Singapore: Basics

Singapore is like nothing else - its clean, distinctly Asian, yet fairly Western as well. Visitors don't feel out-of-place, or awkward at any time, and if anything, they marvel at the fact that everything just works!!! You'll come back wishing CityRail worked like the MRT!

Travel
Use the MRT (train system) as much as possible - its fast, easy, and cheap. Trains run every 3-8minutes from 5am to midnight. Buy a tourist/stored-value ticket from one of the booths at the stations, and get what you don't use refunded at the airport train station on your way home.

Taxi's are plentiful, always run on meters, and are also cheap. Really good for trips that the MRT doesn't cover - like the Night Safari.

Food
Singapore has amazing food.

Apollo Banana Leaf in Little India (just down from the Little India MRT station) is fantastic.

Smith St Hawker Centre (a night market in Chinatown) is also ... wow! So cheap, and everything is safe to eat - look for stalls with a big "A" or "A+" behind them - it means the Singaporean govt has checked the place out and its deemed safe. Go for your life.

Eating anywhere in Singapore is safe - I recommend if you have the time (and money) to have high-tea (afternoon tea) at Raffles Hotel. It's an institution, and is well worth it. Don't eat lunch that day though - or you will end up wasting your money.

If you don't do that - go to the Long Bar at Raffles and have a beer or a Singapore Sling (cocktail). Be a tourist!

Shopping
Shops there close very very late (9:30pm mon-thurs, 10:30-11pm fri-sat, 9pm sun). They open at 10 or 11.

Buy electronics from Harvey Norman, Sony stores.

Visit the Chinese markets in Bugis. (near Bugis Junction shopping centre).

The Japanese department stores there are also great. Sogo I think still exists there, and is great.

You won't find pirate CDs/DVDs there though - best place is Johor Baru (the Malaysian town on the border). To get there takes an hour or so, and for students costs ~$4!

Orchard Road (kinda like Pitt St) is huge, glitzy and expensive. Definitely worth the trip though.
Suntec City is excellent - if massive.

Sightseeing
Must sees:

• Botanical Gardens (if only for the Orchids)

• Night Safari (the zoo at night - its amazing!!!)

• the Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay complex (looks like bug eyes, or durians
• an Asian fruit - the MRT has signs saying "no durians" - referring to their pugnant smell
• Asian Civilisations Museum at Empress Place (the new one)

• Sentosa Island (its expensive, and a bit of a waste of time/money, but it has a great war history museum in Fort Siloso, and Singapore's only beaches. Don't visit on a weekend!!!)