxis outside of the hotel and casino which can stretch as far as the eye can see. These line-ups are massive and dwarf even the line-ups for taxis in Vegas. One can easily wait in the humidity for 45 minutes just for a taxi back to one's hotel. There is just such a massive influx of people both from the hotel, and from conventions and other tourists, that despite a constant stream of taxis, the wait is prolonged and frustrating, so be prepared to be shocked when you see the line-ups!
Overall I am very glad that I had the opportunity to see Singapore and enjoyed my time there immensely. I would however, as aforesaid, make this a fairly short 2 day trip, which I think is sufficient, prior to moving onto other more exciting, exotic, or vibrant locales, such as Thailand, Hong Kong or Bali.