Singapore Tour

Hello guys, I just opted to share with you my trip to Singapore, of course I was with my wife.

The first country we visited was Singapore on July 8, 2008. It's a small and yet highly developed country and most of the working class citizens could speak English. This country is a tourist destination and they're still developing more tourist spots.

For us Filipinos, we find the standard of living in Singapore far more expensive compared to the cost of living in the Philippines. Hotel and food cost four(4) to six(6) times higher than the rate in the Philippines. If I were to compare Singapore to one of the cities in the Philippines I would probably compare it with Makati.

The main streets and parks of Singapore are very clean except for the suburban areas where garbage is also dumped heavily. Most of the vehicle drivers are considerate because on streets where there are no traffic lights, they usually stop and let the pedestrian pass across the street first. One more thing, I never heard any vehicle blow its horn.

Policemen are not visible anywhere in the city or even security guards, we only seen several police and military men during the celebration of Singapore day but on ordinary days one could hardly see any uniformed men.

Let's talk about food chains. There are several food chains in the city like McDonalds, Burger King and KFC. When we left Philippines to Singapore, I was thinking that It would be better for us to take the major food chains than to eat in the restaurant that way, we could save money for our tour, unfortunately, the above-mentioned food chains don't serve rice. In short, we dined in different restaurants and we spent an average of S$12-15 per person each meal, in peso the rate would fall at about Php400 per person per meal. Thus, you should really make a budget of Php1,500/day each person for the meal alone. By the way, all the restaurants provide table tissue for a fee and they usually put plastic sealed table tissue on the table and they usually charge for that if you open it for more or less S$2/each (Php66.00). So better bring along tissue papers with you both dry and the wet ones.

Now, let's talk about hotels. If you are tight with your tour budget you may want to take a dorm. There are several persons in a room like 4- person/room, 6-person/room and even 8-person/room. These dorms also provide for private rooms but the only way you could have one is for you to reserve the room online because private rooms are usually occupied and you could not get one if you are a walk-in visitor. These rooms are occupied by both male and female with different nationalities. One time, we took a dorm of 8 persons per room, since I was so tired of walking around I usually snore alot. Most of our dormmates who were from US and UK were so annoyed and you know what they did? they kicked the metal cabinet at the bottom of their bed to wake me up for several times. I was so ashamed when my wife told me that I snored at the top of my voice. After that day we looked for a cheap hotel and we found one, unluckily said hotel was located in the red light area where prostitution takes place 24 hours a day. There are also cheapest hotels in the city but rooms don't have its own bath and toilet and you have to go out of the room and use the common comfort rooms. I learned my lesson there that if you snore don't take the dorm, you know what will happen, lol.

As a tourist, you should always bring a city map with you because some of the locals don't really have the skill of pointing the exact directions. My advice, you need to purchase a Singapore Tourist Pass, it's a ticket card for the MRT and buses. all you have to do is to swipe this ticket card and there you go. There is a tendency if you are a tourist that you would be lost and it would cost you alot because fares are expensive but if you have this tourist pass card, you could use it several times a day with a fix rate only. For instance, you are planning to stay in Singapore for 3 days, you should take the Singapore Tourist Pass for 3 days and this will set you free from hussle.

Moreover, take sample food coupons in Singapore Visitor's Center located on Orchard Road. It could help you save money somehow because you will be given 3 coupons for each visitor and 1 coupon is good for 1 small meal.

Before I forget, Singapore is very strict in terms of pre-boarding flight schedule. Make it a point that you would not be late for your flight because if you're late for the pre-boarding schedule and even if you're 30 minutes ahead of your flight schedule your plane ticket would be forfeited and you have to buy another one for the next flight schedule.

Good luck! Have a nice trip to Singapore.