Good-bye Cambodia, Hello Singapore

Day 12: Heading to Singapore

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It was time to say goodbye to our 'villa' in Cambodia. This hotel had been a nice place to stay, but it's one hotel that if I had to choose again, I would pick a different one. One reason we pick local (not chain hotels) is for the local hospitality feel. There was a lot about this one that seemed influenced by a more American business model. For example, they provided laundry services, similar to our other hotels. The prices in the other hotels would be maybe 20% more than a local laundry service - a modest profit to handle the laundry service (I still found the local laundry service anyways). This place listed their laundry in price per article of clothing. A shirt would cost $3 to wash. We had 3 kg of laundry done down the street for $3. They had a tuk tuk service, which I didn't get the price for but what I read on the reviews would have been 3-5x the Grab app price. The restaurant was triple the cost of what food would cost even at more touristy restaurants. They had a sign in the room that said 'No outside food or drink allowed'. The whole business model was unbecoming and a very different feel from the other places we had stayed where you feel they are going to price gouge you on everything or take advantage of tourists who feel more comfortable just staying at the hotel. Also, in the policy manual they listed the price for each item that was broken or missing from the room - and when we checked out, we had to wait for someone to go inspect our room to make sure nothing was broken/missing. They actually called the front desk and said that the glass goblets were missing - which we said we never had in our room to begin with - fortunately they took our word for it and didn't ask us to go through our backpacks. (Because really, that would have been ridiculous). The checkout process was about 10-15 minutes while they did all their checking. It's not like it was a huge deal but definitely doesn't give you warm fuzzies. Our driver was already there and a patient man.

We made it to the airport without incident. This was the only leg of the trip they made us check a portion of our bags, which I was surprised by. It was a Singapore Air flight, not the budget AirAsia airline this time, and although we could take a ton of checked luggage for free, we couldn't take more than 7 kg in carry on. Note the trend in reading less details as the trip goes on, I clearly didn't read the fine print on this one. No biggie, they didn't lose the bags but it was annoying having to wait the additional 20 minutes for them to arrive at baggage claim.

Singapore passport control was a 100% digital kiosk process. We had submitted information online before coming into the country, no visa required. We just needed to scan our passports, take a photo and we were through very quickly. We took the metro system, MRT, from the airport to our hotel. I knew there were transit cards that we wanted to get and had done a little research on them, but honestly couldn't remember all the details on the options in the moment. We got a 3 day unlimited tourist card for like S$24, which is like $18USD each at a stand in the airport. I think there was another card that we could have gotten that we would load money on it and use it as we go. I think if we calculated each trip that we took, even though we used the metro to go everywhere and did probably like 16 trips, it may have been slightly cheaper to get the other type of card that you load money on. Now, where would we have gotten this card vs the tourist card, I don't actually know.

Singapore costs are more in line with a typical US city costs. Hotels were so much more expensive. Our other hotels on the trip averaged less than $100/night where Singapore was going to end up being like $400/night for either 2 rooms or a family suite. Many hotels did not sleep 4 people to 1 hotel room, unlike most US hotels. Although I absolutely prefer small boutique hotels/eco lodges while vacationing, it didn't make sense here. I ended up using some Marriott points to book the Westin Singapore. For whatever reason, the point to dollar ratio for this hotel was crazy good in comparison to any other deal we've looked at for using points.

I love walking into a more luxurious western-style hotel with our backpacks. It totally doesn't fit in. There were literally people walking around in tuxedos and ball gowns - and some people who looked like they were right out of the movie 'Crazy Rich Asians' - then there is us in our backpacks and Patagonia style gear. We own it! We do try to keep the kids extra well behaved but they are kids and have their kid moments, like playing hopscotch using the pattern in the carpet or deciding just to lay on the ground in the middle of the hallways.

We got out for a bit on our first day in Singapore. We explored a nearby Hawker center (think giant food court with cheap, amazing Asian food). Dinners averaged about $5/plate, breakfasts $3. (In comparison, breakfast at our hotel was going to be $36 if we ate there). Several of the stands had Michelin star ratings. That's something you don't see at food courts in the states!

The first thing we did was head to the Singapore Flyer, the ferris wheel which we think is currently the 3rd tallest in the world. Las Vegas and Dubai have a taller ones - with Dubai's being crazy taller. The views were spectacular and there was no line. It was slightly painful to pay the $30 per person price tag for a 30 minute ride, but it was a must do item. The kids love the city skylines and lights. The more lights, the better. We timed it out pretty well to that we were up there as the lights were turning on - by the time we were at the top it was completely dark and we had fantastic views. We could also see the Formula 1 track below and the kids decide to take a run in the rain on it.

We then walked across the green helix bridge which is shaped like DNA to get to Marina Sands Bay hotel/mall for their nightly water and light show in the bay. It was a pretty good show that lasted 15 minutes. There was a decent size crowd there, but since it had been raining a little earlier so I think it was probably smaller than usual. One surprise during the show was that they used a mist spray to create some various illusions in the water, but that also created a cloud of water that came down upon the crowd. We got pretty wet which wasn't expected! Fortunately it was still very warm so being wet wasn't the end of the world. We did have one whiny kid who was ready for bed, until on the walk back we saw the Apple Store, which was like a wooden ball floating in the bay. The kids, and maybe adults, of course wanted to check it out. Got nothing but dreams of asking Santa for an iPhone 15, which he doesn't deliver.

A successful first day in Singapore!