Adventures of David and Paul: Singapore - Roller Coasters, Museums, and More Food

We started our next day in Singapore at Ya Kun Kaya Toast, in One Raffles Place near our hotel. Kaya toast is a classic Singaporean breakfast, consisting of toast with butter and coconut jam, with runny eggs. Most people around us were mixing in some soy sauce and either drinking the runny egg/soy mixture or dipping toast into it. Runny egg isn't on our typical menu, but the saltiness of the egg/soy combo was good when you dip the peanut butter toast into it. We'd recommend trying this dish.

Kaya toast breakfast.

After breakfast we took the metro and then a skyride to Sentosa Island. This is a tourist island, filled with family attractions, hotels, and beaches. The big draw for us (well, for Paul), was Universal Studios Singapore. The park opened at 10am, but the front part of the park and a few rides opened an hour early if you bought entry tickets in advance. We arrived shortly after 9AM, rode a few rides, and were ready for the remainder of the park to open at 10am. The park was not too busy yet, and Paul was able to ride all six coasters fairly quickly - we were ready to leave the park before 11:30am. It was getting pretty crowded by then, with a lot of people coming in to the park just as we were leaving. Overall, this is a relatively weak park, especially for a Universal park. It has a few fun rides, and the Shrek area is nicely themed, but it's small and doesn't really have any standout attractions. A large "Minion land" expansion is under construction that will help to round out this park.

Passing over a cruise ship on the skyride to Sentosa Island.

Hello, Singapore. Also, yay Pokémon-themed transit!

Lots of new architecture around Singapore was visible from the skyride.

Fun new year theming in Universal Studios and throughout Singapore in general.

Universal Studios has a covered main street, thanks to the intense rain and sun in Singapore.

"Far Far Away," the Shrek-based land, is quite impressive.

Battlestar Galactica is a cool looking coaster.

Leaving Sentosa Island, instead of taking the skyride back we took a monorail, which was much faster. We hopped back on the metro and took it to Orchard Road, Singapore's famous shopping area. We had a bubble tea at Hollin in Plaza Singapura. We then crossed the street over to the National Museum of Singapore. This was a nice museum, with a great exhibit on Singapore history. They even had a little stand where you could send out Singapore postcards - so some of our friends and family got some snail mail!

Leaving the museum we were hungry, so we hopped on a bus to the golden mile food centre for a late lunch. Singapore is full of hawker centers, so we made sure to eat at several of them during our trip. We had some Hainanese chicken and rice at Da Po Hainanese Chicken Rice & Curry Chicken Noodle, which is in the Michelin Guide. Hainanese chicken is an iconic Singaporean dish which likely has comfort food value to our friends...but honestly it's just boiled chicken with rice so feel free to give it a pass.

Another lunar new year display outside a metro station.

The impressive historic building housing the museum.

They had an exhibit about transit in Singapore.

Facts. Better yet, just don't bother!

One of the exhibits on early history of the island.

View from a pedestrian bridge near the golden mile food centre.

A simple but yummy lunch of Hainanese Chicken and rice.

Singapore does not mess around.

After lunch, we hopped on another bus (again - the bus system in Singapore is comprehensive and super easy to use) to the Sultan Mosque. Singapore is around 18% Muslim, so there are several mosques around the city, and this is one of the more impressive ones. Completed in 1932, it has a very fantastical design. The inside is more plain, but still worth a look. We were wearing shorts, so they gave us big potato-sack style skirts to cover up.

The nearby haji lane is a busy tourist shopping and food street. It's a little tacky but has nice architecture and people watching, and we found a cute shop to do some souvenir and gift shopping.

Sultan mosque's golden domes and intricate architecture.

Super pretty mosque.

It's a colorful and lively neighborhood.

Doing some shopping on haji lane.

We took another bus to our next stop, the City Gallery Singapore. This is a small but interesting series of free exhibits on the city planning of Singapore. There was a special temporary exhibit on preparing the city for extreme heat, which was right up Paul's alley. They also had some cool exhibits incorporating technology that let you explore sustainability through touch screens and projections. The highlight was a large room-sized model of Singapore that included proposed skyscrapers and development.

We then took another bus in the late afternoon (sensing a theme here?) for a snack and drink from market street hawker centre near our hotel. It was mostly closed (since it's mainly a lunch place), but there were still some open stalls. David got cheese fries and Paul got a calamansi lime juice.

The large model of Singapore.

Learning about sustainability in Singapore.

37 bus routes from one bus stop! We love the Singapore bus system.

Hawker!

Inside the new/trendy market street hawker stalls.

After relaxing at the hotel, taking a shower, and collecting some laundry we had sent out, we walked along the river to dinner. We made a reservation at 海底捞 Haidilao Hot Pot at Clarke Quay. This is a popular Chinese hot pot chain, and it had good reviews so we were excited to try something a little different. Clarke Quay has a touristy, vegas-like vibe. The restaurant was big and busy with families and groups. We had two hot pots, one with spicy szechuan broth and the other with thai tom yum broth. Several tables were celebrating birthdays, so we got to hear the restaurant's happy birthday song a few times. After dinner, we detoured slightly and had some ice cream at dopa dopa, which was quite tasty. Once again the streets were very lively with lots of restaurants and bars overflowing onto the streets.