Singapore 大眾書局

TH

Hi, Gigi

I joined the package from Cathay Pacific. It costs around HK$2,900 for adult and HK$1,900 for child (include taxes).

gigi2

Hi TH,

Your price is much cheaper esp. for child fare.  Are you leaving earlier or late afternoon?  

TH

Hi, Gigi

I will take the afternoon flight around 2:00pm. What's about you? When will you back to HK?

gigi2

We will take flight around 10:30 and will be back on 12th April.

Have a good trip to both of us!

TH

Hi, Gigi

Have a nice holiday.

justjust

Hi everybody,

We are also going to Singapore at the end of March.  Because we use very cheap tickets (HK$2,800 for 2 adults incl. hotel and HK$900 for child fare), the flight schedule is not too good and we have actually only 2 full days in Singapore.  Any suggestions on what to do if we have only 2 full days?  I already told my husband that bookshop visit is a must to look for good deals.  Apart from Popular Bookstore, any other good bookshops to visit?

gigi2

Hi JustJust,

If you have 2 full days and it is the first time for you to Singapore, I recommend  you may go to Sentosa especially for your small kids.  However, please don't expect it like Disneyland as the standard is too far from it subject to my personal comment but Sentosa is still a good place for visit and play.

Also, the Zoological Garden and Night Safari are also the good places for visit. However, the same situation as Sentosa, if you have travelled to ‘Cheung Loong’ night safari in Guangzhou and it may not be very exciting comparatively.  

Moreover, the Chinatown street….see the temple with an excellent scrimshaw and try foods there as well.

Hey, don't forget to try the typical Singaporean foods in some food stall / market.  You also may enjoy a cup of tea along the riverside…..

To my limited knowledge, Popular bookstores are only one of the big stores in Singapore.  There are a lot of great stores in big mall everywhere in Singapore but I cannot remember their names at all.

Wish you have a good trip!

justjust

Thank you for your sharing, gigi2.

I told my hubby about your suggestions (similar to my sister's).  He is also interested in Night Safari and the Zoological Garden, but is worried that Sentosa may be too far away.

Would you please tell me how long does it take to go to Sentosa?  Is it enough to spend half a day there?  

Is Night Safari suitable for a 2-yr old?  What is the timing?  I am afraid that my daughter will be too sleepy to watch the animals.

Thanks a lot.

gigi2

Hi JustJust,

No thanks at all as I have very limited travel information in Singapore but would like to share my previous tour experience in there which was very remarkable to us.

Singapore is actually a small country (smaller than Hong Kong) with more plain areas rather than mountains inside and so Sentosa will not be too far away from anywhere in Singapore.  Last time we took public bus from our hotel situated in town which only spent less an hour to arrive the cable car entrance to Sentosa.  For me, I'd rather spend half day only at Sentosa than a full day but you have to judge whether it is cost economical for a whole family or not as do remember that we have to pay the entry fees to Sentosa no matter for a full or half or few hours spent in the island.

Last time, there were quite a lot of children there at Night Safari but while traveling around the zoo by an opened cover train, the guide always reminded us not to shout or take flash light for photos due to avoid provoking the wild animals.  I think it should be safe but we have been quite close to some animals (of course the close ones will be mild animals whilst the lions or tigers etc will be kept distance from the train).  However, underage child will not be permitted to take this kind of train.  Last trip in Guangzhou, we were not allowed to get on the train with my small girl who was 1 year old at the time for night safari train at Cheung Loong but I don't know the age limit in Singapore.

Also, I forgot the open time for night safari but will not be too late.

From your message, you will leave Hong Kong earlier than me & TH and please share your encounters with us after return if you don't mind.

justjust

Then I think we will go to Sentosa since it is not that far away.  We just buy the ticket + hotel package so we also need to find more info. on public transport, dining places.  Probably I can check the entrance fees of different places, and opening hours and age limits of Night Safari from travel guides from nearby bookshops.  I will just read there and try to remember the info.  He he... save money ma.

....please share your encounters with us after return if you don't mind.

No problem.  This is the first time for me and our daughter to be there.  Hubby has been there several times but only for business.

... have to go now.. need to have lunch quickly and then pick up the tickets & hotel voucher, and look for travel guides!!

TH

Hi, Justjust

Glad to know that you will go to Singapore at the end of this March.

Please share your experience with Gigi and I. If you find any goods children books or VCD, please tell us.

As I know, Night Safari open at 6:00pm in the afternoon.

justjust

TH,

Sure no problem.  Women are born shoppers and are most happy to share shopping experience.

By the way, do you remember what is the age limit for Night Safari?  I can't find this info. from the travel guides.

justjust

Hi TH, gigi2,

We are just back from Singapore.  Very tiring as we needed to get up at 4:30am to catch the 6:50am flight.  

This is our itinery:-
1st day: Sentosa, hotel swimming pool, dinner at friend's place
2nd day: Orchard road (bookshop), Clark Quay and Boat Quay (stroll), China town (souvenir and lunch), hotel swimming pool, Night Safari and dinner with friend

Both Sentosa and Night Safari are worth to go, esp. for 1st timers like us.  Our daughter likes the animal shows and different animals very much.  BTW, Night Safari starts at 7:30pm and I don't see any limit for little kids.  Actually, kids under 3 are free of charge.

About bookshops, we didn't really spend a lot of time checking out different bookshops because we had a tight schedule and the hot weather is not encouraging either.  With such heat, we simply didn't want to walk in the street, didn't want to eat, only wanted cold drinks and go to the pool.  Anyway, we found the colouring books (S$2.5~$3.9) and Ladybird series bed time story books (S$2.5) quite cheap compared to HK prices .  But other brandname stuff like Sesame or Barney are more or less the same price, or even more expensive. E.g. I have a set of Barney books (4 in total) which I bought for HK$99.9 from Popular in HK.  In the Singapore Popular, they sell one single book (exactly the same) at S$10.5.  The VCDs are also of similar price compared to HK.  So we didn't buy much.  If we have to choose, we rather help stimulate our local economy.

Also, it is more expensive to buy from the Borders bookstore than from Popular.

Please also share your exp. when you come back!

TH

Dear Justjust

Thanks for sharing your trip. I will go to Singapore next week.

Talk to you later.

TH

Hi, Justjust & Gigi

I'm back to HK last night. Singapore is really a nice place to go. The weather is hot and humid.

I personally like Sentosa, but it is really hot. Actually, we spent only half day in Sentosa.

Chinatown is also worth to go. I bought VCDs such as Hi-5 and Barney. It costs only S$10 for 4 VCDs which is very cheap compare with Popular bookshop and Hong Kong. So I bought some VCDs for my friends.

We have dinner in Singapore river which I highly recommended to go. It is comfortable and quite romance.

Night Safari is another place where it is worth to go. My kids were so excited and scared. It started at 7:30pm until mid night.

I might plan to go Singapore again in Sept / Oct.

Jolly

hello TH, justjust n gigi,
how's yours trip? yeah, i think singapore is a really nice place to go too as i lived there for almost 2 years before.
i will visit there again around sept as well (just follow my hubby as he'll have a meeting there.) n i will shop around the bookstores to find some cheap educational stuff for my girl. to my knowledge, there is a big 大眾書局 near the end of orchard road (near centerpoint shopping mall). you may take a look next time.
i always remember the various delicious food in the hawker stores. did you try the famous chilli crab n pepper crab? die die must try!!!

TH

Hi, Jolly

I have shop around the Popular bookshop which is in Orchard MRT station. I bought some books for my kids. But there is not much discount. No special on any VCDs. Compare with HK, the story books are really cheaper than HK.

I have been in Lau Pa Sat for dinner. The place is good and there are many choices such as Thai foods, Indian foods, Chinese foods, etc.

I have tried the chilli crab in one of the Thai foods in Singapore river which is nice.

Actually, Singapore is a nice place and easy to communicate with local people. Most of them can speak English, Cantonese, Mandarin.

We spent only five days in Singapore, so that we have no time to visit our friends during this time. We plan to go again in late Sep.

gigi2

Dear all,

I have just come back la!!!  An excellent trip traveling in Singapore for 6 days where people, place and foods are very attractive which definitely drive me to visit there shortly again.  With such extreme hot weather, it is the biggest challenge for us to bring along 2 monsters (5 and 2.5 years old respectively) under the blazing sun!  However, sweats and tiredness cannot fade our happiness and joys away during this remarkable journey.

ITINEARY

Day 1 arrived in evening :
Parkway Parade Mall shopping (dinner)
Day 2                                :       
Sentosa (lunch)-Chinatown-Cityhall-Suntec City (dinner)
Day 3                                :       
East Coast Park for swimming (lunch) –Cityhall –Esplanda –Merilion (dinner)
Day 4                                :
Public Bus tour from Changi-Tampines (lunch)-Legaroon-Orchand Road (dinner)
Day 5                                 :
Took through train bus from Bugis to Johor of Malaysia (lunch)
Back to Chinatown (dinner)


TRANSPORTATION

Best utilized with public transportation i.e. Cable Car, MRT, Public buses and taxis to travel around the City.


FOODS

Most times at Food courts for chicken rice (very delicious!!!) - cheap
Chinese restaurant for 1 night dinner at Chinatown – expensive
Yum Cha for a lunch at Tampines Mall  – expensive
Cold drinks all the times!!!


BOOKS

We went to 3 books shops namely Times; MPH and Popular.  I bought Scrabbles for juniors, Mindmapping for Juniors and some English books which compared cheaper in HK.  Very interesting, I bought a PRIMARY ONE LEVEL EXERCISE BOOK FOR SINGAPOREAN CHILDREN as I wonder how difference level of a primary one with Hong Kong.  Wow! Quite advanced and demanding standard for only 6 years old kids in Singapore!


SHOPPING

Never miss the Suntec City Mall which comprises 5 buildings for the marvelous shopping mega mall.  Other shopping malls i.e. PP at East Coast, Bugis Junctions; Tampines Mall and Marina etc that are not the exhaustive list of our shopping destinations.


CONCLUSIONS

All in all, the impressions of Singapore to me is a well structured and modernized city where people are very friendly which surely attracts us to be there once again.