You land in Singapore Friday and have no work till Monday
Discussion
Don't underestimate the impact of jetlag heading east. I'd take the weekend to relax locally, acclimatise and get ready for work. A 36 hour trip to Vietnam straight off a long-haul flight sounds like a great idea on paper but chances are you'll be shattered on Monday morning.
If you haven't been to Bintan or Batam they are an easy boat trip and worth a look. Bintan for the chilled beach vibe, Batam for the Indo city experience.
If you haven't been to Bintan or Batam they are an easy boat trip and worth a look. Bintan for the chilled beach vibe, Batam for the Indo city experience.
plenty said:
Don't underestimate the impact of jetlag heading east. I'd take the weekend to relax locally, acclimatise and get ready for work. A 36 hour trip to Vietnam straight off a long-haul flight sounds like a great idea on paper but chances are you'll be shattered on Monday morning.
I landed in Seoul Saturday morning, and was looking forward to doing lots of things: Puppy cafes being one of them. I just wanted to have a quick nap first and woke up Sunday evening. I wasn't impressed.Have you really done everything in Singapore? I'm there often so here some of the things I do to fill the weekends. dont know what you're in to, so some could be wide of the mark.
- The historical museum trio that really helps you understand how Singapore came about and it's culture / geo-politics today. These are (best done in this order) the Heritage House in Chinatown, then the Ford Factory then the Fort Canning bunkers.
- Rent a bicycle and cycle around the entire country. This is known as RTI (just search google and strava). There's even meet up groups that do this. I do this often, and sometime use a warm up route from the marina area (where I'm normally staying) down to the barrage, across, along east coast park, around back of Changi reclaim to Changi park and back again, only 80km and all flat.
- Nice long, warm, walks. A recent favorite of mine is starting at the north point of the ridge parks and work down them all, then along the roads to Chinatown, look around the shops, and back to the Marina area. About 20km.
- Day trip to Malaysia JB to play golf. This is a common thing and you'll easily find drivers that'll take you there and back in a relatively comfortable Vellfire. I'm usually under £100 for the day including golf with buggy and caddie.
- Day trip to the tiny island of Ubin. You can walk around it or hire a mountain bike. There's wild pigs / boar that scare the crap out of you and huge monitor lizards.
- Walk around McRitchie reservoir. Common for locals, good place to see monkies.
- Day trip on a boat to Batam (Indonesia). good restaurants there with Chili Crab as good as Singapore but a fraction of the price. It's also a duty free island so lots of SG locals go there to stock up, but like a Calais booze cruise 20 years ago.
- Weekend away to Bintan, again on the boat. Plenty of resorts there, beach, spa, golf, etc.
- Weekend in Malaysia diving. The easiest islands to get to are off Mersing. I went to Sea Gypsy Village Resort & Dive Base and found the diving nice but quite easy as it's relatively shallow. Snorkling possible too, or just sitting on a beach.
Personally I rarely go flying off to other parts of Indochina, partly coz I've been to most of it and partly coz it's tiring and I'm supposed to be relaxed and ready to work Monday morning.
Another game I play on work travel to that region is to stop the weekend in the middle somewhere, eg Dubai. Last did it in March with Dubai to catch the end of the Expo, and it did wonders for the jetlag, 4 hours each hop which is almost seamless compared to 8 hours in a one-er.
A final Singapore tip, I've tried pizza in almost every outlet on the island, the best (imo) is Pizza Fabbrica on Haji Lane. For evening drinking I've become a bit of a regular at The Single Cask in Chimes.
- The historical museum trio that really helps you understand how Singapore came about and it's culture / geo-politics today. These are (best done in this order) the Heritage House in Chinatown, then the Ford Factory then the Fort Canning bunkers.
- Rent a bicycle and cycle around the entire country. This is known as RTI (just search google and strava). There's even meet up groups that do this. I do this often, and sometime use a warm up route from the marina area (where I'm normally staying) down to the barrage, across, along east coast park, around back of Changi reclaim to Changi park and back again, only 80km and all flat.
- Nice long, warm, walks. A recent favorite of mine is starting at the north point of the ridge parks and work down them all, then along the roads to Chinatown, look around the shops, and back to the Marina area. About 20km.
- Day trip to Malaysia JB to play golf. This is a common thing and you'll easily find drivers that'll take you there and back in a relatively comfortable Vellfire. I'm usually under £100 for the day including golf with buggy and caddie.
- Day trip to the tiny island of Ubin. You can walk around it or hire a mountain bike. There's wild pigs / boar that scare the crap out of you and huge monitor lizards.
- Walk around McRitchie reservoir. Common for locals, good place to see monkies.
- Day trip on a boat to Batam (Indonesia). good restaurants there with Chili Crab as good as Singapore but a fraction of the price. It's also a duty free island so lots of SG locals go there to stock up, but like a Calais booze cruise 20 years ago.
- Weekend away to Bintan, again on the boat. Plenty of resorts there, beach, spa, golf, etc.
- Weekend in Malaysia diving. The easiest islands to get to are off Mersing. I went to Sea Gypsy Village Resort & Dive Base and found the diving nice but quite easy as it's relatively shallow. Snorkling possible too, or just sitting on a beach.
Personally I rarely go flying off to other parts of Indochina, partly coz I've been to most of it and partly coz it's tiring and I'm supposed to be relaxed and ready to work Monday morning.
Another game I play on work travel to that region is to stop the weekend in the middle somewhere, eg Dubai. Last did it in March with Dubai to catch the end of the Expo, and it did wonders for the jetlag, 4 hours each hop which is almost seamless compared to 8 hours in a one-er.
A final Singapore tip, I've tried pizza in almost every outlet on the island, the best (imo) is Pizza Fabbrica on Haji Lane. For evening drinking I've become a bit of a regular at The Single Cask in Chimes.
Dont try crossing to Malaysia by road on the weekend, at the moment the que can be horrendous, traffic to Mersing is awful. I'm told that if you must cross the causeway, it is best to use the shuttle bus, not a taxi as these can jump the traffic que.
After a long flight, for the weekend best place is Bingtang easy ferry.
I live on the Desaru coast, there is a ferry direct from Sing on the weekend, maybe worth looking at, i've never used it because I avoid Sing like the plague.
After a long flight, for the weekend best place is Bingtang easy ferry.
I live on the Desaru coast, there is a ferry direct from Sing on the weekend, maybe worth looking at, i've never used it because I avoid Sing like the plague.
I've done the crossing to JB a few times in recent months (last time 3 weeks ago). There are busy times, but it's not always. Sat am getting out SG was zero delay, a few weeks ago on an early Sunday am was about 10 mins queue, coming back on Sunday mid-pm was a 1 hour queue. I mostly used the Tuas crossing. The drivers of the cars I use know the best times and crossings to use.
Using a bus can result in being put off the bus to go in to a building to queue through the checkpoints, and customs searches tend to be longer on buses. You'll also find a lot of cars going down the bus lane clogging it up and pushing back in to the car line later (although saw some cars being sent to the back of the queue by officials on the SG the other week when they did this).
However I agree that the boat to Indo is more reliably quicker and probably much nicer.
Using a bus can result in being put off the bus to go in to a building to queue through the checkpoints, and customs searches tend to be longer on buses. You'll also find a lot of cars going down the bus lane clogging it up and pushing back in to the car line later (although saw some cars being sent to the back of the queue by officials on the SG the other week when they did this).
However I agree that the boat to Indo is more reliably quicker and probably much nicer.
boxst said:
plenty said:
Don't underestimate the impact of jetlag heading east. I'd take the weekend to relax locally, acclimatise and get ready for work. A 36 hour trip to Vietnam straight off a long-haul flight sounds like a great idea on paper but chances are you'll be shattered on Monday morning.
I landed in Seoul Saturday morning, and was looking forward to doing lots of things: Puppy cafes being one of them. I just wanted to have a quick nap first and woke up Sunday evening. I wasn't impressed.HotJambalaya said:
Honestly I'd stroll around and try and find the best chicken rice around. My absolute favourite.
Shortage of good chicken at the moment apparently. Go to combat Durian on rangoon rd. then have some intestines next door after. If you don’t eat all the durian it’s ok they vac pack it for take away. Berw said:
Dont try crossing to Malaysia by road on the weekend, at the moment the que can be horrendous, traffic to Mersing is awful. I'm told that if you must cross the causeway, it is best to use the shuttle bus, not a taxi as these can jump the traffic que.
After a long flight, for the weekend best place is Bingtang easy ferry.
I live on the Desaru coast, there is a ferry direct from Sing on the weekend, maybe worth looking at, i've never used it because I avoid Sing like the plague.
There is a train crossing now into JB Sentral. Takes about 10 minutes from Marseling After a long flight, for the weekend best place is Bingtang easy ferry.
I live on the Desaru coast, there is a ferry direct from Sing on the weekend, maybe worth looking at, i've never used it because I avoid Sing like the plague.
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