We left the hostel at a quarter before 6PM. I wanted to spend the sunset / dusk at Singapore’s most iconic landmark, the statue of the Merlion found at the mouth of the Singapore River.

Got off at the Raffles Place MRT Station and started walking towards the River. The first recognizable landmark we passed by was the historic Fullerton Hotel. There were a lot of luxury cars parked at the front. It was the F1 season (Fomula 1 Night Race) in Singapore.

Car junkies around the world flock to Singapore at this time. I’ve spent hours playing NFS and I admit it was kinda cool to have the game realized in a real megacity like Singapore. The streets around Marina Bay were blocked off because it was used as a race track for the night race. I can only imagine the thrill of speeding through skyscrapers and thousands of spectators.


Fullerton Hotel Singapore

We found out that our visit coincided with the F1 race too late and did not bother getting tickets. Our main goal was sightseeing anyways. The road blocks kinda threw our itinerary off a bit, especially because we weren’t familiar with the place. We had to take long detours to simply cross to the other side of the street. I was planning on covering a lot of places that afternoon but we ended up only going to the area from One Fullterton to the Merlion.


Statues alongthe Singapore River

It was odd to find out that the sky was still bright even though it was already past 6PM. The sunset in Singapore happened an hour later than what I was used to at home. Dusk settled in at around 7PM. In the Philippines, it would’ve been very dark by then.


Underground passageway between Fullerton Hotel and one Fullerton

Marina Bay

The waterfront area in front of One Fullerton had a great view of the Marina Bay Sands complex. From there, it was a short walk to the Merlion.


Marina Bay Sands Singapore


Lotus-shaped ArtScience Museum at the Marina Bay Sands 


One Fullerton at Dusk

Singapore Merlion

We made it to the Merlion just in time for dusk. It looked really great with the backdrop of Singapore’s Skyscrapers and iconic buildings such as the durian-shaped Esplanade building.


Singapore’s Merlion and the Esplanade


The Merion with the Singapore Skyline

I loved being a pedestrian in Singapore because it looked so beautiful at street level. The streets were very clean, lined with a lot of greens, and filled with interesting architectures.

Singapore also has one of the most famous skylines in the world. I think it’s beautifully well-planned. It was nice to see all the tall buildings clustered up in just one area but I was somehow not totally blown away. On a wide shot, the skyline silhouette wasn’t so impressive because there wasn’t an iconic supertall building dominating the skyline. I understand this is because there’s a maximum building height cap implemented in Singapore.

Singapore Night Safari

Our last stop that night was the Singapore Night Safari. We took the MRT to Ang Mo Kio station and got on a 30-minute bus ride to the Night Safari.


Ang Mo Kio MRT Station


Entering the Night Safari

Wasn’t able to take a lot of photos because it was really hard to take shots at night. Especially on the moving tram ride at the Singapore Night Safari. Resolved to kicking it back and just enjoy the experience.


Blurry shots during the Night Safari tram ride

I think it wouldn’t have been such a loss if we had not gone to the Night Safari. I would probably enjoy a day visit to the nearby Singapore Zoo more.

We went around the park until almost closing time and hopped on a bus going to the city center. The bus dropped us off at Little India and then we walked all the way to Bugis.