Ah, Singapore. One of only three modern city-states that exist in the world (along with Monaco and Vatican City). Of these, Singpapore is the biggest and most populous, and is generally considered to be the last “real” city-state left in the world, with full sovereignty, international borders, its own currency, a robust military, and substantial international influences in its own right.

For our time in Singapore, we opted to do a Big Bus hop-on hop-off tour. This allowed us to choose easily what we wanted to see while getting easily between places. Our first stop that we chose to get off at was Little India. Per the Big Bus tour site, “As per colonial Singapore’s design, different ethnicities were ordered to live separately from one another, and Little India was designated for Indian immigrants. Although different ethnicities are now free to live in any of Singapore’s neighborhoods, Little India’s cultural heritage has been well-preserved, with shops, architecture, restaurants and attractions offering an authentic experience.” We opted for this stop in part because John would be missing the real India, so this was kind of a ‘taste of India’ if you will.

Almost immediately I got to shopping. I bought two pairs of comfy flowing pants, one with elephants on them and the other with some palm trees. We’ve had so many stops lately with temples that required pants that having a few extra pairs of lightweight pants was a good move for me. After my mini shopping spree, we wandered the streets and took in the sights and sounds.

In our wandering through the area, we stumbled upon Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, Little India’s oldest and busiest temple. It opened in 1881, but its present structure dates back to 1986. You can read about the temple in this sign:

Perhaps it is the fun fact that people would ask the goddess Kali for fertility help that we saw this god that looked an awful lot like Ron Jeremy everywhere… yes, I just mentioned Ron Jeremy. Ew.

Here’s the temple itself. Quite ornate and beautiful in its intricacy.

After Little India, we made our way to the Sultan Mosque, also known as Masjid Sultan, a historic mosque located in the Kampong Glam neighborhood of Singapore. Built in 1824, it features a blend of traditional Islamic and modern architectural styles with its distinctive golden domes and tall minarets. A fun fact found on the Big Bus tour app is this: “Each onion-shaped dome base is decorated with glass bottle ends, donated by lower-income Muslims during its construction so that all Muslims, not just the rich, could contribute.” That’s cool, huh? We didn’t go inside as there was a service going on when we were there, but something cool is that outside of the mosque was a giant TV screen that showed what was going on inside, presumably so those outside could participate in the ceremony as well.

We had a quick stop for lunch not far from the mosque at a Turkish restaurant called Cappadocia. We had a delicious pizza and a wrap and relaxed before heading off for some more sightseeing. Here’s a fun view of streets near the mosque:

After lunch and the mosque, we boarded the Big Bus and made our way through Chinatown on our way to Marina Bay, where Marina Bay Sands stands. On our way, we found ourselves impressed with the number of buildings that had incorporated green space into the structures. This was one of most impressively gorgeous buildings that embedded natural beauty into the façade.

We went to the Gardens by the Bay, which house the giant Supertrees. Of course, these aren’t regular trees. They are futuristic-looking structures that are sustainable vertical gardens that house close to 163,000 plants of over 200 different species. The tallest of the Supertrees is about the height of a 16-story building. While we didn’t see these structures at night on this trip, it was easy to imagine how great it is when they are all lit up. The structures are quite cool looking, and we got many great views as we strode beneath them.

While in the Gardens, there was a long line of animal statues, featuring everything from tigers to snakes, Komodo dragons to bears, and everything in between. Here I am with a hippo. 😊

After Gardens by the Bay, we headed back to the ship to get ready for our night adventure with the boys. On our way, we saw the famous Merlion statue. The Merlion is a mythical creature that is half-lion and half-fish and has become a symbol of Singapore. The statue stands at 8.6 meters tall and weighs 70 tons. It spouts water from its mouth into the Marina Bay. Supposedly the lion comes from the first sighting (which likely wasn’t actually a lion sighting), and the fish represents the traditional fishing occupation of the city. Singapore actually comes from the name Singapura, meaning “lion city” in Sanskrit.

Our evening fun was to the Night Safari. Opened in 1994, it is the world’s first safari park for nocturnal creatures. Its 35-hectare rainforest is home to over 2,500 animals, ranging from the endangered Asian elephant to the Malyan Tapir and Malayan Tiger. There are over 130 species to see, and we saw a lot of them.

We began our adventure with a 35-minute tram ride that took us through the seven geographical regions in the Night Safari park, from the rugged “Himalayan Foothills” zone to the swampy “Banks of Equatorial Africa” zone. We drove past a slippery-looking hippo, a majestic elephant, and some sleepy lions.

After our tram ride, we went on a walk through the park. The whole park is only barely illuminated, essentially with just enough light to appear as it would on a full moon. Ironically, it was also a legitimate full moon when we visited the park, but I digress. It was certainly a shadowy walk along the trails, as we encountered various animals in their habitats. What’s cool about the zoo is that it’s an open-concept zoo, meaning that you don’t really see cages or enclosures as you would in traditional zoos. Rather, they use pits and psychological barriers to keep the animals back, meaning that when we walked past some animals (like the hyenas) they looked like they were close enough that they could just leap over and attack us if they wanted. It was a neat experience. In addition to the hyenas, some of the other favorites of the walking tour were the Tasmanian devils (they were so cute and curious – hard to believe they could be ferocious little things), anteaters, and tigers (which actually were in clear cages – can’t be too careful with them, I suppose).

After walking through the park it was time to meet back up with our group and head back to the ship. It was a fun time and is certainly an experience that one should do if they find themselves in Sinapore for an evening.