Srpski
Singapore
Singapore is one large, exciting, tidy and interesting city… but also very expensive. We find it an excellent destination to travel with kids, not just because of superb metro system but also because the whole infrastructure is adapted to the people with disability, which means also for us – people with strollers. We can even say its the best we ever saw anywhere in the world. It is possible to move from point A to point B without using your arm muscles or your back to move the stroller. Just bare in mind that when you are entering a public bus you have to fold it as it is mandatory. The city itself has a lot of content for the children, the zoo and the aquarium are one of the best of their kind in the world. Also there is fun island of Sentosa. We decided to visit Singapore because of its proximity to Thailand and also because its on the top of the lists of best cities in the world. It was definitely worth visiting when we were so close.
We bought one way tickets directly from airasia website. Flight was from Phuket and it lasted around an hour. Tickets costed 108eur, as Relya is an infant he wasn’t charged full price, but still infant change was more than 50% of adults price.
We often check the weather couple of days before the trip, and we did the same this time. It was a close call to cancel the trip. because the weather shown heavy thunderstorm four days all day long (100% precipitation). We knew that in that case we are doomed to sit in the hotel because we won’t be able to walk around with Relya, its better to let the tickets go bust and use four days to go somewhere else in Thailand where its nice. Luckily we contacted our friend that travelled several times to Singapore and she talked our out of it. Weather in Malay is much different than the one in Europe, often what see when you look at your phone and when you look up don’t match. Also in one part of the city it can pour heavily and in the second it might be completely clear. This turned out very correct for us because the forecast was totally wrong and we had maybe 30 hours of rain for our four days.
View of Singapore river and Marina Bay Sands building, one of new symbols of Singapore City
As Singapore is one of most exciting cities we budgeted four days/three nights. What falls under expensive are daily expenses, transportation, food, hotels and entrance fees. We took one of cheapest hotels you can find on booking.com, it is very modest (not to use more harsh word), but as we just used it to crash over night it was ok. Location was good, we made it to the downtown fairly easy. Price for one night was around 40 euros and its the least you can expect for one night there.
Because of small amount of days our schedule was pretty tight. It just happened that Relya was very nervous those days. It is probably due to new teeth coming in addition o heat and humidity. In any case he had bad days which didn’t helped. As soon as we landed and passed the immigration, we went to hotel to drop the bags and hit the city
Our itinerary was like this:
Day one – Orchard road is the most famous street in Singapore and it is touristic and shopping centre of the city. they consider it the biggest shopping street in Asia, its something like fifth avenue or Oxford street, its a nice walk even if you don’t plan to buy anything. Over Bencoolen street where two amazing temples are located (one Hindu and one Buddhist) we entered Little India. It is a must visit along with some of the local restaurants. Here you can try non-westernised Indian food in its original form. You will eat with your fingers from the banana leaf and you will eat it spicy even if you asked specifically for non-spicy food :D. Here you can also visit several amazing Hindu temples, one of the best ones and the oldest is Veeramakaliamman Temple, in heart of Little India dedicated to goddess Khali, destroyer of evil. Temple is very colourful and attractive with a lot of content.
Day two – In the morning we have visited the Zoo which is one of the best ones in the world. It is designed so that a lot of animals roams freely, there are not so many cages and wires. Orangutans and the most of monkeys are in the rooftops over you. You can sit next to the Rhino with just a small fence between you. Its all more like a safari than a zoo. Also there is a night safari that is very recommend but we simply didn’t had enough time for it. It was the first time we saw some species, like the Tapirs.
In the afternoon we have went to the most famous building in Singapore Marina Bay Sands that is basically a hotel that has three towers connected with a platform that looks like a boat. We tried to sneak in to the last floor and go to the viewpoint but we didn’t made it ( youtube tutorial was wrong with its “turn left at Albuquerque” principle). Behind the hotel there is Gardens by the Bay, a park garden that makes you feel like different planet. It is a botanical garden but with a sky-way and it looks like Edens from the Sci-fi movies.
Kampong Glam is a Malay-Arab district, in its centre there is Sultan mosque, around there are many stores, restaurants, coffe shops and it all looks more like middle east rather than south east Asia. With the subway we went to the part of town that is on the Singapore river called Clarke/Boat Quay. It had a beautiful promenade that will make you think you are somewhere in Europe. Walking down you will get to the Marina bay (across the water is a boat hotel) and here is a famous statue of Merlion. In the time we went there it was taken for a repair and we were looking for it like bunch of idiots 😀 We found a copy and were amazed how small it is not knowing its not a real deal. In the end we went to the China Town that we had to just stroll through as we didn’t have enough time because we really wanted to see the Aquarium. S.E.A. Aquarium is based on Sentosa Island and it was the biggest in the world, and now it is second largest but still one of most famous ones. It has over 800 species among ones are hammerhead sharks, leopard sharks, mantas…
Day 4 – From the hotel we went straight to the bus station (Golden Mile tower) to catch a bus for Kuala Lumpur.
It would be much easier if we had one more day for Singaopre (four full days would be enough), as we missed many things, Santosa itself offers whole lot of things to do – water pak, adventure park, universal studio, butterfly park, night laser shows and many many other things, very fun for kids. We managed to visit only aquarium and to visit a beach at night. You can reach the island that is on the very south of the city by bridge that connects it with the city or with a mile and a half long cable for the cable car.
As travelling with a baby in Singapore itself, we didn’t had a single issue neither we found one specific reason not to go there with a baby or with a kid. In the stores you can find everything you need, even more than Thailand, we didn’t compare the prices but they look more or less the same as any place other. Its also one of most tidiest cities we ever visited with a lot of attractions so its highly recommended for parents.
Kula Lumpur
To KL we travelled via bus. Probably the first conclusion is that it would be easier to travel with the plane (its SE Asia, region of cheap flighs) but its not the case. We bough tickets through easybook.com, price for each ticket was 30 SGD (18,8e) and the child doesn’t pay, we traveled with Starmart company. Voyage lasted 5 hours, but the departure is from the downtown of Singapore (Gilden Mile complex), a dolazak u KL takodje u centar (Berjaya Times Square). If you want to take a plane, you would first have to reach the airport, then come earlier to checkin (at least the stroller), pass the security and immigration and wait for the flight. Also, from KLIA airport to Kuala Lumpur downtown you need to ride a train for 40 minuts (costing 8 eur) or by bus 70 minutes costing 4 eur. In the whole bus there was only one more guy, it was empty. Relya slept for two hours because he usually sleeps in car. The bus has sleeping seats and massive leg space, its actually more comfortable than plane. On the border we had to get out with our things but there wasn’t any queue and we finished everything very fast.
Batu Caves are the biggest Tamil temple outside of India, it is located 11km north of Kuala Lumpur, its is one of main attraction in Malaysia. The temple is build it 1891.
We reached hotel by train that we took in downtown. Kuala Lumpur unlike Singapore much more cheaper including the hotels. This time we treated ourselves with a 5 star Seri Pacific hotel, we cough an offer on booking.com so we payed a night with breakfast 39e. Rooms were luxurious, spacious, staff professional and hotel very well located, close to the metro, across the street there was a large shopping more with a hypermarket, nearby some restaurants. Elevator was glassed so you could have a panorama view of the whole city. Since we had four nights and less things to see than Singapore we decited to relax and use the hotel pool at the rooftop. Basically for the same money you are paying for a shack in Singapore, you can sleep like a king in Kuala Lumpur.
Day 1 – After checkin and short rest we decided to walk around the neighbourhood but didn’t do any sightseeing. Honestly we needed a break and we used it to enjoy the 5 star hotel.
2 dan – First thing we visited is the KL main attraction – Batu caves. It is a Hindy temple in a cave, in order to get to it you have to climb 272 steps. Nest to the steps is a 42m tall statue of Murugan that makes the photo famous. There are three caves inside and they are home to the macaque monkeys (watch your food). It is really amazing site and definitely should be on your list of things to do. Is it easy with a baby? Whell, on… We had to “bribe” one of the sellers by buying some water and juices to watch our stroller. We had to take turns on taking Relya along those 272 steps. But I can say it was worth it. Until now there is no entrance fee to the cave, but not sure how long will it last. To come to the location of the caves it’s best to get the Grab, which is cheaper than taxi and uber in Malaysia.
We came back to the city by train and visited the most famous buildings – Petronas towers. They were the tallest buildings in the world before the Arabs made Burj Kalifa. Also it is famous because they are those buildings aged Sean Connery is trying to climb in movie Entrapment. There was a family that wanted to have a photo with us (yeeey white people you are so cute). Behind the towers there is big park that has a view on the tower. Walking the park we found a fountain-pool intended for kids to take a bath, it is very shallow and good thing to gets you cooled during a hot day. Relya was a bit small to play with the kids but it is certainly one of the places to go with kids. There is no entrance fee to it. generally KL is a cheap place to be, you can eat street food, drink fresh fruit juices for very low price. Only place where they skin the tourists are attractions like climbing up to the viewpoint of Petronas towers. It’s not an issue about the price as much as they have the double prices, its common in a lot of East Asian countries, but not only there. We pay much more than the locals, for an example, entrance fee for Petronas Towers is 17.5 eur for foreigners and for the locals it is 6 eura – its three times more!
Jelena and Relya on the top of Batu Cave stairs
Day 3 – We visited Jamek Masjid mosque but only from the outside, we weren’t allowed to go inside, not sure about the reason but its probably because we are no Muslims. We passed next to the Sultan Abdul Samad, magnificent building in Moorish style. Across the road is a KL City Gallery where you can find that big I Love KL sign that you can take a photo with. In the evening we went to Sunway Putra Mall across the road of our hotel and enjpyed the burgers in official DC comic restaurant “Super Heroes”, if you are DC comic fan this is an obligatory place to visit in KL
Day 4 – We visited the Little India Otisli smo do dela grada little India i China town, ovde narvno mozete probati zanimljivu hranu i iskoristiti setnju za shoping.
Kula Lumpur je grad koji vredi posetiti, iako ima manje atrakcija od Singapura ovde ce vam se dopasti gostoprimstvo Malajaca i njihova neposrednost, prema deci su jako pazljivi. Voleli bi da nas put nanese ponovo u Malzeiju i da obidjemo jos neki deo ove lepe zemlje.
