I was born in Thai-Chinese family. When I was young, every Chinese New Year, we always had ceremony to pray respect to our ancestors and had holiday trip after that. This is our traditional culture. However, in the modern life, we often have limited time and forget to have holidays during this period. But, this year (2023), it was the good time. I had 3 days vacation time and pleased to invite my mom to visit Singapore together and took this opportunity to celebrate her 70s age too. 🙂
We had only few days to prepare our trip. Entering Singapore after COVID situation was quite complicated. We had to prepare our vaccine certificate and register Singapore Arrival Card 3 days before entry date. But it was not the big deal. 🙂 We had no problem with this.
This trip, we decided to have 3 days 2 nights and stay at Chinatown where is I think that it gonna satisfy my mom who is really Chinese blood and love Chinese culture. We stayed at Porcelain Hotel which is only 60 meters from MRT – Chinatown station as my mom cannot walk so long due to her knees are not in good condition.
After we arrived Singapore with Thai Airways by morning flight (TG403), we headed to hotel for check-in and rested for a while. Then, in the afternoon, we walked to Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum which is only 400 meters from the hotel. This temple is the location of stupa what is made by 320 kg of gold. Furthermore, we could see many buddha statues in Chinese style. Of course, mommy loves this place. She prayed respect to every buddha as she hoped that it would bring the luck to our family.
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We spent almost an hour at this temple before finding something to eat as we still haven’t had anything since we arrived Singapore. We chose Song Fa Bak Kut Teh for our first meal in Singapore. Then, in the evening, we visited another landmark what is very colorful and nice to visit at and after sunset, Garden by the bay. This is 250 acres nature park which is located near to Marina Bay. The highlight here is the super tree groves what has light and music show everyday on 19.45pm and 20.45pm. Only one word to describe this garden and its highlight is “AMAZING“.
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We were back from Garden by the bay to the hotel around 21.00pm. It was our tired day but happy as we hadn’t had trip together for years. We did not recognize that we went to bed at what time. It was one of our best day in life.
Second day, I woke up around 7.30am. But mommy woke up in very early morning. I thought that she was still exited for her abroad trip. We walked to the opposite road to have one of the famous breakfast chain restaurants in Singapore, Ya Run Kaya Toast at People’s park shopping mall. It has very tasty butter sugar toast which is perfectly matched with traditional style milk coffee and soft boiled eggs…..yummy.
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Then, we continued our trip to visit the most famous place of the island, The Merlion. Everyone says that if you visit Singapore and don’t see this mascot, it means you never visit this country. The Merlion is the statue of legendary creature of the nation. It has lion head and fish body. This statue was created since 1971 by Singaporean architect, Lim Nang Seng. It was officially opened by Lee Kuan Yew, ex-prime minister on 19 September 1972. We could enjoy the photo shooting with The Merlion what has fountain from its mouth. Furthermore, from Merlion statue, we can see the panoramic view of Marina bay as well.
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After our mission is fulfilled at Merlion Park, we moved to visit another place to persuade our next goals, visit Little India and Shopping at Mustafa Center.
At Little India, we could see the different circumstance than our staying place. It has unique and colorful community of Indian-Singaporean people with interesting culture. Nearby this area, it has shopping center where has (almost) all kinds of product with very attractive price. BE CAREFUL, this shopping center is extremely dangerous !. Does it has fake and low quality products?. No, it is not. It has many interesting merchandises what make you do the shopping until you forget the time. 😛 We could get many things like souvenirs, food supplements, accessories, etc. from this shopping mall.
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We spent almost 3 hours at Little India and Mustafa center before we went back to the hotel to store our treasures and took a rest. In the evening, we went out again to Clark Quay as we had our next activity to do after sunset, Cruising in Singapore river. The boat was cruising along the Singapore river and we could see the real culture on the way. Indeed, the boat cruising was operated from 10am – 9pm. But the most popular time is 7pm – 9pm as we could see the night scene of the city and harbor along with the beautiful lights. And, as mentioned cruising time is popular, to avoid the long queuing, we bought the ticket in advance from Klook.com already. It seemed Mommy loves this activity. She always looked the views and the people along the river with her smiling. 🙂
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The cruising took around 45 minutes and returned back to Clark Quay. Our second day in Singapore was the tired day, but it was our happy time. We spent the time together to visit the place we never been. We went back to the hotel on 9.30pm and had very sweet dream.
The third day, we kept our stuff and checked out from the hotel on 10.30am. Our bags were almost insufficient for our stuff as we bought many things without thinking of our bags’ size. 😛 We had our breakfast at Hawker Chan, the world’s cheapest Michelin starred food near to our hotel before catch the MRT to Changi Airport. It was our last day in Singapore as we had the flight back to Bangkok today. We had spared our time at the airport as it has one interesting place to visit before boarding, Jewel Changi. It is the new landmark of Singapore. This place is the modern department store and shopping complex between terminal 1 and terminal 3 of the airport. The highlight of Jewel Changi is HSBC Rain Vortex, the world’s largest vertical & indoor waterfall. The traveller cannot miss to snap the photo with this amazing architecture.
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We could say that our short trip in Singapore (3 days 2 nights) was the one of the most happiness chapter in our life. The location as well as the country were not the point. Spending the time together is the most important thing. When I was child, mommy took me to everywhere she was. Now, When I grow up, it’s time to reward her by taking her to the place where she impress. This is our way of life….. 🙂
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Written By : Shipy Siwarit Tiasuwattiseth
Shipy-Ship 