16th – 17th September

The day before I had messaged Anh & Hebe about meeting up, but only having access to the internet on WiFi they hadn’t picked it up. So I got a reply before I went to bed on my rubbish day and arranged to meet them the following day.

Friends! 🙌

The girls were heading to the beach at Sentosa, a weird theme park style island at the south west side of Singapore. Now I had to move hostel a 3rd time due to lack of availability (it’s the Singapore Formula 1 weekend so pretty busy!), but after speaking to my Auntie Judith (who has travelled this route and done the hostel backpacking) I picked a hostel from the lonely planet guide called the Little Red Dot that had more of a backpacker vibe.

TIP: If you’re travelling alone and want to meet people, make sure you read the blurb about what the atmosphere is like where you’re staying. Many places can look all clean and pristine, but they may not have many backpackers staying there or much a social environment.

I couldn’t check in till later, but most hostels will let you leave your bag. I went off to meet Anh & Hebe, getting the MRT and walking across the boardwalk to Sentosa Island. They’d finished at the beach and met me for lunch near Universal Studios (which looked great but was pretty pricey, so we decided to give it a miss).

After some Malay noodles we went back over the bridge as Anh was keen to got to the National Singapore Museum. It was really interesting to learn about the history of Singapore and how they’ve built up such an amazing economy and lifestyle that you see today, I literally had no idea!

We then took a walk down the famous Oxford Road with its huge malls before heading for dinner.

The girls wanted to try out G7, a restaurant famed for its invention of frog porridge 🤢. Seeing the live frogs in the tank as we walked past and trying to cut down on meat, I gave the delicacy a pass and has some veggie dish with rice.

The girls were heading onto KL (Kuala Lumpur) the next day, so we said our goodbyes and I went back to the hostel. It was nice to see people hanging around – I was offered a beer by a couple of Indian guys and got chatting to them about they’re travel plans.

Final day in Singapore

The next day I had breakfast with a couple of British girls who were stopping off in Singapore on their way to Australia. I went for a wander to the bus depo in the morning to book my onward travel. I was going to get the bus straight to Kuala Besut, the jetty town you needed to head to to get to the Perhentian Islands, which had been highly recommended on the travel forum I’m part of on FB. Looking at the price and the look on the ticket mans face, I took his advice and booked a bus to KL first. Booked my accommodation there then went off exploring.

I wanted to go to the Botanic Gardens, so took the MRT there, via Little India for market cheap it Indian lunch 😋. The gardens are beautiful and a nice change of pace from the busy city. They have a little concert area by a small lake where they hold live music on weekends! I’ll have to go back some time. I also saw a kingfisher 😃

I was determined to see the light show if missed the other night, so I went back to Marina Sands and found my way with half an hour to spare. The setting is amazing, a partly surrounded by modern skyscrapers and glitzy shops and malls. The light show also magical!

I ended the day with another cheap eats in the much recommended China Town (which was dead and nearly closed!) a quick look around then back to the hostel. I got some great Vietnam advice from a Brit who had been there a few weeks before!