FAB Singapore Day 1 | A day at Jewel Changi
The first instalment of our mini travel blog series for Singapore, covering food and beyond!
FAB is our travel blog series where we cover everything food and beyond during our travels
This is the first instalment of our new mini travel blog series called FAB - short for "food and beyond". The inception of this was fairly straight forward - there's lots of non-food related photos we take during our travels, so why not share them and document our travels? If anything, it'll be fun for Paige and I to look back on this, years later.
Anywho! We visited Singapore in late April 2022. We were fortunate enough to travel mid 2021 to Brisbane, but travelling internationally hits a little differently (the last time we travelled internationally together was in late 2018!).
Pre-departure
We found cheap flights via my favourite website, OzBargain. OzBargain has been a website I've used religiously since discovering it around 10 years ago during uni. We managed to fly Singapore Airlines for around $500 AUD return.
This Singapore trip was slightly impulsive. At the time of booking (late March 2022) I did consider other Asian countries like Korea and Thailand, but pre-departure testing requirements meant we would have to do a PCR test (anywhere from $150 upwards). Singapore's testing requirements at the time accepted ARTs (sounds cooler than RAT, don't you think?) to be allowed. The cost of a verified "ART" was $40 at Pharmacy777.
Fast-forward to May 2022, pre-departure testing requirements have been removed for fully vaccinated travellers entering Singapore. We also had to fill out some vaccination documentation as well. For more info on pre-departure requirements, check out the Singaporean Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
To pay for things, we used our ANZ Reward Travel Adventures (not sponsored) which we signed up for years ago when they offered a free return domestic flight every year. My backup card was my Macquarie Platinum Debit Card (also not sponsored). Both cards I used offer no foreign exchange fees, making it great for purchases and the Macquarie card allows for cash withdrawals from ATMs with minimal fees. We carried some cash as some places in Singapore still are cash only (e.g. hawker centres).
Day 1 | Departure & Jewel Changi
SQ224
Our flight was scheduled for 6:30am Perth time. We got to the airport around 3:45 am, just under Singapore Airlines' recommendation to arrive 3 hours before the flight. Check-in went smoothly and took just under 30 minutes. We'd suggest having your vaccination documentation ready before you get to the counter as the check-in assistant will ask to see it (though if you're unable to produce it at the counter, you'll just be required to complete it before passing through immigration in Singapore).
With our luggage checked-in, we made our way for immigration, only to notice a big queue. As we approached the immigration area, we noticed everyone was waiting for.. it to open. After a quick search on the Perth sub-Reddit, we learned immigration would only open at 5 am. Makes sense, I suppose, given our flight, literally was the first flight of the day (probably doesn't make sense to keep immigration open between 1 am and 5 am) .
Eventually just before 5 am, some staff walked through and the doors were unlocked. We breezed through immigration and security and killed around an hour of time before boarding.
It wasn't long til we were met with Singapore Airlines' familiar cabin and their iconic in-flight safety video.
Around 90 minutes into the flight we were served our breakfast. Having flown a number of times with SQ, both economy and once even business class, I'm always pretty happy with their food offerings. There's something nostalgic about the cutely packed airplane food which is almost like a set meal.
We landed a couple minutes ahead of schedule in Terminal 3. On walking out, I spotted one of SQ's A380-800s and it excited the inner engineer / avgeek in me (a feat of engineering).
Around 45 minutes later, we were through customs and out in the public facing part of the airport. The plan for our first day was to spend our day at Jewel Changi. But first, we had to source a SIM card.
You can get SIM cards at currency exchange places in the airport and you're required to show your passport on purchase. There's a number of affordable options for travellers staying in Singapore for a week. The Singtel SIM we went with gave us a healthy 100GB of data for a week. The physical card doubles as an EzLink (the Singaporean equivalent to our SmartRider) and also came with $3 credit and some discounts for some tourist attractions too. Keep in mind to have some cash handy as they may not accept your credit card.
During our visit, like many places in the world, we were required to check-in to places. Singapore's app TraceTogether app features cute animated otters which bounced left to right. We could only set it up after we cleared immigration as it would pull your passport info from their system.
Jewel Changi
It was probably a good 10 - 15 minute walk from Changi Airport T3 to Jewel Changi, which was made a little more difficult with our luggage and a long, continuous slightly uphill path.
You'll eventually see the massive engineering feat that Jewel Changi is. The first stop at Jewel was to drop off our luggage. It was around $15 SGD for each piece of luggage to be stored.
Lunch @ Shake Shack
Our first meal in Singapore was at Shake Shack. The first and last time had it was at the Roppongi, Tokyo branch of Shake Shack. My first visit to Jewel Changi months after it originally opened in early 2019 and even then, Shake Shack had long lines. Understandable, as Shake Shack Changi was the first Shake Shack to open in Singapore. Since then, half a dozen branches have opened up around the country.
Both the burgers were delicious, but the favourite for us was the Shake Stack which featured the best of both worlds - their fried portobello mushroom and the beef patty in the one burger.
The fries were deliciously cheesy yet not too heavy. Shake Shack didn't feel too heavy afterwards, unlike some other burgers which put you into a food coma.
The next couple hours were dedicated to exploring Jewel and checking out some of our favourite stories which we don't have here in Perth like Muji, Tokyu Hands, Baggage Station (I do enjoy browsing r/EDC) and Turtle (where Paige bought a bunch of homeware stuff).
Afternoon Snack @ Song Fa Bak Kut Teh
As a quick afternoon snack, we stopped by Song Fa Bak Kut Tek - a Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand awarded Teochew-style bak kut teh.
Another afternoon snack @ Dunkin Donuts
To relieve Paige's childhood nostalgia cravings, we swung by Dunkin Donuts for a couple chocolate pudding-filled donuts.
We'd shop and explorer for a couple more hours and before making a pit-stop at Starbucks to rest our feet and enjoy a couple "dessert drinks" (there are very limited free public seating in shopping malls in Asia).
Fun fact - this shot is composed of 18 shots, stitched together to form one panorama.
Wait til 8 pm for the light show!
We somehow killed more time and caught the Rain Vortex light show at 8 pm, before grabbing dinner. The show runs at 8 pm and 9 pm Monday to Thursday. On Friday to Sunday, public holidays and public holiday eves, there is also a 10 pm show.
Check out the link for more information.
Dinner @ Tsuta
We had dinner at Tsuta Japanese Soba Noodles - the world's first Michelin-starred ramen eatery. Our favourite bowl of ramen would be their unique crab soba. Admittedly, $24 with an extra $4 or so (service charges and tax amount to 17%), is pretty expensive for a bowl of ramen though.
Dessert @ Kane Mochi
We'd finish a reasonable day of eating with ice-cream mochi at Kane Mochi.
To read more about Kane Mochi, check out our article.
Pekopeko Eats
To the hotel!
We picked up some snacks and water from FairPrice downstairs and went to retrieve our bags.
By 9:45 pm, we were knackered and had a little trouble "escaping" Jewel Changi. There wasn't a direct path to get to the ride sharing pick up area, but then we realised we had to exit Jewel and enter Terminal 1, in order to get to the T1 pick-up. We ordered a Grab (which bought over Uber in Singapore) and made our way to the hotel.
We ended up checking into our hotel around an hour later. We decided to stay at Yotel in Orchard. The location was great - being just minutes walk away from Ion Orchard and is surrounded by a bunch of food options like Isetan and Food Republic. The room was certainly on the smaller side (imagine a hotel room slightly bigger than the typical size of a Tokyo hotel room) but it was clean and it had some pretty decent views on the 🚽.
By the time we hit they hay, we managed to amass around 20,000 steps. Not bad for the first day!
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