Our Trip

We visited Singapore in April of 2007. This was our first beach trip upon moving to Shanghai. We combined it with a trip to Ria Bintan, Indonesia.

After a five our flight directly from Shanghai we arrive in Singapore.  We were picked up at the airport and taken to the Rasa Sentosa Resort owned by Shangri-La on Sentosa Island.  Our goal was to spot a few monkeys from our hotel as it’s balcony was facing the tropical rainforest area in which I’d read monkeys had been spotted.  But, by the time we got there we forgot about the monkeys because the hotel was just gorgeous.   We had 2 connecting rooms for all four of us. 

The hotel had a great beach that sat on a lagoon.  We didn’t swim much here because the water was a little polluted from the ships but it was beautiful to look at.  Singapore is really, really close to the equator so it was hot. 

Our second day we went to the Butterfly Park and Insect Kingdom.  For Sean and Sophie ages 5 and 7 this was excellent.  There are over 1,500 butterflies living in the outdoor conservatory ready to great you when you arrive.   When you’re done with the conservatory you can head inside for the insect museum.  Both kids loved it.

But now it was time for some real adventure.  The Sentosa  Luge and Skyride,  the first luge ever in Southeast Asia opened in 2005.  It’s a 650 meters (.4 miles) of downhill fun and, with a skyride to take you back up, we found ourselves going many times.  Sophie was too young to go by herself so we tag teamed against Sean and Scott.  It was a lot of fun.

Our last night we took a night safari through a rainforest at the Singapore Zoo - it was the most interesting part of our trip.  Before we began, the zoo had a huge buffet dinner for us that we all enjoyed immensely. Then we boarded our trams and took off for the safari.  The lions and tigers were roaring and the animals were walking all over the place.  I was a little worried for our lives at one point as we’re traveling around the forest in an open tram.  A hungry lion or tiger could easily have us for dinner if they wanted.  We were told to not take pictures as the flash might anger the animals, and to make sure we keep every part of our body inside the vehicle.  At this point I was really wishing for my mini-van instead of an open tram.  We saw all sorts of animals that night and the amazing part was how active they all were.  It’s a whole different world at night compared to the day at the zoo!  After hitting the gift shops (of course!) we carried two very tired little children back to the bus and to our hotel. 

The next morning, Sean had his first experience with topless European sunbathers. She was lying out on her balcony next to ours when Sean went out to look for monkeys.  He came over to me and whispered “Mom that lady lost her top”.  I think she figured out she just shocked a 7 year old boy, because she was back inside her room by the time I got out there.