A trip to the Lion City

If a child was given the task of designing a city, it would probably look something like Singapore! When the kids had a day off for teacher training, we decided to take advantage and do a long weekend trip to the Merlion city. Hubby often travels to Singapore for work and every time he goes, he’s always saying how much the kids would love it. And love it they did.

I had not been to Singapore since our honeymoon, eons ago! Travelling with 3 kids this time was definitely a different experience. We ditched the drinks at Marina Bay sands for two days on Sentosa, an ultimate fantasy land for kids (and adults if I’m honest!). We knew that once they kids had seen Sentosa, we would not be able to drag them away so we decided to explore the city on the first day.

When I asked any friends who have recently been there, the first thing they suggested visiting was Gardens by the Bay, which was opened only a few months after we visited Singapore in 2011, so was brand new to me as well. While Singapore is an entirely man made city, I have to admit they have done a fantastic job of creating green spaces where they can, the GBTB being the prime example. The park is beautifully designed, with a large cloud forest that feels like entering a tropical rainforest (it reminded me of my walk through the cloud forest in Peru). The forest has a plethora of plants and flowers and even an indoor waterfall. All with a pram friendly path, making it perfect for kids (although thank god we have now outgrown the pram stage!).

Our next stop was a Disney themed flower garden where they kids had fun posing in front of Disney characters made entirely from flowers! The hands down winner (for the kids) though. was the Children's water garden. The kids had a blast cooling off in the fountains. Its so lovely that we are now at the stage where they kids are quite happy to run off and play with each other while we can sit and just watch them (the positive side of multiple children - inbuilt entertainment!) We literally had to drag them away.

In fact, the kids enjoyed Gardens by the Bay so much, that we actually ended up returning the next day to ride bikes around the park (an idea L really wanted to execute on). While we have bikes at home, every time we suggest riding, the kids veto it - but when they come to Singapore they are suddenly obsessed with the idea of riding a bike! Thankfully Singapore has made it super easy to do this - everywhere around the city they have bike stands where you use an app to rent a bike and ride around. The city is so kid friendly that some of the bikes at the gardens even have a child seat attached. L, now a mini adult, was able to ride the adult bikes and S sat on my bike and V sat on hubby's bike. It was a lovely way to spend an evening.

No trip to Singapore is ever complete without a visit to the famous Orchard Road shopping. We spent a few hours walking around the busy streets weaving our way in and out of shops. Another 'famous' area to visit is Little India so we made our way down there, did a quick temple visit (where the temple was the most crowded I've been this side of the world) and enjoyed some dosas at hubby's dad's favourite joint Komala Villas. My favourite part of going to these is usually the hot delicious South Indian filter coffee, but even I thought coffee at 8 pm was a bit much, so had to make do with some delicious badam milk instead. After a long, busy day, we headed back to rest and get ready for Sentosa the next day.

Given V's love for cable cars, we decided to take the longer, but more scenic route to Sentosa via cable car. We caught a taxi up to Mount Faber and enjoyed some sweeping views of the bay on our ride over.

Our first stop in Sentosa was something hubby had promised his car obsessed son - the luge. Its similar to a race car, but with out an actual engine. You drive it down a slopy road, and just have to steer and break. Needless to say, V loved the experience, and the girls really enjoyed the freedom of being behind a wheel too (clearly did not take after mummy).

Sentosa is a true children's paradise - there are so many things to do for children, its quite hard to cover it all. With the heat and humidity we decided to cool off indoors while seeing some amazing sea creatures - the Singapore aquarium. The large glass tank pathway where sharks and fish swim around you is what I remember most from my visit to Singapore as a child and our trip 13 years ago. It was also the highlight for the kids (apart from the dolphins, which they also loved).

Within a few minutes of being outside, the kids were once again hot, so we decided to go the Sentosa beach to let them cool off. On of my Singaporean friends had mentioned a popular thing to do in Sentosa is to go to a beach club where there is usually a pool and access to the beach. So we cooled off with a drink while the kids splashed around the pool.

For our last day we had planned Universal Studios. S and (I) were very excited about this as her good friend (and her mom, my good friend) who had moved away from HK to Singapore last year were joining us. Universal was definitely the kids favourite place in Singapore and they have already asked to go back! I have to admit it was a great theme park - small enough that we were able to cover most of the rides without feeling exhausted or overwhelmed with three kids, and large enough that there were rides to interest all of them. L of course absolutely loved the most crazy roller coaster there (which thankfully hubby took her on!) S and V (and me!) were very happy with the milder rides. S was super happy to hang out with her friend and V had company with her younger brother too. All in all Universal was a great end to our short, but sweet trip. I can now see why hubby likes Singapore (although I still love HK more with all the natural beauty)!