When my long-time travel friend Trixie informed me that there was a discount on flights to Singapore, and that she was going with another friend of hers, Tina, I rapidly signed up. I didn’t really know much about Singapore, but it sounded sufficiently exotic to justify the $600 round-trip deal.

Day 1 (March 31):

After meeting up with Tina for the first time and surviving a delayed 6-hour flight from Newark to San Francisco, a rush through the airport to make the only flight out for Singapore, and the actual 17-hour flight from San Francisco to Singapore, I was ready to sleep. SADLY, we almost always do overnight flights to maximize our time in any international country, and this was no exception. I will justify signing up for a 4-day trip to the other side of the world based on the fact that I have never before had any large degree of jet lag for any length of trip.

But it turns out I’m old now. When we arrived at Changi airport, I felt like I’d both lost at fight club and consumed a bottle of Benadryl. But c’est la vie, so we were off to experience the best of Singapore. As we stepped out of the airport to catch an Uber, the humidity hit us like a truck. Our Uber was blissfully quick to appear, but took one look at our luggage, shook his head no, and drove away, the most judgment I’ve ever gotten for my packing habits (we’ve gotten better over time!).

After ordering another Uber who could accommodate 3 suitcases, we were off to JW Marriott Hotel South Beach. The drive out of the airport to central Singapore is absolutely gorgeous. The Marina Bay Sands hotel dominates the skyline, and there is a real sense of nature merged with modern technology in the architecture.

When we arrived at the hotel, we realized that Trixie had reserved two beds, but they were singles, not the queens we thought we had reserved. Turns out, a great way to get to know a new travel friend is to push two small beds together and to sleep smooshed together horizontally across them, periodically waking when the beds drifted apart. We’ve seen things now.

After dropping our stuff off in the room, we set out to grab food and investigate what Singapore had to offer. No matter what country we are in, Trixie is always trying to get me to do bus tours, but I have refused up to this point, preferring to explore on our own.

However, my exhaustion coupled with the heat and humidity led me to finally lose that battle. Singapore in general is incredibly multicultural and has food options for almost any type of nationality, so we quickly grabbed some Mexican food from a local restaurant, and then hopped on a bus tour. There are several different bus tours available (routes designated by different colors), but we just did one.

There is a section on the top of the bus that is covered, but being fair-skinned and exhausted, I sat under the covering and promptly fell asleep for the entire length of the tour. Trixie and Tina paid attention and kept me up to speed on the historical significance of all the sites we visited throughout the rest of the trip. Much appreciated, guys.

After our bus tour, and with no immediate plans, we grabbed an Uber and asked the driver to take us to the most interesting shopping area he could think of in Singapore. We figured that a local would know the best areas, and he seemed very excited to take us to a place you can get “absolutely anything you would want.” He took us to a large shopping center, which was essentially a massive dollar store. There were throngs of people, and lots of cheap items. If you need batteries or left chargers at home, this might be a good place to stop by, but it wasn’t exactly the exotic experience we were expecting.

That excursion being a bit of a bust, we walked through a mall and stopped at Gudetama Café Singapore, a restaurant where, as the name indicates, everything is Gudetama-themed.

Even with the coffee and tiny beds, I was able to pass out easily after we finished dinner and went back to the hotel.

Day 2 (April 1):

Off of a tip from a local and a quick google search about the ease of getting from Singapore to Indonesia (30 min from Tanah Merah Ferry to Bintan Island), we showed up in our beachy attire ready to take the ferry. I guess we didn’t actually do enough research though, because you have to purchase tickets well in advance and show up for check-in at least an hour before the boat leaves. Whoops. After rescheduling our impromptu trip to Bintan Island for the next day, we ended up going to The Fabulous Baker Boy and having an absolutely phenomenal breakfast (one of the best croissants I’ve had in my life!) within a beautiful park. Even though we were full, the handmade cakes with unique flavors were too tempting and we grabbed slices to go.

We went back to our hotel and tried out both pools overlooking the city. The larger pool was busier so I did a few laps in the smaller one, but the views from both are stunning.

After having a relaxing afternoon, we headed out to see the famous Gardens by the Bay. Gardens by the Bay is a very large nature park with three waterfront gardens: Bay South Garden, Bay East Garden and Bay Central Garden. We spent several hours seeing them all.

It’s breathtaking once you step inside, like you’re walking through different worlds and experiencing the beauty of nature along with the scale of manmade architecture, a Singaporean theme.

By nightfall, we made it to Supertree Grove and took the traditional selfies in front of the trees that look as though they were taken straight from Avatar.

I had seen photos online but I was still surprised at how large the area itself is—it’s basically a maze and sometimes you can even lose your way. I had imagined it being in one enclosed area.

After Facetimeing a few family and friends to show them the glowing trees, we finished off our night at a restaurant near our hotel that had a host of food options and fantastic drinks in mason jars.

Day 3 (April 2): Indonesia

The next morning, showing up on time for the ferry to Bintan Island, Indonesia actually got us on the boat this time. After a short half hour and enjoyable boat ride, we arrived and went through customs for Indonesia.

Since this was a bit of a spontaneous decision, we didn’t actually pre-arrange transportation on the island. It seemed like everyone else had a bus to a resort or a place to go. There were a few persistent taxi drivers who kept coming up to us and showing us where they could take us on the island. Looking for a more official way to get around, we shooed one taxi driver away and checked with a few kiosks regarding taxi prices. We eventually gave up and just picked one. The exact taxi driver we had shooed away was called over to be our guide. Slightly awkward, but off we went.

As we zipped around the roads on Bintan Island with motorcyclists weaving between cars, I gained a new appreciation for the taxi drivers; I would not recommend trying to rent a car here.

Our driver ended up taking us to a fabulous traditional Indonesian kelong restaurant, which is just a Malay-Indo term for a restaurant that floats on stilts. We were starving, and the dollar went pretty far, so we ordered an enormous amount of food. The waiters even brought us the bill before they prepared the food because they wanted to be sure we could pay it; after converting to US dollars, we realized the final cost was around $20/person, so we confirmed that we could, in fact, afford it. The seafood was so fresh that they brought us the live seafood before preparing it. Not something I needed to see, but I appreciate the experience.

The food itself ended up being amazing, and the views of the clear water made it a memorable experience. If you follow this itinerary, definitely try the fresh coconut juice and the iced coffee. I actually ended up ordering more iced coffee, and through a language barrier, I ended up getting napkins on the waiter’s first attempt and just ice on the waiter’s second attempt. As he finally brought the iced coffee on the third try, we could see the other employees peeking out from the back and laughing at him. It was more than worth the wait.

After lunch, we headed out to see some of the other attractions on the island, stopping first at a temple and then a local town built on wooden stilts on the water. There were buildings that were marked as the doctor’s office and a school, as well as a very pretty site of worship that was built into a tree. We walked out as far as we could go on their pier and talked to our guide about what it was like to grow up in that area.

Afterwards, he took us to a private beach where we spent an hour and then followed up with a massage parlor (Martha Tilaar Salon Day). The massages were absolutely excellent and fairly cheap (around $20). After the massage, our driver picked us up and dropped us back at the ferry. We picked up a few souvenirs/Indonesian coffee packets before heading back.

Once we got back, we finally moved all of our luggage to our final hotel for the trip and the most famous building in Singapore, the Marina Bay Sands. Even though it was late, we couldn’t resist going up to the top for a quick look at the SkyPark that did not disappoint. The SkyPark is almost always ridiculously crowded, but it’s still stunning.

Then, since we were tired and most restaurants inside the hotel were closed, we ate a few appetizers at a small bar on the first floor. The hotel itself is monstrous in size and is attached to a mall as well, so in the daytime, there are plenty of places to explore inside. The food at most of the official hotel restaurants is fairly expensive since it’s one of the most popular tourist attractions in Singapore, so plan accordingly. We had skipped dinner in Indonesia, so we were hungry enough to pay extra. They did advertise having the best espresso in the world (and in a golden cup!), so I was suckered into giving it a try. It was a cute experience, but ultimately the espresso didn’t taste any different to me than you would get at Starbucks. Even with the espresso, it was a pretty packed day and I had no trouble falling into an easy sleep.

Day 4 (April 3):

One of my friends from high school ended up seeing my Instagram story and letting me know he was currently living in Singapore. Small world! So we met up with him for lunch and caught up over some fabulous dumplings at Din Tai Fung.

After lunch, he headed back to work and we wandered around the Suntec Shopping Center and Raffles City and picked up a few more souvenirs.

Then, since Tina had her heart on getting “Selfie coffee” that she had seen online, and that essentially prints your photo on top of coffee foam, we researched and found the exact coffee shop that made them. When the Uber dropped us off at the street with the coffee shop (Haji Lane), we realized it was a very cute area with many authentic local and specialty shops adorned with colorful street art.

This had been exactly what I was looking for on the first day when we ended up at the huge dollar store, but Tina had come through and found it for us by accident.So we ended up just wandering around, enjoying the ambiance and ducking in and out of stores before finally getting our coffees. The coffee was average but the concept was absolutely adorable.

With only one more night to go, we went back to the hotel and spent it lounging at the SkyPark, which was an absolute perfect way to finish our trip.