The morning after Jackson’s birthday party, we jetted off to Singapore for the long weekend!
This trip had a bit of a learning curve for us.
My plan was to stay on Sentosa island, go to Universal Studios, and also visit Legoland in neighboring Malaysia.
The first challenge was to find an affordable hotel. As it turns out, Taylor Swift was performing in Singapore this weekend. The prices of the expensive island rose considerably. I felt lucky to book a room at the Sofitel resort on Sentosa island.
The next hurdle, which I was not able to overcome was the transportation to Malaysia from Singapore. To hire a private car, the hotel quoted me $600. I found a few other private drivers, but their mornings were booked, and could only collect us after lunch. They quoted prices around $400. I also reached out to Klook to jump on a bus, but the bus departed Singapore before our flight arrived. Taking a local bus or taxi was risky, as you had to hop out of the vehicle at the border, and find another ride on the other side. I was not willing to take that risk. I ended up cancelling the trip to Legoland before we even departed Jakarta.
The flight was uneventful. I used my Grab app and booked a taxi to the hotel. Here I made a rookie mistake. I did not get Singapore dollars from an ATM and I did not look into getting a Singapore SIM card.
It was a bit of a challenge to find the taxi pickup point, but we eventually connected with our taxi and were on our way.
As I mentioned, we were staying on Sentosa island. The island is quite small and popular, so there are schemes to reduce the number of cars on the island. If you don’t have proof of a hotel reservation (or other documentation that you should be on the island), then you must pay a fee. I went to pull up the hotel confirmation on my phone, and discovered that I had no data. This caused me quite a bit of stress until I found the email was available on my phone without data.
One crisis averted.
Next up, we arrive at the hotel, and the driver wants paid in cash. I advised that I booked through the app. My balance should be billed. I can pay by credit card. (Remember – I did not stop for cash at the airport!)
He was irritated with me. He pointed out that the app showed I had to pay him cash. He suggested I speak with the concierge of the hotel. Perhaps they could pay, and then bill my room. The hotel was filled with Swifties attempting to check in and check out – the concierge was not happy with me. He checked with the hotel manager, who was slammed with lines of customers – and told the concierge to just deal with me. The concierge pulled out his wallet and paid my taxi bill with his own money. This vacation was really off to a rocky start.
It doesn’t get much better. When I booked the room, check-in was at 3pm, but my ‘package’ promised an early check-in, if available. I attempted to check in around 1pm, and was advised that they were still checking guests out, and could not possibly check anyone in yet. At this point, I was regretting not booking the afternoon transport to Legoland. Jackson and I had lunch at the hotel, we lounged by the pool with tropical drinks. We checked back in with the front desk several times, and finally, at 5pm, our room was ready. I was REALLY agitated, but was trying to show outward calm, to set a good example for Jackson. This was hard.
We went for a swim and had $36 chicken tenders from the poolside bar for dinner, as the food was just exorbitantly expensive. I cringed when he said he was still hungry and asked for more.
The next day, we headed to Universal Studios. It was quite easy to get there from the hotel. We walked down the driveway and out to the main road to catch a shuttle bus. We then had to catch a tram to the park. It was a bit of walking, but really not too bad.
I had already purchased the tickets online but was not able to buy the fast passes. I bought them at a kiosk outside of the park and we finally headed in. Our spirits were high, we were ready for an adventure. We found that it was quite a small park. Some rides cautioned that they were not suitable for all ‘body sizes’, so I assumed that meant me. We skipped those rides – such as the Revenge of the Mummy ride. We rode others and had a lovely time. The lines were short, and there was absolutely no need for the fast passes. Then, the clouds burst open and it started pouring down rain. We bought ponchos and went inside a restaurant for lunch. We had ramen, chicken nuggets, and fresh fruit. The rain cleared so we wandered a bit more, until I got sick to my stomach and I just wanted to go ‘home’. We made a dash back to the hotel. Walking quickly to the tram, and then finding the shuttle bus. We stopped at all the stops on the way. My tummy was raging. By the time we got to our stop, it was pouring rain. With our ponchos on, we splashed through the puddles to get up to the hotel and to our room. This was par for the course on this less than perfect adventure.
I couldn’t justify spending $60 on chicken nuggets again, so I worked on my Grab app, updated it to a Singapore account, and ordered burgers from Shake Shack. (This update also allowed me to book a taxi back to the airport and be able to pay for it!!!)
On our last morning, I was concerned about going out into town and not being able to call a taxi to get back to the hotel or to the airport, so we hung out at the hotel. We enjoyed the amazing hotel breakfast, went for a swim, put our feet into the fish pond and allowed the fish to nibble our feet, and then we followed two peacocks around. It was actually a really nice, relaxed morning…full of discovery.
Many colleagues in Jakarta enjoy getting away to Singapore, but we do not feel an urgent need to go back.
