Singapore 2015, Day 1

According to a recent article by BBC, Singapore remains the world's most expensive city to live in. The exchange rate when we visited Singapore back in April was PHP 33 to SGD 1, so we really had to save up for our four-day trip. We booked our flights in December, when Cebu Pacific had a seat sale that saw international flights at 50% off, and our tickets cost around PHP 7,850 each. An early booking also gave us four months to look for the best value-for-money hotel we could find.

Fragrance Hotels (http://www.fragrancehotel.com/) is a chain of budget hotels located in different areas in Singapore. Their cheapest hotel was located in Geylang, the country's red light district, so we immediately eliminated that area from our options. After analyzing the cost, the location, and the reviews of their different hotels--which meant constantly switching between Agoda and TripAdvisor--we chose to stay at Fragrance Hotel Oasis, located along Balestier Road. We booked through Agoda, and our stay for three nights cost PHP 6,807.23. Fragrance Hotel Oasis was also conveniently located beside a hawker center, so there were plenty of cheap food nearby. One full meal cost around SGD 4 to SGD 10.

Upon arriving at Changi Airport, we bought EZ link cards at SGD 12 each--the card was worth SGD 5, and the value in the ticket was SGD 7. The EZ link cards are similar to our LRT/MRT stored value cards. We loaded our cards with an additional SGD 10 to cover our four-day stay. Their train system was pretty easy to follow; they had maps and signs so tourists wouldn't get lost. I also did research on their bus lines (https://www.sbstransit.com.sg/) since we had to take a bus from the nearest train station to get to Fragrance Hotel Oasis. We alighted about four bus stops early, so we had to walk for fifteen minutes to find the hotel. Rookie mistakes. :P

Our first day was spent at the Merlion Park and Makansutra Gluttons Bay where there were A LOT of tourists. It was a Saturday, after all. While walking, we passed by these massive buildings with amazing architecture. We also got to ride a double-decker bus, holy cow!

 

My initial observations of Singapore were that their roads were wide, there was no traffic nor pollution, everything looked well-maintained, the streets were clean despite occasional litter, their transportation system was efficient and there were no delays. Nakakainggit.

25-28 April 2015