At the end of August, I embarked on what sounded like on paper (and what turned out to be) one of the coolest projects I’ve come across. Singapore Airlines had this crazy idea to bring together 4 blogging teams, then send them away to different corners of the world, then bring them back together, all the while interacting with each other on Instagram and through hashtags. They would weave 4 separate stories into one. Meet #squadSQ.
See Ya Later, Australia
The night before I left, Kynie and I stayed in Alexandria, Sydney, to be a) close to the airport (because the morning dash from Newcastle to Sydney airport can be oh so stressful), and b) because we can swing by Grounds of Alexandria on our way. This is precisely what we did and getting to the airport a good 3 hours early meant that I had plenty of time to enjoy the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Lounge and have a solid breakfast.
Being so early meant that there was no one in front of me in the check-in queue, and being in Premium Economy meant I had an express pass to get through security and immigration ahead of the queue, so this helped get me to the SilverKris Lounge with even less resistance.
In the lounge, I met fellow influencers Phoebe and Chris from the Curious Collection (not to be confused with Phoebe and Matt of Little Grey Box, who we’ll meet later). Over breakfast and a great view of the airfield, we all caught up after what we estimated to be at least 12 years without seeing each other because coincidentally, Phoebe and I went to primary school together (and I went to high school with them both for 2 weeks before I changed).
It was great having access to the SilverKris lounge. Not that waiting at the Sydney Airport cafes is all that bad, but there are just fewer people, it’s more private, there’s comfortable lounges, private booths with desks, really good food, and I don’t have to extend my mortgage in order to buy a sandwich and a coffee. I waited until the acceptable beer-drinking time of 9:30 am to crack my first Tiger of the day and Chris dutifully joined me.
The flight with Singapore Air was actually amazing. This was my first time in Premium Economy and I was genuinely surprised how much of a step up it was to regular economy. It deserves its own blog post, but just to pull out a few highlights, the seats are wider, there’s significantly more legroom (important for people 6 foot 3 like myself!), you can pre-order chef-cooked meals, the screen is bigger, the headphones are noise cancelling, and the chair reclines further. It’s a lot of little things, but they all add up into a genuinely enjoyable experience. For the added comfort, it’s totally worth the little extra.
Beyond the in-flight experience, the physical flight from Sydney to Singapore was just beautiful. We shot across the Aussie desert in a north-westerly direction from Sydney; over Uluru, past Alice Springs, over some sweet salt lakes which I still can’t identify, (thanks for nothing Instagram followers), then shot off the WA coast by Broome. I had no idea the area of Broome was so beautiful, at least from the sky. Technically what I was seeing was Derby, the Dampier Peninsula, and the Prince Regent National Park (according to Google). We were seeing two massive inlets of stark blue water surrounded by sandy bays. It was spectacular.
[robo-gallery id=”8011″]The magic continued north-west, over Indonesia, in fact, we flew directly over Lombok and Bali and I’m pretty sure it was over East Java that I saw several volcanos poking out through the top of the clouds. The on-screen flight path and Google Maps helped me work this all out.
The rest of the fight was mostly water until we hit Malaysia, at which point it turned into a lot of islands (you get that with archipelagos sometimes). We approached from the north, and I had a great time trying to work out when we actually entered Singapore airspace (hint: I got it wrong many times and if you saw my Insta-story, I actually announced it wrong there too haha).
So the three of us landed safely in Singapore and made it through immigration without being detained and picked up a Singapore Explorer Pass to get us through the next two days in Singapore. After checking in to the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, I dumped my gear, took a few photos of the room, and raced down to the Club Lounge to meet up with my fellow #squadSQ members. Matt and Phoebe of Little Great Box were already there, a few cocktails deep and chatting with a friendly staff member called Raymond; Phoebe and Chris of Curious Collection arrived shortly after me, and at about 8, Nicola and Florence of Polkadot Passport arrived to complete the squad.
We spent the next 2 hours catching up on old stories and making new jokes while pretty much laughing the entire classy place down. It felt like a true welcome drinks session with excitement and anticipation at all-time highs. The only sad thing was we’d all be going our separate ways in just 48 hours’ time. But that’s the gig and it’s going to be so much fun being a team, but exploring different parts of the world. Our first stops were South Africa, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland.
Walking My Legs Off at Singapore Zoo
I only had a couple of days in Singapore for this leg of the trip so I had to make the Zoo a priority. I also knew today was going to be big so I requested a wake-up call at 7 so I could eat and get out to the airport. This was a really good idea in theory, but since my body was still on Sydney time, it woke up on Sydney time — about 7:30 am. Unfortunately, this was 5:30 Singapore time. At around 6 I gave in to it, had a shower, and was at the buffet by 6:30.
The breakfast was immense, and everything you’d expect from the Crowne Plaza, with an assortment of local and western dishes available. My favourite though, as always, is omelette man. I don’t how they do it, but every omelette man in the world knows how to make the same omelette and I am more than ok with that.
I asked the concierge for advice on the best way to get to the Zoo and he told me the same thing that I’d worked out on my own, and that is it would take about an hour to an hour and a half and include a handful of transfers to get there. This seemed like flushing time down the toilet so I opted to get a Grab cab (similar to Uber) for about $25 and I’d get there in 30 minutes. Seemed like a good deal to me.
In the cab, I learnt that Singapore mostly speaks English, but will, depending on ethnic background, also speak either Chinese, Malay, or an Indian language at home. The Chinese and Malays might also speak the other, but rarely Indian because it is so hard to learn.
The Singapore Zoo was absolutely incredible. With the exception of domestic pets, I love animals and there is such a huge variety of animals there. In general, I sometimes find zoos a bit of a weird concept (you know, balancing conservation and captivity), but the animals all look happy, the enclosures are all really spacious and appropriate for the animals, and the level of care seems to be genuine and very high. In short, the Singapore Zoo is world-class. This is not always the case.
The elephants were most definitely a highlight for me. They have a huge enclosure partly surrounded by a moat. There are about 6 or 7 of them in there and there a quite a few vantage points if some of them aren’t immediately visible. I walked through when it was almost empty, but it was well worth doubling back to watch the Elephants at Work Show but I probably should have gone a bit earlier to get a good seat; it was packed!
An unexpected highlight of the Zoo was the rhinoceros. They were surprisingly active, especially the cub. I must have spent 15 minutes standing there, watching them, filming and photographing them. They were just a joy to watch.
You could definitely spend most of the day there, but you can see just about everything in 3 hours if you don’t dawdle.
What I love about zoos is that there are the big attraction animals (at least for me): the rhinos, the giraffes, the lions, the elephants. The animals that are big, exotic, and rare. But then there are the animals that I’ve never heard of, that are just as unique, like the tapir. I’ve never heard of a tapir before today, but it’s a pretty unique looking animal. And while I learnt absolutely nothing about it, I still enjoyed watching it in its enclosure.
The Explorer Pass got me into the Zoo for free and it also got me into River Safari, which is a river-themed zoo, also run by the Wildlife Reserves Singapore and just next door. River Safari was smaller and is a one-way walking path down and across the river and back. There were many different tanks with fish, rays, and turtles of all sizes. My favourite was the red panda though. I spent about 10 minutes trying to get the perfect shot of him but he just wouldn’t move. Still pretty happy with it though.
The other highlight was the Amazon River Quest. It was a slow boat ride and went past about 15 different animal exhibits including flamingo, jaguar, giant anteater, and monkeys. It was an extra $5 and totally worth it.
You can watch my Singapore Zoo video here:
Chinatown
By the time I’d finished at the zoo, it was about 2:00. This time, with time more on my side, I caught public transport into the city. I always find it easier to leave somewhere on public transit than to get somewhere. I got the 138 bus to Ang Mo Kio and transferred to the subway, which took me to Chinatown, one of the most popular places to visit in Singapore.
Underneath hundreds of red lanterns and a burning sun, I began wandering without much purpose. I happened upon the Chinese Heritage Centre, which I recalled was included on the Explorer Pass. I wandered in and learnt a little about the founding of Singapore, and how the early Chinese settlers lived with lifesize exhibits of the recreations of the rooms they would live in. So many people left China in search of a better life in Southeast Asia and many ended up in Singapore.
It was time for a rest, so I had a beer just outside the Heritage Centre. I couldn’t tell the name of the place but it had a few beers from a local brewery called Archipelago Brewing Co, which as far as I could tell seemed like a decent sized Singaporean craft brewery. I had the Summer IPA and it was very decent.
Nearby is the Chinatown Complex, a multistorey complex of local markets. It was weird, normally I love browsing markets and souvenir shops, but I wasn’t feeling it today. Maybe it was because I don’t want to spend cash money on junk (though it’s never stopped me before), or maybe it was because it was mostly stuff I genuinely could find no use for. Or most likely, perhaps it is genuinely intended for locals rather than tourists.
The bottom level of the Chinatown Complex is full of junky stalls and many tourists. I went upstairs to the food court and I was the only one. It’s as if we have never learnt to climb stairs, weird.
Even though it was not one that was on my list, it was clear I was in a hawker centre so I felt obliged to check out the food. I got a chicken and rice for $3 and while it looked pretty plain on the surface, it tasted really good, particularly the rice. We need to learn what they put in their rice to make it actually taste like something.
I’d been made aware of a place that has craft beer on tap in Chinatown. It was called Smith Street Taps. After taking a closer look at the Google Maps listing I realized it was actually inside the Chinatown complex. So I did another loop of the stalls and found nothing resembling it. Then I realized that it might be on level two, this fact I became certain of that based on the stall number system. Despite this, and despite working out that stalls are in a vague numerical order, I could not find the thing.
I gave up and decided to check out the local temples. First up was Sri Mariamman, which was a Hindu temple. Above the entrance is a very intricate tower covered with little colourful statues of dozens of people and – I presume – gods, that have been faded from the harsh Singaporean sun. As I learnt throughout this trip, this is a pretty common way of creating the entrance to the temple. I didn’t go in because at that point in the day I didn’t feel like taking my shoes off and since the sun was in a suboptimal position for photographing, I decided I’d come back another day since I’ll be staying nearby later.
Just a block away is the Buddha Sacred Tooth Relic Temple. This is a Buddhist temple and seriously one of the most jaw-dropping I’ve ever seen. The external architecture is incredible, the red Chinese tiers cascading up to the top. However, it was the inside that was truly breathtaking. As I stepped inside my eyes immediately met with 3 large golden statues of, well I’m guessing at least one of them was Buddha. I’ve been to other Buddhist temples on my travels and often I can find them a little much, too heavy on the gold, but this one was just impressive. It’s a shame that photography is not allowed though, not that that stopped some people.
As an active temple, there were people (almost exclusively female, I noticed) praying so I did feel like showing them the respect by not taking photos. A true out of character gesture on my part.
Across the road is the Maxwell Hawker centre, or food court. Being a Sunday, probably only 30% of the stalls were open but that didn’t stop me finding some wonderful food (and beer!).
At one of the first places I saw I picked up some Jei Ping hor fun with 4 fried dumpling on the side. It was so flavorful, so filling (I couldn’t finish it) and so cheap at just $6 for the lot. I’ve never considered myself a foodie so when travelling I could seriously live on stuff like this.
About to leave, I felt obliged to see what else was around. I started to do a lap when I came to a place called 3rd Culture Brewing Co. It sounds like a brewery but it came across as just a bar. Either way, the beers on were phenomenal. I had a big IPA, then a hoppy sour and could have had them again. That is, I could have if Singapore beer prices weren’t as high as they are in Australia. It was such a unique experience. Sitting in this shed, surrounded by stalls with locals selling genuinely local food for cents on the dollar, plenty of locals eating, then me (and no surprise another Aussie) sitting on a stool by the taps drinking great beer.
I could have stayed for another 2, but I figured I was here to actually see some of the city so I left it there, and said goodbye to my new bartender friends and called a Grab taxi to take me to the Singapore Flyer.
Singapore flyer
My initial thoughts on the Singapore flyer was “whoa, $33 is expensive”, who’s going to pay that for a large Ferris wheel? Well, according to the long queue I stood in around sunset time, a lot of people.
My second thought was that this complex is about way more than just a Ferris wheel. There’s a 7/Eleven, a gelato store, a food centre, and a 6D cinema experience. (I’d go to the 6D just so I can find out what the 5th and 6th dimensions are. I feel like they should have at least given science the courtesy of letting them know they’ve been discovered.)
I missed the sunset by about 20 minutes but the view was no less impressive — the city was just harder to photograph is all. The wheel sits out on its own away from the highrise of downtown and is the highest of its kind in Asia, so the view of the skyline and Marina Bay is just spectacular. It took just over 30 minutes to do a full rotation so in the end I actually thought it was pretty good value. And since the Singapore Flyer is also on the Explorer Pass, you can skip paying the $33 entry fee and just extract some more value out of the pass. So far, I was getting really good value.
Day 3 — Travel Day
After a leisurely breakfast in the Crowne Plaza Club Lounge I messaged around for an idea on what to do and Karl, my trusty Singapore expert suggested heading down into the Changi Terminal 3 food court and getting a Ya Kun kaya toast set. This was absolute gibberish as far as I was concerned. What’s a ya kun kaya? And while I know what toast is, what’s a toast set? I guessed it couldn’t be too hard to figure out so off I went.
For something less sweet he recommended I get kopi see siew tie, meaning “less sweet”. I did my best to not butcher the pronunciation (mission failed) and he said “you want coffee C?” This sounded pretty close so I said yes.
So having less than zero knowledge of the local language (I thought the local language was English, to be frank) I thought I had fumbled my way to ordering some toast. What I got was a coffee. According to my receipt, “coffee C”.
I think the coffee was indeed the less sweet kind, and the toast set is toast and coffee. I mean, it seems really, really obvious in hindsight.
After a bit of after the fact research, there are many different ways Singaporean coffee is done, and most of them are very sweet as condensed or evaporated milk is a key ingredient. Sorta reminded me of Tim Hortons in Canada.
So I went and tried again. After using deduction skills and a touch of online research I realized a few things:
Kopi = coffee (options are coffee, coffee-o or coffee-c)
Kaya = a jam made from eggs, coconut milk, sugar, and pandan leaves
A kaya toast set = kaya toast, coffee, and 2 soft boiled eggs.
A Kaya toast set is a pretty sweet meal, with the exception of the eggs, and I was surprised that the toast was cold and butter not melted. I got the feeling this is by design though. I had no idea what I was in for before getting there (clearly) and really enjoyed the meal slowly revealing itself to me. Who knew a simple meal in an airport terminal would be such an adventure.
I’m sure Karl’s sitting at home now, reading this (hopefully!), and having a good ol’ laugh and maybe the odd facepalm thrown in.
After my second breakfast I headed back to the Crowne Plaza — which is connected to the terminal by the way. I packed, triple checked the floor and cupboards and set out for the Club Lounge to see Raymond, who had introduced himself to #squadSQ on our first night and invited me to check out with him to save me from queuing at reception. He then invited me to have some food, a drink and walked me all the way to check-in counter 4 in the terminal with my bag. He told me a bit about himself on the way before handing me over to a check-in expert who guided me through the process. The service so far on this trip has been top class the whole way.
The check in was seamless and then I headed to the Silver Kris Lounge as I’d been upgraded to business class! Compared to the lounge in Sydney, this one was HUGE. Just as nice with a very similar atmosphere and it is sectioned off in parts so that you can still feel like you have some privacy rather than just being in another (albeit much nicer) waiting hall. The lounges were comfy, the food plentiful, and the beers were self-pour from the tap! Luckily I only had an hour and a half there otherwise this could have gotten ugly.
Use the hashtag #squadSQ to see the adventures from the rest of the crew and keep an eye on the blog to see where this adventure took me.
All flights were provided by Singapore Airlines and accommodation by the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport in association with Visit Singapore. All adventures were at my own leisure and the fun that I describe is 100% genuine. Seriously, you can’t make some of this stuff up!
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