Singapore

The work trip that became our holiday

Singapore had been on my travel list for a long time, but somehow it took until 2023 for me to finally get there.

The opportunity came through work. I had an office trip to Singapore in March 2023, and for the first few days it was exactly that — a work trip. I flew from Chennai on 6 March and spent the first three days focused on the official part of the visit.

But I had a plan for what would happen after that.

Pragati would come to Singapore on 9 March.

That changed the character of the trip completely. What had started as another office journey became a small holiday for the two of us. I had already begun discovering Singapore on my own, but from the moment I went to Changi Airport to receive Pragati, the city felt different.

Before heading to the hotel, we stopped at Jewel Changi Airport. Changi itself is one of those places that has become a landmark, and Jewel adds another dimension to the airport experience. It was a fitting introduction to a city that seemed to combine infrastructure, design and everyday convenience unusually well.

Singapore would eventually become a frequent destination for me because of work. But this particular visit remained special because it was the first time I experienced it as a place of travel with Pragati.

Seeing Singapore from above

One of the things we wanted to do was go to the top of Marina Bay Sands. We bought the tickets and went up for the view.

Singapore is beautiful from the ground. The skyline, the buildings, the waterfront and the way the city is organized all make an impression when you move through it. But seeing it from above takes that experience to another level.

From that height, the city becomes something you can almost read as a whole. The buildings, roads, water and carefully planned spaces fit together in a way that is difficult to appreciate when you are standing among them.

For me, that was the real pleasure of going up Marina Bay Sands. It was not simply about standing at a famous viewpoint. It was about seeing a city that already looked impressive at street level suddenly become a completely different picture from above.

The light show we almost missed

There was another experience at Marina Bay Sands that became memorable precisely because it was not planned properly.

When I was in Singapore alone before Pragati arrived, I had already heard about the evening light show around Gardens by the Bay. I tried to find it with a colleague, but we were not lucky. We could not figure out exactly where to go and completely missed it.

A few days later, Pragati and I were walking around Marina Bay Sands. We were getting hungry, and while looking for something to eat we happened to head towards Gardens by the Bay. We found a place where we could have a burger and coffee and, almost by accident, ended up near an area where people were gathering.

Only then did we realize what was about to happen.

The lights came on.

We had not planned this second attempt at all. We had simply been walking around, looking for food, and had happened to arrive at the right place at the right time.

The show began, and we were pleasantly surprised.

It was one of those small travel moments that stays with you because of the way it happened. I had deliberately tried to find the show a few days earlier and failed. With Pragati, we found it without really looking for it.

The giant tree-like structures of Gardens by the Bay were already impressive to Pragati. Seeing them illuminated in the evening made the place even more striking. What could easily have been just another item on a sightseeing list became one of the moments we would remember from Singapore.

The Singapore of icons

There are some places in Singapore that almost everyone visiting for the first time will encounter.

Marina Bay Sands is one. The Merlion Park is another.

We visited Merlion Park too. The Merlion has become one of those instantly recognizable symbols of Singapore, and seeing it in person is almost part of the introduction to the city.

But there is another place that has a completely different kind of importance for an Indian traveller — Mustafa Centre.

If you asked a South Indian traveller which is more important, Merlion Park or Mustafa Centre, I think we all know the answer.

We spent significant time at Mustafa, walking around and shopping. There was a time when India’s economy was much less open than it is today, and people travelling to Singapore often returned with items from places like Mustafa as souvenirs for relatives, friends and themselves.

For many Indian travellers, therefore, Mustafa was not just another shopping centre. It represented access to things that were less easily available back home. Walking through it brought some of that older memory of Singapore travel back to me.

Little India added another familiar dimension to the city, while Chinatown offered a very different cultural setting. We also visited malls including VivoCity and Bugis Junction.

Singapore managed to feel international without becoming difficult to navigate.

Getting around

One of the things I particularly appreciated was the public transport system.

It was easy to use trains and buses, and the ability to move around with a common transport card made getting from one part of the city to another simple. There was very little sense that a taxi or private car was necessary for ordinary sightseeing.

That convenience changes the way you experience a city. When public transport is reliable and straightforward, you can simply decide to go somewhere and go. There is less friction between wanting to see something and actually reaching it.

Singapore was exceptionally clean and organized, but what impressed me was that this organization did not feel like an obstacle to living in the city. It seemed to make movement easier.

A small problem at Universal Studios

We also visited Universal Studios Singapore.

The park itself was good, but we encountered one surprisingly practical problem: food.

Singapore had otherwise been an easy destination for us from a vegetarian-food perspective. Indian vegetarian food was readily available, and food in the city was never really a concern. Universal Studios was different.

There were plenty of restaurants, but many of the options were Malaysian, Singaporean or Chinese, with menus that were predominantly non-vegetarian. Finding something suitable for us was therefore harder than we expected.

It was a small problem, but it was also a reminder that even in a city where vegetarian Indian food is easy to find, a particular tourist attraction can be a completely different experience.

Singapore and Dubai

Having lived in Dubai and travelled there many times, I naturally found myself comparing Singapore with it.

I would rate Singapore even above Dubai.

Pragati would disagree with me. For her, Dubai is still the better city.

My own description of Singapore is that it is almost like Dubai without the harsh summer. It has the modern infrastructure, organization, cleanliness and sense of a carefully built city, but the climate makes being outdoors and moving around much more pleasant for much of the year.

That comparison is obviously personal. Cities are not really competitions, and Dubai has its own character that Singapore cannot reproduce. But having experienced both, Singapore felt like a place where the same love of modernity and organization existed alongside a greener and more tropical environment.

The beginning, not the end

Looking back, the March 2023 trip was unusual because it was both an ending and a beginning.

It ended the first part of my Singapore experience as a work-only destination. For those first few days, I was there because my office had sent me.

Then Pragati arrived, and Singapore became a place we could explore together.

We went to Marina Bay Sands, Gardens by the Bay, Merlion Park, Little India, Chinatown and Universal Studios. We shopped at Mustafa and visited malls such as VivoCity and Bugis Junction. We used the city’s excellent public transport and discovered some things deliberately and others entirely by accident.

The light show at Gardens by the Bay was perhaps the perfect example. I had tried to find it when I was alone and failed. With Pragati, we stumbled upon it while looking for food.

That is often how travel works. The things we carefully plan are not always the things we remember most. Sometimes a wrong turn, an unplanned walk or simply being in the right place at the right time creates the stronger memory.

Singapore had been on my list for years. When I finally got there, it arrived through work, just as Australia had years earlier. But unlike Australia, I did not have to finish the personal part of the journey alone. Pragati came to join me, and that made this first Singapore trip particularly special.

I did not know then that I would return to Singapore many more times because of work.

So this was not really the end of my Singapore travels.

It was the beginning.