We'd heard amazing things from friends who had travelled to Singapore and they were right! It was a wonderful holiday and I'm honestly not even sure where to begin with the trip recap. (But get ready for picture overload - ha!)
We arrived early Sunday morning and headed to our Air BNB apartment. We unpacked, all took a three hour nap, and then headed to the pool just outside our pad. We ventured to the grocery store as well for supplies and visited a park en route. Our apartment was located near Chinatown and close to the intersection of two MRT lines. We found it refreshing how stroller and family-friendly the city was regardless of where we went!
Science Center
We took the MRT to the Science Center midday on Monday and spent the rest of the day exploring. There were activities for all the girls and they had a blast. As we walked back towards the MRT we found a couple great parks and enjoyed playing before heading back to the apartment for a quiet dinner at home.
Singapore Zoo, River Safari, Night Safari
Everyone mentioned visiting the Night Safari during our visit. Fortunately thanks to jet lag we were all sleeping until around 10 am and staying up until 10 pm so perfect timing for the girls! We spent the majority of the day walking around the zoo, playing in the water activity area, visiting the pandas, and then going on the tram at night for the safari. It was a pretty hot day, but the girls still saw loads of animals and enjoyed cooling off in the water!
Running to get back on the water slide!
Madi decided on this trip to volunteer for
everything and you can bet those red curls got her the job. It started with this volunteer job holding the hula hoop for a dog to jump through.
Fort Canning, The City, Clarke Quay
We spent the first part of the day walking the city and seeing the view from the highest point in the city at Fort Canning (and failed to take any pictures). Afterwards we all needed to cool off and so headed to an indoor play area called The City. It served its purpose in providing an air conditioned distraction for our girls, but wasn't anything to write home about. The girls enjoyed playing with the grocery store and we enjoyed Starbucks and AC, haha.
Next we made our way to Clarke Quay where we hopped on a river tour bus that gave a fun glimpse of the city, including the famous Merlion. Afterwards we walked around and the girls found the fountains. They spent the next couple hours getting soaked (because why wait for your parents to put on your bathing suits) and we snagged an outdoor seat at Prive so we could enjoy dinner and keep an eye on the girls. We tried the famous chili crab and enjoyed the entertainment. ;-)
Botanic Gardens
On Thursday we headed to the Botanic Gardens. We walked around the main area trying to find our way to the Children's section (there was construction and detours). Part of the playground was closed off as a result of the construction, but the girls enjoyed playing in the water (noticing a theme here?) and exploring the bridges and shaded paths through the gardens. We grabbed lunch at Gastronomia in a nearby mall before heading back to the apartment for more swimming. We ventured out for dinner to try Din Tao Fung and
loved the pork dumplings and lemon grass juice that our friend recommended trying.
Woods in the Books, East Coast Park
We met our friend Vicki at our apartment and walked together to an adorable bookstore she'd found called Woods in the Books. She kindly bought each girl a book and we headed to lunch back near our apartment at Potato Head. It was close to the twins' nap time and Vicki insisted Jason and I go have a couple hours to ourselves. We were surprised and really appreciated having a coffee together sans kids where we could chat. :-) That evening we headed over to the East Coast Park area and enjoyed a delicious meal at Long Beach UMC with Vicki and her husband Keith. The girls played at the beach before sunset and then enjoyed running around outside next to the restaurant.
Gardens by the Bay
We forgot it was Saturday and quickly discovered it was the weekend when we arrived at Gardens by the Bay. It was a bit crowded at the famous Cloud Forest and Flower Dome, but they were the best hiding spots during the massive thunderstorms that we got caught in a couple times. Evy obv didn't mind and danced in the rain. ;-) There was a dinosaur event and scavenger hunt going on that Madi enjoyed doing. We were pretty exhausted after the long day and headed back to our apartment to get ready for a side trip to Malaysia.
"Sniffing" all the flowers around them -hahaha!
Malaysia - Hello Kitty / Thomas Tank Engine Town
We woke up painfully early Sunday morning (given our routine 10 am wake ups) and headed to catch a bus up to Johor Bahru, Malaysia. It was a short bus ride and more time was spent getting on/off and waiting in Customs lines than actually driving. After dropping our bags at the hotel we headed over to the Hello Kitty / Thomas Tank Engine Town. It sounded a bit hit-or-miss based on the limited research I did and actually ended up being one of our favorite things of the entire trip. They had constant shows throughout the afternoon, special events, rides that Madi could go on, activities that were age-appropriate, play areas, and my favorite part - it was all indoors. We spent the entire afternoon here and if you have children under seven then I would say it's a must-do to escape the heat and entertain everyone.
And once again Madi was all over volunteering during the shows...
Then just when we thought we were in the clear to leave, the girls decided that running laps around the cardboard cutouts was a necessity.
Malaysia - Legoland
We picked up our tickets for both the Legoland Water and Park portions. They suggested heading to the Water Park first due to weather concerns so we started there. No surprise, the girls loved the water slides, lazy river, and building lego towers in the water. We spent most of the day there before drying off to head to the Legoland park side. Honestly - in retrospect I wish we had stayed on the water side. We needed to purchase a ticket for Madi at age three, but then there were only four rides she could go on (including a train). They requirements are age four and 110 cm for most everything else so it was kind of a bust. There were a couple shows and playgrounds we were able to visit, but we were all pretty hot and exhausted and ready to get back to the apartment.
Explore
We needed a lighter day after the previous day and spent the morning in the apartment until our children were basically pushing us out the door. The twins started saying "ready to go" on this trip and would be sitting by the door attempting to put their own shoes on while Jason and I were standing in our pajamas trying to pack the day's lunches. We headed to another indoor play area that had good reviews and we were very happy with it. They had good toddler and kid portions as well as an obstacle course that Madi tried in the afternoon.
Sentosa Island
It was a good idea to have the easier day because Wednesday was another long day. We headed over to catch the cable car to Sentosa Island. We grabbed Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks for fuel (breakfast of champions) and headed to the aquarium. We spent a decent bit of time there before running into some friends from Baku that were also on holiday. We had lunch with them before going separate ways for the afternoon. We made our way to a Pirate Ship water play area on the beach and cooled off for a few hours. Then we walked to the southernmost point of continental Asia. We grabbed dinner and took the tram back to our apartment.
Our last full day in Singapore we relaxed at the apartment and started packing our bags. We met a friend from Norway for lunch and a chance to meet her precious new baby. It was lovely to get a chance to relax and chat with her and we appreciated her taking time with a newborn to host our hot mess of five.
Friday morning we headed to the airport to fly back to Dubai where we spent a few days. We got a chance to shop at Ikea, meet up with friends who were departing on a cruise, and visit the doctor with Olivia to get new epi pens. It also helped to break up our trip and beat jetlag before heading back to Baku.
It was a lovely trip and we had a wonderful time relaxing, exploring, and playing in Singapore!
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