Our trip finally had an end in sight. We had already visited 2 countries and 7 cities, and this our last stop. We wanted our last few days to be more on the relaxing side (which is VERY HARD FOR ME), so we decided to emphasize the hotel and food scene in Singapore and truly unwind. This is the city of Hawker centers, michelin star restaurants, and where that movie Crazy Rich Asians took place.
We landed at about 8pm, and headed over to our hotel. Our taxi was an electric BYD car that seemed to be even more luxurious than a Tesla. Our driver informed us that BYD is the number one electric car manufacturer in the world, but China will not sell in USA.
Our first hotel was the Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore. The hotel was located in Marina Bay Sands and our room offered sweeping views of the bay, and the hospitality was incredible. You see that big boat building, that’s called Marina Bay Sands.
We hadn’t eaten since 2pm, so we decided to head over to our first street market stall called Glutton’s Bay. The food here should be a lot safer than the street food of Thailand. We checked out a small food center near our hotel, and enjoyed some fresh Indian food. The food was very good and affordable. I had heard crazy stories from coworkers and friends who had walked into tea shops and spent $300 or $100 on a basic cheeseburger in Singapore. Now it was time to rest up, turn off all alarms and relax.
We slept in until around 7am, and for us this was late! We had been up before 7 AM everyday this trip so far. Wow, we were already taking it a lot slower! We explored the hotel and looked up “What to do in Singapore”. The hotel had incredible architecture and lots of art all over the hotel. Imagine walking around your hotel, and seeing an original al Andy Warhol painting in one of the lobby areas. We decided to book the lunch buffet at the hotel known better as “The Colony” and went back to take a nap before lunch.
We headed down to the first floor, and checked in for our lunch buffet. The Colony had an incredible spread of food from all over the world, ranging from fresh sashimi to King Crab to pastas and other dishes I had never heard of. The food was spectacular, and the service was top notch.
One of the chefs was very fond of us and joked with us and gave us reccomendations. Let’s just say, we ate a lot of King Crab 😂.
The chef did reccomend a very unique dessert for us to try. As I was munching on gummy peach rings and macarons, Jessa came back with two things that looked like wet paper towels. They were called Tawainese Peanut Wraps and consisted of peanut shavings and a piece of cilantro with yam ice cream rolled up in a spring roll wrapper (photo on right above). What an odd combination, but if our new chef friend had recommended it must be good.
Wow, he was not wrong. It was extremely good! Imagine eating a burrito that tasted very sweet like ice cream. Odd description but it was very very good! Overall, this was one of the best buffets in the world we had experienced, but Bachanal Buffet in Vegas still sits at #1.
After checking out of the Ritz, we made our way over to our next hotel, Marina Bay Sands. Remember that funny looking building with a boat looking thing on top of it in our pictures. That’s called Marina Bay Sands and it consists of a hotel, casino, and entire shopping mall.
The check-in process was a little lengthy, but still relatively smooth. They had some ongoing construction, but we were here for only one night so no worries. Our room had a balcony with sweeping views overlooking the Garden by the Bays.
We decided to check out the casino downstairs to see how it compared to American casinos. The first thing I noticed was two separate lines with a big bold notice that Singaporeans must pay a daily $150 SGD entry fee for the casino. WAIT WHAT… YOU ARE TELLING ME THAT IF YOU LIVE IN SINGAPORE AND WANT TO GAMBLE YOU HAVE TO PAY $150 PER DAY TO EVEN DO IT. Turns out, this is how Singapore prevents its citizens from gambling away all their money. They want the foreigners money, not their own citizens to lose it all.
Getting into the casino was also a nightmare, they made you download and fill out two separate applications and made you feel like you were a criminal for even going inside. Once we got inside, I noticed they had zero ATMs. You’re kidding me.. I had to go out and find an ATM and deal with the very grumpy security guards again. It wasn’t as cumbersome as the first time since I had the forms all filled out, and we headed inside to look around. Most games had $200-$300 table minimums 😬. We found a craps table… but it had 3 dice instead of 2? Turns out this was the popular game of Sic-Bo, and was basically Roullette with dice.
I noticed another strange thing in the casino, the lack of waitresses walking around. I discovered that alcohol in casinos is also not a thing in Singapore. Strict entry, no refreshments, and grumpy dealers was enough to make us bolt for the exit.
Our next stop was the Marina Bay Sands shopping mall. This consisted of high end shops like Dolce & Gabanna and Tom Ford. I walked into the Ralph Lauren store to see what an OTR (off the rack) suit would run… approximately $2600 SGD. We checked out the globe shaped Apple store, where Jessa gave me very subtle hints about her next birthday gift 😂 IPad Air with magic keyboard. Someone please send me a reminder around December.
I looked over and Jessa had found herself in a tea shop. Oooh this is a great place to get some tea! We could buy a few packs as souvenirs for friends and family. Wrong, most of the tea started at $50 to $60 per bag 😂. I thought my friend had exaggerated when he told me he once spent $200 on a single cup of tea in Singapore…. nope he was not wrong! So we apologize for not bringing back any designer tea. 😂
We headed outside to watch the famous water and light show known as Spectra. One problem… it began to pour rain, and not just sprinke but monsoon level rains. The show was supposed to start in 16 mins and you could barely see 6 feet in front of you… but guess what you could see? Runners and more runners. Apparently running in the rain is a big hobby for (I am not exagerrating) hundreds of people in Singapore. One group would run past in all their running gear, and then another and another! They were doing all of this in crazy weather, and here we were wondering if the show would be cancelled. At 7:54 the rain stopped almost immediately … and we made our way to the balcony to watch the show.
Spectra was filled with music, lights, water fountains (think Bellagio) and art displayed on the water and fog. The show was very captivating and immersive. I highly reccomended checking this show out if you are in Singapore… and unlike the ridiculous tea store, the Spectra show is free every night 😂
After the Spectra show, we walked through Marina Bay Sands to Gardens by the Bay to check out the next free musical light show that started in 30 mins. This show was even more impressive than the last. It felt like one of those choreographed light shows you see at Christmas time. but combined with Avatar trees.
After the two light shows, we realized even though we were full from the lunch buffet that we should grab a quick bite before bed. It was already 9:30 so who knows what would even be open! The first place we tried was next to our hotel and called Blossoms. They asked if we were OK with dimsum and we excitedly said yes. They handed us a menu and my jaw dropped. The appetizers started at $398 SGD ($294 USD) and went all the way up to $3,000 per piece. I did manage to find one thing under $150 … a piece of cucumber 😂 so this is the expensive part of Singapore people were telling us about. We politely excused ourselves and kept looking.
Jessa pointed out a steakhouse across the way. CUT by Wolfgang Puck… Wait was this THE CUT… THE ONE I HAD RESEARCHED AND HEARD ABOUT 😍 CUT was a Michelin star steakhouse in Singapore by the LEGEN… hope you aren’t lactose intolerant…. DARY chef Wolfgang Puck. Not to be confused with the musician Wolfgang Mozart. We walked up wearing our casual outfits (there is no way this michelin star steakhouse would ever let us come in wearing chacos and shorts). They promptly seated us in the lounge area since they were closing in 15 mins, but wow we were going to experience our first Michelin star Restaurant.
CUT is one of two restaurants with michelin stars by Wolfgang Puck. A michelin star is a restaurant guide system that was developed in 1926 by a couple of brothers in France. These brothers were the founders of that famous tire company, Michelin, and they had written a guide to help travelers plan trips. The stars were a way to know if a place was extremely good, and thus would attract people to drive further and hence buy new tires from Michelin!
I had heard mixed things about Michelin star restaurants. Some of my friends had said these were the gastronomic highlights of their lives, while others had told me it was cool, but not worth the price and months long reservation. It was time to experience it for ourselves in Singapore of all places!
We started off some amazing cheesy bread and a corn salad. The salad was so refreshing and crisp yet packed with flavor. This was a great start. We had two waitresses, Charize and AC, who were both from the Phillipines and extremely sweet. AC had just gotten engaged, so we changed stories and filled her in on some of our honeymoon. She was thinking of going to Thailand as well for her honeymoon, so we told her some of our favorite spots and places to skip (Bangkok 😒).
Jessa asked about all the random headshots of people that plastered the walls of CUT, and AC explained that these were some of Puck’s closest friends and people who would frequent this restaurant and Spago in Beverly Hills. Puck wanted to bring the Hollywood feel to Singapore, hence the headshots. AC gave us a tour of the restaurant, and introduced us to the Head chef Kelvin.
Kelvin had been working at CUT since it opened 14 years ago. In 2016, CUT received its first Michelin star, and has received one every year since. To make it even more incredible of an experienc, Kelvin told us that his staff had just been informed that morning CUT had been awarded another Michelin star, giving it its 9th year consecutive year of Michelin stars. You could see the excitement and buzz on the staffs’ faces.
We headed back to our table and our food was brought out. One problem.. this was the wrong order. We only ordered one steak and a side of creamed spinach (we were still quite full from lunch), and they had delivered 3 sides and a steak. Charice informed us that chef Kelvin wanted us to try some of his personal favorite sides. Wow, that was so kind of him… and to top it off, Charice gave us some of her favorite wine and a Shirley temple for Jessa. The steak was a filet mignon from Australia, and wow was it good. It had great flavor and tenderness.
To finish off our meal, chef Kelvin and Charice arranged for dessert. We enjoyed a Baked Alaska with strawberry rhubarb compote on the side. Unbelievable, we had walked in here just wanting a quick bite to eat, and we left extremely full with flavor buzzing in our mouth.
As if that was not enough… the general manager came by our table and invited us to come by tomorrow after 5PM to enjoy a private tour of the kitchen. We couldn’t believe it, we had the opportunity to not only eat at a Michelin star restaurant, but also the chance to see the kitchen 🤩 We love watching shows like Hell’s Kitchen and MasterChef Junior, so this was a dream come true.
By now it was 11:40 PM and you are probably thinking bedtime! WRONG, I wanted to check out the famous infinity pool that was featured in Crazy Rich Asians. Remember that last scene, where everyone is dancing and celebrating by an infinity pool. That pool is located on top of the boat building, so we had to check it out. Nor did I want to change into a swimsuit, so we headed straight up to the 57th floor. I swam around and enjoyed the breathtaking view of the Singapore skyline. Jessa opted to relax in one of the poolside chairs since we would be swimming tomorrow morning as well.
The first full day in Singapore had been a major success, from enjoying all you can eat King Crab at the Ritz to light shows at the Marina Bay Sands to our first Michelin Star restaurant experience, Singapore had exceeded our initial expectations.
The next day, we expected to sleep in again, but I woke up at 6:45 AM excited to check out the pool before it got too crowded. Don’t worry, I let Jessa sleep, and headed up to the pool. Only a handful of people were up there, and the view was spectacular. I changed my mind, and ran back downstairs to wake up Jessa, so that she could experience this. Plus it was past 7AM so she had slept long enough! Jessa agreed this was a good reason to wake her up and cheerfully woke up and put on her swimsuit.
The views from the top of the hotel were outstanding. You could see the entire skyline and beyond. This was not just a small pool either. The infinity pool at Marina Bay Sands is located on the 57th floor, and is 146 meters meters long (478 feet). That is the length of about 3 Olympic pools and longer than a football field! The pool is the world’s longest infinity pool and the largest outdoor pool at its height.
We were stopped and asked to present our names, roomkeys, and room number despite having scanned our room keys with a receptionist at the pool entrance. This was part of an effort to prevent any non hotel guests from trying to access the pool or sneaking in. I greatly appreciated this because it prevented the pool from being overcrowded with Instagram influencers or tourists who had snuck past the pool receptionist.
Instead, it felt like we could actually relax and enjoy the pool as it was not crowded. Needless to say, we were there on a Thursday morning at 7am, so I can’t speak for weekend afternoons. After a relaxing morning swim, we headed to the hottubs located on the opposite side of the pool area. The morning had been relaxing and refreshing.
Later that morning, we checked out the Gardens by the Bay, and stopped to grab a quick bite at Jurassic Nest (dinosaur themed hawker center 🤩).
I took a group photo of an elderly church group and answered their questions about what we were doing in Singapore. They loved hearing about all of our adventures. Our next stop.. the Cloud Forest and Flower Dome.
The Cloud Forest was astonishing. As soon as you entered, you were greeted by a massive waterfall (35m/114 ft). From there you took an elevator up to the 6th floor and winded down a skywalk bridge and viewed different trees and foliage from all over the world. It was neat seeing such a large ecosystem indoors.. yet somehow no bugs?
The Flower Dome consisted of large arrangements of flowers from Southeast Asia to South America. They had a special exhibit on roses from the Mediterranean, which brought up fond memories of our sweet neighbor Jane always complimenting our rose bushes back in Colorado. We realized we were glad that our trip was coming to an end and we would soon be back in familiar territory.
After enjoying our visit to the Gardens by the Bay, we made our way to our next hotel, Hotel Pickering by ParkRoyal. You’re probably thinking… 3 different hotels in 4 nights that seems crazy and exhausting. Well, it was crazy but it was the best way to see all the different areas and highlights of Singapore in a very short time.
We loved it! The Pickering hotel was located near Chinatown and the financial district. We walked around and explored Merlion Park and even got some soft serve mango ice cream. It didn’t come close to the fresh mango ice cream in Thailand, but it was still refreshing. We headed our way back to Marina Bay Sands to go on our tour of CUT’s kitchen.
We arrived at CUT shortly after 5PM, and Kelvin came out and greeted us. He took us behind the scenes and even let us meet the chef who grilled our steak the night before! It was awesome meeting the chefs and waiters. The kitchen seemed very calm and relaxed, nothing like what you see in the TV shows. I asked if it ever gets intense like in Hell’s Kitchen or if that’s just for pure entertainment, and they laughed and said we are very good at our job we know what to do. I couldn’t agree more!
After a guided tour, Kelvin offered us to stay for a drink or two and try a couple of his favorite quick bites. He had our bartender create us a couple of Rough Love cocktails. These aren’t your ordinary cocktails. Rough Love is a signature drink of Singapore consisting of Champagne, Tanqueray No. TEN gin, very rare Japanese plum wine mix, and topped off with a raspberry infused ice cube! It tasted incredible and very strong.
Jessa doesn’t drink though. In order to not be rude, we just would give each other a secret signal from a SpongeBob episode, and I’d quietly swap glasses with her once my drink got lower than hers. We repeated this multiple times until I finished both drinks 😂. After the complimentary Waygu sliders and tuna tartare, we were hooked. We told the staff we would be enjoying another meal at the restaurant. This time we enjoyed a corn soup and filet mignon with some onion rings. The steak was even better than the night before, and we left yet again buzzing with flavor.
Our time in Singapore had come to a close, and the grand finale was near! Singapore was a breath of fresh air. It felt a lot more like America than anywhere else we had visited. Everything was in English, and the most common language we heard spoken was English.
The hotels were very luxurious and the views reminded us of our time in Chicago (sweeping panoramic skylines with large bodies of water). The food was excellent and the service was some of the best we have ever experienced. If you’re in Singapore make sure to check out the Colony buffet at the Ritz or CUT by Wolfgang Puck and tell chef Kelvin we send our warmest regards.
