First Travel in 2015

Off We Go to Singapore

One of my favorite vacation destination is Singapore. Some people might wonder why I love vacationing in Singapore, it's small and expensive. But for me, Singapore has always been a quick escape from the chaos in Jakarta. Singapore is tidy, Singapore is clean, Singapore is organized, and best of all, Singapore has clean air and nice sidewalks and it's only 1 hour and 20 minutes away by plane from Jakarta. 

My first trip in 2015, of course, is to Singapore for a family vacation. Traveling as a group is a lot more difficult than traveling by myself, but it is also more fun than traveling alone. What can we do in Singapore, you might ask? Shopping is always an attraction in itself. The Singapore Great Sale has been a reason to visit Singapore since more than a decade ago. But with the Indonesian Rupiah in its bad moments, shopping in Singapore doesn't seem that attractive this time of year. 

So we went to Sentosa Island instead, and spent three days and two nights in the island. This is my first visit to Sentosa Island as an adult (I might have visited the island when I was a little girl, but I have no memory of it). There are plenty to do in Sentosa Island, but we're not interested in seeing them all. 

S.E.A. Aquarium

Some say that this is the largest aquarium in the world. I have to disagree. I've been to one that's bigger than this one. Maybe if the aquarium were not as crowded with so many people, it might have been an enjoyable trip. But our time in this aquarium were not good. There were too many people, it's difficult to see some of the fishes, people kept blocking our view, and in some parts it was hard to move around with so many people there. My favorite of the fishes is the baby Manta Ray or Sting Ray. It's so cute, and I get to see it up close. And they do have a large ocean view theatre, but we mostly just sit down there, have a drink and rest our achy feet :) Overall, for S$ 38 for a visit, i would not recommend visiting S.E.A. Aquarium if you have better things to see in Singapore. 

Universal Studios Singapore

The second day of our stay in Sentosa was spent mostly here at the Universal Studios. I love theme parks, it's a Happy Place for me :) Universal Studios in Singapore is small if you compare it to those in the U.S. It's the closest one for those of us who live in the other side of the world. Most of the rides in Universal Studios Singapore seemed to be made for kids or young adults. There's not that many "Scary" rides. I guess my favorite is the Transformers 3D ride. The rest is just so so and the wait time in some of those rides is just too long. The shortest wait time was for The Mummy, an indoor roller coaster, much like the Magic Mountain in Disneyland. The gift stores were disappointing too. There's a Minion store, but there's nothing interesting in it, so I didn't get any souvenirs there at all. 

But, it was still a lot of fun for our family. And the weather during our whole stay in Singapore was good, it was gloomy for some of the time, but no heavy rain during our five day stay. 

The last 2 days in Singapore were spent at Orchard Road and Marina Bay Sands for some culinary enjoyment. You can find all sorts of food at the food courts in most shopping malls in Singapore. Most of them have a large selection of food from different parts of the world, not only the local food. Our favorite is usually the noodles and roasted meat dishes, and of course the Singaporean Hainanese Chicken Rice!