Singapore Was Lit! Day 3

Day 3 : Hilton Garden Inn, Singapore – Singapore Botanic Gardens – Takashimaya Shopping Centre – Merlion Park – Zam Zam Restaurant – Hilton Garden Inn, Singapore

We had been overspending the previous day especially in USS buying food and merchandises, so to keep within budget, we decided to just chill and visit Singapore attractions that have free entrance (cheapskate, I know). From Little India MRT Station, we went to Botanic Gardens MRT Station. The Botanic Gardens have 4 gates and one of the gates i.e. Bukit Timah Gate is just besides the MRT Station. It’s very convenient to reach this place. By the time we arrived, it was around 11 am, and it was really sunny!

At the back of my mind, I was imagining the area equivalent to Penang Botanic Gardens (that’s the only botanic garden I’ve ever visited, btw). Silly me. This place is seriously huge and nothing similar to the one in Penang – Singapore Botanic Gardens spread is 82-hectares area, which if stretched vertically; the longest distance between the northern and southern ends is 2.5 km.

Still, I was telling myself, 2.5 km is pretty doable. It will take us 30 minutes top to cover 2.5 km. No, it didn’t. It took us longer than that. Much longer. Especially in the heat. Especially when my kid out of a sudden didn’t want to be in the stroller any longer and wanted to be carried all the way.

Our first stop was at Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden. This garden is a new extension to the already huge garden. Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden itself is the largest children’s garden in Asia. However, we didn’t explore further, as it was too hot (obviously, it was mid afternoon). So we just headed to the Learning Forest to catch the Hop On Hop Off Bus.

Anyways, it was nice to be surrounded by lots of greeneries but I think it’ll be a much better experience if we were to go there early in the morning or in the evening. It’ll also be a good strategy too if we were to choose and focus on just one of the parks/ gates rather than trying to cover the whole area.

We then headed to the Orchard Road and had lunch in KFC, Takashimaya. There are a lot of restaurants in Takashimaya but not all are halal certified, so we just played safe and had KFC. We took a stroll on Orchard Road and there were so many people chilling and just hanging out, and there was even a flash mob by the Popeyes team!

Obviously we did not miss the chance to enjoy the famous Orchard Road ice cream sandwiches! The last time I had this was in 2013 when we were shopping for our wedding’s gifts. It was $1 back then but now priced at $1.20. I forgot to take a photo of the ice cream sandwich since I was enjoying it so much especially in that kind of weather, so this is a picture I found on Google image hehe…

We headed to Merlion Park and by the time we arrived it was already 5.30 pm (still very sunny though). AJ had somehow fallen asleep when we arrived. Merlion Park was so crowded, but we still managed to capture some memorable photos.

It was already Maghrib by that time, so we headed to Zam Zam Restaurant to buy dinner before going back to our hotel. Without realizing, our tracker recorded more than 20,000 steps for day 3 alone!

That marks the end of our short weekend getaway to Singapore. We had an early flight the next morning back to Bintulu. We spent almost RM1,000 per pax for this 4 days 3 nights trip inclusive of flight tickets, accomodation at Hilton Garden Inn, tickets to Universal Studio Singapore, and pocket money for meal and souvenirs. It’s definitely one of the expensive cities in the world to travel too, but the experience is priceless!

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