My experiences in the lion city - Singapore # 3

On our third day at Singapore we shopped at Bugis street, one of my favourite haunts at Singapore for the different shopping experience it has to offer. This place is decked up with small shops selling stuffs ranging from trendy street wear, souveniers to hawker centre. The prices of products here is comparitivley less than other places. More than that it all depends on your bargaining skills.

The closest MRT station is the Bugis MRT, which was about 15mins away from the place we stayed, we took a MRT to City hall from Somerset and took the EW line MRT to reach Bugis.


I would say this place should be a must on every tourists/shoppers must visit list for the completley different street shopping experience the place has to offer compared to the malls in the city.

The tender coconuts they sell here (Singapore) are very tasty and helps a veggie like me survive in S'pore. They are imported from Thailand and you can find them in most parts of Singapore. A healthy and a refreshing way to beat the tropical climate.

There are numerous hawker centres in the bugis area but it is kinda hard to find out veggie food stuff so we headed to Little India and we tried out the "Banana leaf" restaurant and opted for the traditional full meal :) (ya, that's how I grinned when I saw the pallete as well )

After lunch we did a little more shopping at Bugis mall, adjacent to the Bugis MRT where we picked up a couple of leather goods. After which we headed to our room to refresh our selves for the night's adventure.

We planned to go to the night Safari , it was an hour journey - A MRT to Ang mo kio and then we took the 138 bus to the zoo.

It was a completley new experience to see the animal life in night. We reached the place a little late than we had planned, so missed out on the tribal show :( . But luckily we were able to catch up with "Creatures of the night show" with a fox, Huge snake , Owl and a few more night animals. It was fun except for the snake which made me completley go pale when I found out that it was put in a box jus' few steps behind us in the amphitheatre .. After all the fun and adventure we took the Orchard to Night safari express bus and returned back to our hotel.

That is how my third day at S'pore went by. To read my first and second day experiences click here.

My experiences in the lion city - Singapore # 2

On the second day after a long sleep and a relaxing breakfast, we headed to Jurong bird park at around 11 am . We took the MRT and then a bus, this was the first time I used the MRT in Singapore , I was thrilled with the way the whole system functioned, it was so well organised .


A view of the hotel's car park

We got this ez-link card , it can be used in both MRT as well as the buses. From then on MRT turned out to be my favourite mode of transport and it also helps get a feel of the place and its people. The closest MRT station (Somerset) was a 10 mins walk from our hotel.




On the way to Somerset




The Skaters ground near Somerset

At the Somerset station. We had to take the train to Boonlay and later bus 194 to Jurong Bird park

Inside the MRT

In the bus stop at boon lay

And finally we reached Jurong by around 12 pm

With over 9000 birds belonging to more than 600 species , Jurong bird park is one of the best in conservation and display of birds in its natural settings.

At the Penguin expedition

This is the panorail that took us around at the bird park . The park has around 3 stations where in you can hop on and off to see the birds surrounding each station and then move on to the next and so on...

The map was our guide through Jurong, it is a huge area and we could easily get lost without the map.

Hornbill (OMG! these birds are so huge!!)

Crowned pegions at the Royal ramble

After viewing the Hornbill , toucans and the Royal ramble section we moved on to have lunch in a restaurant near the lory loft area ( not to sure of the restaurant's name). We were there right on time during the lory feeding session . So, got to feed them as well .. Had like about 3 lories in my hand .

We got the special nectar mix which is sold at the counter and before I turned around with the cup, I was flocked with lories - this is one of the times when I got up close and personal with the birds, but thats only till you have the nextar in the cup :)





With the lories

Scarlet Ibises - I love their color

Jurong Bird park also conducts some wonderful shows , I got to watch the Birds and buddies show and the Birds of prey show - there were a few lucky people who got to handle the birds , no I wasn't lucky enough then *sigh*

In the birds and buddies show at the Pools Amphitheatre

In the birds of prey show at Fuji Hawk walk

Birds in the wet lands

And finally the parakeets at "photography with the birds" area, it was a wonderful feeling when the birds hold on to your hand , all of us took pics with these beautiful feathered friends . Initially I was a little scared as these were bigger than the lories but later it turned out to be a wonderful experience.
Hope you had a colorful journey through Jurong bird park! :)

It was around 7pm when we headed back to out hotel and then the night went by shopping at Mustafa .

P.S. I'm sorry to keep you waiting to read new posts at my travelogue, I'm jus' planning to give more info in that unlike here where I jus' talk about my experience . So, that's taking me a little time plus the ongoing festival and the nearing college reopening .

You can read my experiences at Singapore # 1 here.

My experiences in the lion city - Singapore # 1

The city of Singapore is a gastronomic delight, a shopoholics heaven, a perfectonists dream come true, a land of multilingual people and diverse culture.

I spent a weeks time in this lion city and at the end of my trip I'm truly enthralled with the way the city works, its people and what it has to offer to its tourists.

I reached Singapore on the 5th of Jan and returned on 12th Jan.

While planning for the trip a lot of my blog friends, people I know had all told me that there would be lot of stuffs to shop for and you will be confused but I was always wondering that its all going to be the same stuff... clothes, gadgets, house hold items et all . But the minute I entered any shop , I was so dazed with the amount of varities they have in each thing be it the shop houses , malls or the Singapore's very own Mustafa.

I have planed to divide my Singapore experience into 7 parts initially where in I will be writing about my each days experience and later on if there is something exclusive to share that would follow the 7th post :)

I started from Chennai on the 5th of Jan (Saturday) by Jet Airways. Thou' it was mentioned that our flight was a Boeing737 we got the new A330. This is how the business class looks

We opted for the economy one, it wasn't bad either .. A few views from the flight

The in-flight entertainment


View of the Chennai city from the flight


View of couple of islands before nearing Singapore

View of the Singapore harbour

Sky View of the Singapore city

We reached Changi airport at around 5:45 pm on 5th Jan and it took us about an hours time for immigration, baggage collection et all before we were out.

In the entrance of Changi airport arrival hall . The airport looks so huge , it is a mall in itself . Changi airport has got three terminals the last one terminal 3 was inaugrated jus' a few days back on 9th Jan 2008.

We checked in at hotel SHA Villa (Will make a separate post about it later)

After an hours rest, it was around 8 pm, we headed to Little India for dinner and had masala dosa( the one in pic)

After which we headed to Singapore's very own Mustafa shopping centre. This place here is a 24 hour shopping mall . It is actually didvide into 2 different malls . The serangoon plaza closes by 11pm and the Mustafa centre is open 24/7 isn't that awesome . So, every night we were here atleast 5 nights and believe me we haven't finished seeing the whole store.. Its so huge . Thou' its divided into 2 plazas , both of them are equally huge and incomparable...

Got back to the room at around 1am .. Thats how my first day went by :) It is very short compared to the other days as we hardly had half a day time to explore...

More to come.. I haven't started writing in my travelogue yet might take a couple of days I guess :)