Tree Tunnel, Chinatown, Pagoda Street and More

Hi hive! I realized I was not able to finish my Singapore Blog series, I was only up to the murals part so today, I am going to share with you what we did on our fourth day in this country.

I had been wanting to visit the Fort Canning Park Tree Tunnel since the previous day but we were not able to insert it on our itinerary so we did that on our fourth day instead and it was just me, my husband, and my little one as the seniors, my parents were tired and just decided to stay in the hotel.

Taking the bus, we reached the National Museum in no time, it was actually a short ride, and then walked towards the tunnel. We were at the top so we thought there were no other people downstairs as it was also a little silent but then when we walked down, we saw a long line, it was packed with people who were waiting for their turn!

So we decided to just take photos from below and leave. People were so patient as the first in line takes their time. There were families, couples, and even seniors getting their portraits taken here. I won't blame them, the place was certainly Instagrammable!

As for us, we can't wait for a long time to just take photos of ourselves there so I just got a few shots of the tunnel, my lens wasn't wide enough to capture the entire tunnel though.

Got a few shots and then we were off to the next spot! We passed by the Fort Canning Park itself and the Hotel Fort Canning as well.

You might wonder where's Matti, actually, he was sleeping the entire time. We went out of the hotel early so that we could get the most out of our last day in Singapore. One of our friends also wanted to meet us that afternoon so we were trying our best to get back to our hotel before the day ends.

Our next destination was China Town. We took the bus again to get here although I wanted to use the train, we decided it is better and I like to see the surrounding while traveling so we hopped into a bus, I couldn't remember anymore which bus was it but if you are in Singapore, you can use Google Maps to figure out which is the best transportation going to your destination.

Upon arriving, we were greeted by these colorful buildings. I have seen them during our bus rides but it's quite amazing to really see them up front. These are like townhouses, with each building having its own respective colors. I find it really cool.

But one of the things that I really noticed while walking down the streets of Chinatown was the presence of so many murals which depict the life of the locals or even the immigrants in this fishing country. I shared the numerous murals that we spotted while walking around. It was midday already and our little one woke up and he wanted his father to carry him around. I guess my husband lost a couple of pounds while touring around as he had a heavy backpack too!

This one below was one of those which has a whole building wall and these street arts will somehow give you the impression that they are real. The artists really did so well with what they do. I wonder if there's a group of artists who does this to the walls or perhaps the building owners are doing it themselves? One of the things I noticed in Singapore is that they have so many schools of arts too.

Nearby our hotel, there were so many schools and even when we were in a bus in transit, we could see high buildings with a sign of it being an art school.

It was time for lunch so we dined in at a Chinese restaurant just nearby the area, this was supposed to be a hawker's corner but we decided to get inside an uncrowded restaurant. It was just us and it was air-conditioned so it gave us an hour of rest.

After lunch, we went ahead and were just following wherever our feet would take us. Thankfully, the little one agreed to sit on his stroller! There's an advantage when we have the stroller as we can put our bags as well and would give our backs relief.

We reached the Chinatown MRT station, here's a very familiar spot as it was where one of the scenes of the movie Crazy Rich Asians was filmed. And I have to up here because there's a nice view from the top. One of the spots which I wanted to have photos of but the stairs were giving my husband a hard time as we have our little boy in the stroller so I decided to go up by myself instead and just took photos of the view.

Alright, off we go to our next destination. So, actually, we were just here for the view, perhaps also to experience how Chinatown looks like here in Singapore and for sure, you'll see a lot of restaurants, sidewalk vendors are all around the place, there were so many Chinese signs, lanterns, lights, I bet it's bright here at night.

But don't miss Pagoda Street which is the best go-to place in Singapore for souvenir shopping. There are so many traditional heritage shophouses with a stunning backdrop. There are many cafés and coffee shops in addition to the traditional Chinese hawker stall.

Another thing that I regret not doing while in Singapore was exploring the country at night. Because we are usually tired from all the walking during the morning and afternoon, going to our hotel and having rest was what we preferred when night time comes. And it's just challenging to be traveling with a toddler but we love this experience, we would definitely sacrifice other things for rest.

Anyway, we were looking for the temple at this point. We are still astonished by the murals we see at various corners. If you want to capture murals and street art in Singapore, you won't have a hard time, just make sure to be very vigilant when walking as most of them are on the inner sides of the buildings. A wide lens is also very handy because since they are in corners, we can't move back, without a wide lens, it would be so hard to capture the entire mural view.

Finally, we reached Smith street, I love that the isle here is shaded so we stopped here for a little while to just keep ourselves from the heat! THere are so many restaurants here and the buildings are still consistent with their colors.

And so, that's the first half of the day, we finally reached the temple. I'll share more of what happened to the rest of our day as well as the places we've been to that evening because we were given the chance to go out away from the city into the Night Safari. That will be for another blog article. See you next time! Thanks for reading!