Photos and Stories from Singapore

At the conclusion of our Southeast Asia cruise in November 2025, we stayed four extra days in Singapore to discover what that city had to offer.

Perhaps the most iconic image of Singapore is the gigantic Marina Bay Sands hotel, which opened in 2010.

No, we didn’t stay there. Room rates for one of their 1,850 rooms start at $700 to $1000 USD per night (depending on the day and the season) – and that’s with a city view, not a harbor view. 

That didn’t stop us from going inside. This is the hotel lobby/atrium.

Adjoining the hotel on the harbor side is a 3-story, 800,000 sq ft luxury shopping mall. Note the hanging Christmas trees.

Every evening, they present a fountain-and-light show called Spectra. We watched it one evening. It was a fantastic show.

We visited the ArtScience Museum, adjacent to the Marina Bay Sands. (We don’t know why ArtScience is one word, not two.)

We don’t recommend it. It was expensive and offered too little substance. Some of it was more oriented to children. It included (for an extra charge) a 15-minute “Virtual Reality” presentation, which wasn’t VR at all. It was essentially a 3D Powerpoint slide show shown using VR goggles, and the story wasn’t good. Very disappointing.

Near the end, there was an activity Dave chose to participate in. The objective was to navigate an array of suspended boards in near-dark conditions. It was fun. Dave made it without falling, while youngsters scampered past quickly and easily.

The Singapore skyline at night. This photo was taken next to the Marina Bay Sands while we waited for the Spectra light show.

Singapore during the day, at an unusual moment when there were no cars and buses.

The building in the foreground (left) is the National Singapore Gallery, where we saw an excellent exhibition of European impressionist art on loan from the Boston Art Museum, as well as an exhibition of art by Singaporean artists. As usual, we didn’t take many photos of the exhibits, since photos rarely do justice to the works, and we prefer to immerse ourselves in the experience without focusing on taking pictures. But here are a few.

Instead of staying at the Marina Bay Sands, we stayed at the Citadines apartment hotel on the edge of Little India. The apartment was sufficiently nice and satisfied all of our requirements: separate bedroom, refrigerator/freezer, and washer/dryer. Little India was … interesting. And authentic. It was just what you would expect a Little India to look (and smell) like.

This photo was taken in mid-morning on a weekday, one of the least busy times. At other times, it was teeming with people. There were several tailor shops, with men (always men, never women) sitting at sewing machines at the edge of the narrow sidewalk.

Singapore is noted for its “hawker centers” (food courts) all over town. Many travel videos and blogs claimed that you can find the most authentic and cheapest food in these places. There was a hawker center across the street from our apartment, so (with slight trepidation on Jeff’s part) we tried it. Not surprisingly, this hawker center offered mostly Indian food, with some Thai and other Asian fare as well.

Jeff tried the Palak Paneer and Dave tried the Black Pepper Chicken. Both were good, and neither of us got sick.

On the ground floor of our apartment hotel was a restaurant called Indo Thai Bar & Restaurant. (It wasn’t associated with the hotel.) On our first evening, we decided to try it since it was close.

It was … an “adventure.” When we arrived, we were the only customers, which should have been a warning. Thankfully, the food was good. But…

They offered four wines: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. Dave ordered a Merlot. 

What’s that, you say? That looks a little light to be a Merlot? Well… the man who took our order returned and said they were out of Merlot, but they had Cabernet Sauvignon. Dave said that would be fine. Then a woman delivered the white wine you see in the picture. Dave got up, went to the “bar,” and said, “This isn’t Cabernet Sauvignon.”

She replied, “Oh, we don’t have any of that.” So she just substituted on her own without checking with Dave.

That, and the appetizer arrived ten minutes after our main course.

We had a dining adventure at a restaurant in a different hotel that was so bad, we couldn’t finish the meal. When we arrived, we saw one man sitting at a table with a glass of wine, but no sign of any staff. We had to ask at the hotel reception desk if the restaurant was even open. A receptionist walked over to the restaurant and into the kitchen, and a waitress appeared.

We both ordered Kung Pao Chicken. What we were served bore no resemblance; it was neither “kung” nor “pao,” and might not even have been chicken. We couldn’t figure out what it was, but it was awful. Jeff complained to the chef. 

When we got up to leave and offered to pay, the man graciously refused to charge us.

Fortunately, our other dining experiences were better.

One day at lunch, we ate Japanese food in a restaurant where we were the only non-Japanese customers. It was good!

We found an upscale mall about ten blocks away from our hotel, which had a more mainstream (not Indian-centric) grocery store and a wide assortment of restaurants. We ate at the Fat Sparrow twice – once for lunch and once for dinner. It was delicious!

We enjoyed our stay in Singapore, although we aren’t inclined to return.

It has an excellent metro system; it was clean, well-marked, and went everywhere we needed to go. We rode it from the cruise terminal to our hotel, and from our hotel to the botanic gardens, the Gardens by the Bay, the museums we visited, and finally, the airport.

This gentleman was playing the zither in one of the stations.

Singapore is also safe. Stores seem to have no incidence of shoplifting, no doubt due to Singapore’s very strict laws. We were never concerned about being pickpocketed. In the hawker centers, it’s commonplace for people to reserve a table (which are often in short supply) by placing one of their possessions (even their phone) on it while they order their food at a vendor stall – a practice called “choping.” No one ever takes it.

People were not rude, although many didn’t seem particularly happy. Many people had looks of drudgery and despair on their faces. The city was crowded, dense, and at times gritty. The weather during our entire stay was dreary, overcast, hot, and humid. There was some chance of rain in the forecast every day except one. We beat the odds most of the time.

We’re glad we visited, and we were glad when it was time to depart for Perth.