Day 5 – Last Chance Sight-Seeing

18,707 steps taken – 11.58km travelled

Today is our last day in Singapore. It is a little bitter sweet knowing that we have to leave tomorrow, but it means we get to see all of our friends and create even more memories!

After a late night again last night, we had a little bit of a sleep in this morning, leaving the hotel doors at around 10.15 travelling towards Bugis Junction to update our travel cards. Along the way we stopped off for a wonton breakfast at one of the stalls in a market place. It was exceptionally hot and humid today, so we took every opportunity to stop and make little sit downs, which made this breakfast even more enjoyable. The outdoor fans that they have around here are absolute gifts.

Once we had our updated tickets in our pockets, we went along to Arab Street for a little wander. The streets we found here were vibrant and aromatic, with everywhere you turn housing some fabulous street art or bakery or sweet shop or fragrance shop. The colourful facades are sights I didn’t expect to find in Singapore, but I made sure to take it all in and enjoy the views. One of the bigger attractions of the area is the temple Masjid Sultan. Its tall golden adorned towers were absolutely stunning, and shone bright in the sunlight for everyone to see. We were trying to make sure we didn’t miss anything today, so opted not to enter the temple itself, but instead enjoy it from the street.

We were next off towards Fort Canning, which has been historically significant to Singapore since the 14th century, where it is believed to be home to the ancient Singapura people. There has been several archaeological digs at the sight, uncovering many relics of the time. It was more recently converted to Fort Canning in 1861, and remains as such today. The history of this place was really interesting to me, which meant walking through the old buildings and structures was quite enjoyable.

From here we decided that food was going to be our next priority and walked through Bugis Junction until we discovered Afuri. This place has a speciality ramen made with a broth infused with yuzo fruit. They have been known to turn people away at lunch time because it is too busy. We definitely got lucky and made it with no queue (mainly because it wasn’t peak lunch time) and tried some of their signature ramen. It was absolutely delicious. Drew tried a dry ramen where you just dip the noodles in the broth depending on how much favour you want.

For two people who are not usually quite as active as we have been over the last few days, our bodies decided it was time for a rest. We went back to the hotel for a few hours and had some power naps! As we awoke to some slightly cooler temperatures, it was time to make out way to Marina Bay Sands and enjoy the sunset from the observation deck. Thankfully pubic transport is so easy and so frequent over here that within the half hour we were making our way up to the observation deck. Together we watched the sun set and then got comfortable waiting to watch the Sky Garden light show from a distance. It turns out that when you have the doof-doof music from the bar behind you instead of the beautiful asian inspired sounds at the garden it looses some of its charm. It was a great chance to take some night photos looking out over Singapore.

There is a little Ramen chain back in Australia called Ajisen that we frequent regularly, so when we discovered there was one here it was a no brainer. It was even better than what we get back home! After Ramen #2 it was getting late so we picked up a few essentials and made our way back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we leave for Kyoto. Tomorrow we start meeting up with our guests for the wedding. It has been absolutely amazing spending time in this country, especially knowing their commitment to the environment and the natural world. I know there are still things that we missed (we completely missed Little India this time) but it has been such a wonderful experience. We will be back Singapore!