What To See Christmas and New Year One Week in Singapore or London

Singapore Flag.

Public and private places are selling their tickets for the Xmas period from November 1st.
To be sure of getting a place in a restaurant or on a tour you need to start planning now.

For my relatives travelling to Singapore I am putting together a one week plan.
You will want to see Christmas lights in Orchard Road but you can see them on the way to other sights.


Xmas tree and decorations outside Tanglin Mall. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

My plan for the perfect one week stay is work in progress and looks like this.

Tuesday Dec 24th 7 p arrive See Waterfall at Jewel
Wednesday Dec 25 - Day 1 Gardens By The Bay - or Botanic Gardens
Thursday Dec 26 -2 Sentosa cable car and Trickeye museum
Friday Dec 27 -3 Gardens by the bay - or Botanic Gardens
Saturday Dec 28 - 4 Night safari, and or zoo combined ticket and bird park
Sunday Dec 29 - 5 Singapore flyer lunch at Tanglin
Monday Dec 30 - 6 Duck tour
Tuesday Dec 31 - 7 National Museum and Art Museum and Clarke Quay and Fullerton hotel and statues
Wednesday Jan 1st 2020 - 8 Butterfly Garden at Changi Airport, Coffee bar local dish Kaya toast
Check in 21.45 hours
23.45 hour departure Singapore Airlines evening flight

Evening of arrival:
Jewel waterfall:

Waterfall, Jewel Mall, Changi Airport, above Changi MRT. Singapore

1 GARDENS BY THE BAY


Look for a combined Gardens by the Bay and

Singapore Flyer (big wheel) package.
Singapore Flyer alone cost per adult about $33, - that was November 1 2019, by Xmas the fares may have changed.
MRT Promenade.

Duck tour

Open top bus tour

NATIONAL MUSEUM OPEN HOUSE

RAFFLES HOTEL.
Dinner at a club if you know anybody who belongs to one. The American Club is in the centre of the city and opposite it is the Tanglin Club.

Angela at the Tanglin Club. Napkin with buttonhole. Copyright.

If not, Raffles Hotel.


Singapore Sling or Millionaire's Cocktail.


I had a free Singapore Sling on Singapore Airlines. But the one at Raffles hotel is better.

1 FORD FACTORY MUSEUM (Morning)
A look at WWII. The Battlebox Museum on Fort Canning shows Singapore's surrender. This is more cheering, a happy end for Singapore with the surrender of the Japanese.






Swim?
Little India lunch on banana leaf.

2 NIGHT SAFARI

3 BOTANIC GARDENS

Botanic Gardens Symphony Canopy.


Chopin Statue near symphony Canopy in Botanic Gardens, Singapore.

4 JEWEL
Lights at Jewel on central waterfall - free Coffee Museum at back of coffee cafe

5 SENTOSA

6 MALAYSIA J B nearby not interesting? / Malacca  - pink city, means renting a car or going by bus. KL too far? Try Peranakan Museum.
Admire the mosque by Pending LRT station near Cashew MRT.


7 INDONESIA BATAM AND BINTAN day trip by ferry

8 MARINA BAY SANDS - Observation deck.






BUTTERFLY PARK in Changi Airport.

Butterfly Park, Changi Airport.

For those not leaving London, or going there from Europe or the USA, from November 1st 2019 tickets are on sale for Christmas the Dickens Museum in central London.

USEFUL WEBSITES
SINGAPORE
https://www.nationalmuseum.sg/our-programmes/programmes-list/12-days-of-christmas-open-house



UK Flag

In London it's traditional to see the lights in Oxford Street (and the front facade and windows of Selfridges Department store), Regent Street (and Hamleys toy store), and Harrods department store in Knightsbridge.

As for visits, Charles Dickens wrote the short novel The Christmas Carol. You can visit his home in London. Tickets for Xmas have just become available from November and will probably sell out quickly.

What else to do at Christmas in London? Outdoor ice skating. Pantomime.

Charles Dickens Museum
48-49 Doughty Street,
London, WC1N 2LX

T: +44(0)20 7405 2127

E: info@dickensmuseum.com

https://dickensmuseum.com/pages/christmas-at-the-charles-dickens-museum

Even if you don't have the time or money or luck to get on a tour, you can see the outside of the house and read the plaque and take a selfie.

London has walking tours. If it's cold, wear a ski jacket, hat and mittens.

Plenty to do in London. British Museum, London Museum, Tate Modern Gallery, Madame Tussauds, the British Library, Sherlock Holmes Museum, The London Eye, a Beatles Tour, a Harry Potter studios tour, statues of Paddington Bear, Brunel, Buckingham Palace, and more statues such as Oscar Wilde, and homes of kings and queens and writers and painters, and poets such as Keats, playwrights such as Shakespeare, bankers such as the Rothschilds and the museum of the Bank of England, more than you can remember and count. As somebody once said, He who is tired of London is tired of life.
Grab copies of Time Out magazine, local free newspapers, free maps in hotels and look for vouchers and offers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favurite posts.

How Long Should You Stopover In Singapore? Allow Time For Top Ten Sights.

The Singapore Flag.

Seasonal Decorations At Changi Airport. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Singapore is a city where everybody eats out. Hawker centres or food courts are indoors or outdoors. Buy fresh fruit.

 Buns with savoury or sweet fillings.

 Sweet fillings could be yam paste or date paste or sweet bean curd.

Green Pandan cake.

In the autumn buy mooncakes.

Mooncake with salted egg filling.

The cheap local fast food is chicken rice, rice with a few strips of chicken on top, a couple of strips of cucumber, and a thin soup.

Drinks
Singapore Sling, of course.

Singapore Sling.

Singapore is civilisation, the smart city of the future, clean and green with Stunning Gardens By the Bay and a Night Safari. Must see.

It also has history, a pronounced Chinese culture, an interesting history museum, WWII and Ford Factory museums, and Little India.

Here's a checklist of things to see and do:
Open top bus tour

1 Gardens By the Bay - At least half a day
At least half a day to walk around the two pavilions. One contains half a dozen gardens from different parts of the world, seasonal flower corners, labels on every plant and tree you pass, numerous photo stops, and
One way paths leading up and down and around so you have to do the entire circuit to get out.


Waterfall

A combined ticket lets you visit the giant waterfall, with walkways at the top, centre and base. Another hour or two.

Add on stops at the shops and for a meal or sit and drink.

A third walkway around the treetop artificial trees costs another 8 dollars and will take another hour or so.

Add on the free ground level walks around the open air gardens with plaques telling stories or trees and uses of plants in food and medicine and stories and myths about the plants and trees.

2 Marina Bay Sands

Marina Bay Sands triple tower complex of hotel, shops, observation deck, boat trips.

a) Take the lift up to the observation deck for a view over the marina far below and the skyscrapers. Or
b) Better still go up to the bar (Coup d'Etat) and see the infinity pool alongside used by hotel residents. The fee is about S20 dollars upfront, which is decucted from the cost of a pizza or cocktail.

3 Botanical Gardens
Free, pleasant walks around lakes and lily ponds, giant trees, a stadium in the water, an artificial waterfall, labelled trees.


Assorted birds hop along the paths. Photo stops in bowers and bridges. Possibly a view of a giant lizard or two roaming around. A couple of expensive restaurants for the evening - must book.

Discounts and Freebies
Your airline ticket may give you privileges at the duty free shop, the airport, or if you are stuck several hours at the airport in daytime, a free bus tour of the city.

4 Night Safari
Walk or pay extra for the open sided train to take you around the night safari and watch animals (90% of the world's animals are nocturnal) coming to water holes on mini-cliffs across artificial valleys which keep you at a safe distance but near enough to see. (Binoculars are an advantage.)
Bring your camera or get familiar with your phone settings.

5 WWII
The History Museum

6 The Ford Factory Museum
Museum about the surrender of the Japanese ending the war in the Far East.

7 Fort Canning
Museum about the fall of Singapore to the Japanese.

8 Lunch at a Hotel with a waterfall - or a Club.
At the Sheraton Towers Hotel, indoors by the waterfall.
It's now what you know but who you know.
For example: Lunch at the Tanglin Club
Tavern
Churchill Room.

Alternatively lunch in the airport's new terminal.

9 The Big Wheel - the Singapore Eye

The Singapore Flyer. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

10 Cable Car to Sentosa
Spend half a day or a whole day on Sentosa

Old Chinatown shophouses and houses. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

11 Chinatown
Peranakan Museum

Temple on Serangoon Road, Little India.

12 Little India
Indian Temple
Mustafa's Department Store
Murals
Museum

More Indian temples elsewhere:

13 Orchard Road
Start at Isetan's Japanese Department Store.

See a community centre.

 Look across to Tang's Chinese Department Store.
Walk underground to Tang's.
Ngee Ann City
Underground walk from Isetan Japanese Department Store or Tang's via Ion at Orchard to Ngee Ann City complex containing Takashimaya department store with basement food court and large bookshop upstairs alongside a restaurant with seats by the window.

15 Synagogue on Waterloo Street.

16 Take a bus

17 Take a train and LRT.
Hear MRT announcements in four languages.

Chineasy. Learn Chinese (Mandarin) online.

See artwork at:

Newton MRT

Botanic Gardens

Other stations

18 Take a taxi.

19
Hire a bicycle or scooter.

Hire a scooter.

Major Hotels
Raffles and the long bar - open from August 2019 or earlier.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. I have several more posts on the Singapore MRT. Please share links to your favourite posts.

MTR Vegetarian Indian Restaurant, Singapore

Problem
Where to eat Indian in Singapore, not too expensive, indoors, convenient?

Answer
MTR fits the bill with regard to convenience. Just near Farrer Park MRT station, which is one stop from Little India. The restaurant is opposite a colourful Indian temple. And only a block or two quick walk from the huge Indian department store Mohammed Mustapha's.

MTR
MTR stands for Mavalli Tiffin Rooms. The restaurant is comfortable enough, not so grand that you are paying excessive prices. We were welcomed immediately and went into their second and less crowded room. The dishes are pictured on the menu and conveniently flash across the TV screen on one of the walls.

I started with a mango lassi. The price list is separate from the main list which is a bit annoying.
 When I finally got to see it, I found that prices didn't make much difference to what I ordered. For example, the desserts were all the same price except one which was 50 cents cheaper.

Added Costs
They do add ten per cent to the sit down meal, and, oddly, ten per cent for takeaway, which I presume is to cover the containers. So no saving in having a takeway meal, unlike England where you save the ten percent service charge.

Masala Dosai
They had more vaiations on dosai than I'd ever seen before with great explanations. From the menu I learned what had always puzzled me. Sometimes I get a masala dosa which is soft like a tandoori nan and sometimes it is a greasy crisp. From their copious explanations I discovered that one type of dosai is cooked both sides, with the resulting crisp which I don't like. Their menu is very clear.

Masala - spice
Dosa - pancake

Masala dosai is usually with spiced potato and I like potato so this is what I go for.

That said, the food did not live up to our expectations. Despite everything said on the menu, and by reviewers on Tripadvisor, I was underwhelmed. I don't like over spicey food, but I do expect it to taste of herbs or coconut or almond or something distinctive. We were a group of four, and the two other lunch guests were not excited either. I was the only one who wanted to order dessert.

We don't have the urge to go back.

My return visit in Singapore will probably be to the Indian restaurant in Albert Court, which I have visited three times, usually at one year intervals on visits to Singapore. Their food can be too spicey.

Noise Level
The echo was so great that even talking at top volume there's no fear of others hearing your private conversations.

So, for brilliant food, look elsewhere.

Location
For a prime location, reasonably clean surroundings at reasonable prices, here's the place.

Happy Note?
Let's end on a happy note. I was really pleased with the location. Not far to walk. They had two of my favourites, mango lassi and masala dosai. The prices were fine. The menu was amusing with the history of the restaurant and a bit about Singapore too.

(Photos to be added later.)

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala_dosa

TRAVEL
visitsingapore.com
Singapore Airlines official website
https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/sg/

Train line of Singapore, government official map:
https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/dam/ltaweb/corp/PublicTransport/files/Train%20System%20Map%2029122016.pdf

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.