Singapore being a a famous tourist spot always attracted us and this time while on our way to India we decided to have a short trip to Singapore. Singapore airlines has an attractive package for stop over tourists .We availed that offer and got our reservation for Hotel and Visa done from korea itself while buying our flight tickets.
Visa formalities for singapore
On 21st Jan we started our journey from korea . our singapore airlines flight was scheduled at 9 am (kst) from Incheon airport. It took around five hours to reach singapore.
Inside the singapore airlines flight
Singapore airport is very beautiful .we have seen this before too so we were eager to visit the city as soon as possible.
Inside singapore airport
At Stopover Counter: We finished the formalities, took out our luggage and reached the stop over counter.
Stopover Counter at Singaopore Airport
From there we got the list of tourist attraction coupons which we are entitled to visit free, a map of singapore city and some docs to show the hotel authority . They also had arrangement for a free airport -hotel -airport pickup. There were limousines as frequent as 15 min and they dropped the tourists to their respective hotels. We had to wait for 20 min till we were picked off by the limousine.
Airport to Hotel: Soon we could get a view of the city. Singapore roads are not as wide but they are full of greenry. Lots and lots of trees and plants decorated the city paths. It was a wonderful view. City is full of High rised buildings. Soon we were in front of Hotel Furama Riverside-Our destination.
Hotel furama river front Ho
tel Furama river front is located in the china town. The hotel authority informed us that because of huge tourist inflow the hotel has no deluxe rooms vacant at that moment and they uprgaded us to deluxe suite .
Drawing room of our suite
Our Room
Our Room
Well So far so good.!!!!. The suite was huge and it had many extra facilities like mini bar,special locker etc compared to deluxe room which we had paid for.
Furama Dinning Hall
View Inside FuramaOrchard Street: We refreshed ourselves and had some rest. We took a taxi and reached orchard street-the most happening place.It has all the fashionable shops, including all the designer names, and department stores.
One of the shopping mall in Orchard street It was a 10 min ride.The streets as expected were fillled with people. Because of the chinese new year there was sales everywhere.
Fountain on Orchard street
A beautifully decorated chinese shop attracted us. It was filled with all kinds of goodluck charms , lanterns , wall hangings and many other things. the prices were reasonable too.We bought few gift items and some decoration pieces for ourselves.
Chandra with Wall hangings
Dinner in Orchard Street: By that time we were hungry so we started looking for some restaurant and soon enough we figured out a huge food court inside one of the shopping malls. The food court had so many different types of cuisine that it was tough to decide what to eat. They had recipies from all over Asia. After looking around all the stalls we finally decided to have a chinese chicken fried rice which is served hot in a earthen bowl and one Indonesian cuisine. The food was too delicious .After having a hearty dinner we started to look around again . we did some more shopping and it was almost 11pm at night and we returned back to our hotel.
Day 2: Next day we got up early in the morning . The View from our hotel room window was very refreshing.
As seen from the bedroom window
As seen from the bedroom window
We enjoyed that with a cup of coffee and then got ready for the day.The stop over information center at the hotel lobby helped us in choosing the most efficient tour since we did not have much time and had flight that night itself.
City Tour: We boarded the city tour bus from the hotel at around 9 a. m. Our tour guide was a very humourous Senior lady who kept giving details of every destination. The first stop was Little India.
Our Tour Bus
Singapore City view- From inside the Bus
Little india: Singapore is a multi cultural multilingual country and indians specially tamilians are staying in singapore for a long time. They have established this little india town. It has rows of shops which sells indian spices,clothes,groceries and vegetables.The food vendors were everywhere and the smell of Indian food was making us hungry.
Little India-In front of Indian shop
Metal tree-Little India
China town: Next we were dropped in China Town. Since chinese new year was almost near so every nuke and corner of china town was decorated with lanterns festoons and balloons. it was looking gorgeous. There were alleys of shops in china town which were selling all sort of clothings ,electronics goods, medicines etc and I must say at really reasonable prices. Inside china town there was a hindu temple and a mosque.
A temple inside china town.
We were given very small amount of time to shop and we rushed around to buy a few items and reached the bus at right time.
Opera House: The next destination was the Famous opera house of singapore from where we could get glimpses of the Merlion too.There were many statues all around.
Near Opera house
Statue near Opera house 
Near Opera HouseAfter having a look there for some time we boarded the bus again and on the way we saw the famous Raffles hotel named after Sir Stamford Raffles who founded singapore.The Raffles Hotel has a long history especially during World War II. It was rejuvinated and opened in 1991 the charge here is almost $5000 a night making it the most expensive hotel of Singapore.
Hotel Raffles
Gem Cutting Factory: The next destination was a gem cutting factory. Here one can see how gems are shaped from odd sized stones. The machines were all old fashioned but the workers seemed to be very expert. Upstairs there was a huge exhibition room where exclusive art works and decoration items made of gems could be seen. It was marvellous. We bought a set of earrings and pendant made of pure amethyst.
Gems being curved by highly skilled Workers
Exhibition Hall inside Gem factoryExhibition Hall inside Gem factory
Exhibition Hall inside Gem factoryBotanical Garden: Our next attraction was singapore botanical garden which sweep across an area of 52 hectares (128 acres ) constituted by primary forest and specialty gardens in close proximity to the city centre. The National Orchid Garden is the world’s largest orchid garden featuring more than 20,000 varieties making it a must see place in singapore. The orchid garden was a treat to eyes. The orchids are exhibited very beautiifully, the speciality gardens of ferns and roses were also very nice.
Botanical Garden view
Botanical Garden view
Botanical Garden view
The day tour concluded with Botanical Garden and we were dropped to our Hotel.We refreshed ourselves and headed for clarke quay to have lunch.
Lunch at Hooters: After an excellent lunch at The Hooters in Clark Quay, We headed for the much awaited Boat ride.
The Hooters
Boat Ride: The boat ride was awsome. It was a 45 min ride and we could get a spectacular view of the city, merlion and the Opera house. We clicked non stop. Our camera might have got tired.
Boat ride-Statue of diving kids
Boat ride
Boat ride
It was almost 3 pm by now. We were scheduled to take the 4pm limousine to airport.So we rushed to the hotel and checked out by 3:45 pm. The limousine came right at time and by 5 pm we were inside the changi airport. The trip was hectic but we enjoyed it and we were happy that we could see most of the attractions of singapore.
