Singapore, Bangkok, Taipei Trip Report
Nov 29th, 2024, 02:15 PM
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Singapore, Bangkok, Taipei Trip Report
November, 2024
Hello Fellow Fodor Travelers,
This is our three-part trip report on our recent two-week trip to Singapore, Bangkok, and Taipei.
We had a terrific time and would to share some of our highlights with you. For context, we are super seniors but relatively fit. On the trip we averaged 8-9 miles of walking a day.
First, we flew United Airlines Polaris Class (business class) from San Francisco to Singapore. The service was fine but nothing remarkable given the price. While the business class seats fold flat for sleeping, they are surprisingly narrow seats. We are average to small size but we think a large person would find the seat and compartment narrow and uncomfortable, but of course, greatly better than economy. The 17.5 hours flight was bearable but the food and inflight entertainment were average at best, so bring a good book or download your own entertainment.
We arrived in Singapore and was greeted by our hotel driver. We stayed at the Park Royal Pickering. It is more expensive to arrange for the hotel to pick us up rather than a taxi or other transportation but after 17.5 hours, it was true luxury to be greeted by the hotel, guided through immigration security and taken to our hotel without a single moment of worry. If you can afford it, we highly recommend doing this. By the way, immigration was fully automated and took just minutes.
The Park Royal Pickering Hotel is a fantastic place. The service and breakfast were first class in every way. It is very well located within easy walk to Chinatown, museums and much more. It is also close to the subway.
Singapore is perhaps the best organized city/state we have ever visited. Crime is basically nonexistent. There is not one piece of litter on the streets and poverty either doesn’t exist or is very well hidden. The people seem very content and relaxed even though by U.S. standards; their personal freedoms are somewhat limited by their government….a trade off for such a well-organized society. Hawker food centers are actually as depicted on the many YouTubes you can watch. They are super clean and the food is really great and cheap. We only went to one fancy restaurant and ate most of our meals at some Hawker center or food mall.
Singapore is also basically one gigantic super shopping mall. They have giant malls everywhere with every world name brand having shops seemingly in every mall…who buys all this stuff? We aren’t shoppers so we can’t help you here.
We hired Leo Loo as a private guide for two days ([email protected]). He was really great. He is native born and grew up during the early development of this city/state so he knows the history first hand. We are history nerds so he took us to many historical sites not usually visited by tourist and gave us a crash course on the history and government of Singapore. He also showed us how to use public transportation and how to eat at the Hawker centers. We did our tour with him by public transportation which was really easy. He was well worth his fees which really wasn’t that much considering the time we saved and all that we learned.
In addition to the popular tourist sites, make sure you roam around the various ethnic communities including Chinatown, Little India, the Malay area, etc. there are so many different groups blended together in one city. The Singapore Botanic Gardens with its world famous National Orchid Garden is well worth a visit.
If you have time, try to spend time at the Singapore airport before you leave the city. It is considered one of the best airports in the world and has a giant waterfall, park area, and of course, a giant shopping mall. For non-shoppers like us, 30-45 minutes walking around was enough, for shoppers, you won’t have enough time to hit all the stores.
On to Bangkok
It was hard to leave Singapore because it was such a peaceful yet bustling city but after five days we left for Bangkok.
Bangkok is also a world class city. It has really advanced in the last forty years since we last visited. It is quite modern with a good and growing subway/skyway system and the traffic is not nearly as bad as its reputation. Like Singapore, much of the tourist areas seem like one giant shopping mall. Again, giant malls were everywhere with every world class brand hosting many shops. They also have a street food culture.
We stayed at the Anantara Siam Hotel which was perfectly located across from a skyway station that linked to the subway system. We also used their airport limo service for easy pickup and delivery. Anantara service was fantastic and we stayed in room that gave us executive lounge privileges that include afternoon tea and evening cocktails AND food that was enough for dinner. Breakfast buffet that came with our room was gigantic and included Asian and European foods.
In Bangkok, we sign on with “A Chef’s Tour” Backstreets food tour of Bangkok. It was amazing. It was limited to 8 people (although they were hosting many groups at a time) and took us to food spots all around Bangkok’s Chinatown area. We tried over 15 different foods at many different locations including a Michelin star dumpling place in a back alley that we would never have found on our own. It wasn’t just tastings, they gave us big helpings of dishes at each stop. We highly recommend this adventure as a safe and health way of experiencing Bangkok Street food.
Our hotel arranged for a private guide to take us on a city tour to see the main highlights including the Grand Palace and several major temples. We toured the Jim Thompson House on our own.
We also hired Nok Thai Tour, a one-woman private guide service to take us out of the city to visit the historic city of Ayutthaya. Nok arranged for a car and driver, picked us up at our hotel, and provided a very informative tour of this ancient site. She also took us to a nice restaurant for lunch.
We were surprised at how developed Bangkok is and how it is working hard to improve transportation, housing and their education system. It was well worth a visit to this city.
On to Taipei
Our next stop was Taipei, Taiwan
Flying into Taipei was again a world class experience. The airport is terrific and like Singapore and Bangkok, immigration took just minutes and was fully automated.
We stayed at the Metropolitan Premier Hotel which was well situated near a subway line. We used the hotel airport limo service here too which saved us time and worry. The hotel was very nice, the breakfast buffet was huge and the executive lounge served cocktail hour food that was enough for dinner if you wanted it to be.
To tour Taipei, we hired a private guide for two days (Martin Lee WhatsApp +886 905 188 365). He was terrific and really knows Taiwan. On day one, he took us on a city tour of the major sites except for the ones we could more easily do on our own. He also introduced us to Taiwan street food. Day two, he drove us to Yehlio Geo Park in Northwest Taiwan which is an amazing geological site. We also visited temples and historic sites around Jiufen but skipped walking round the hilly town of Jiufen because if was a very rainy day. In any case, we had a very nice tour of a small piece of Taiwan outside of Taipei. I think Martin would be an excellent guide for a multi-day trip around the island. We did the National Palace Museum on our own and highly recommend signing up for the free English guided tour of the museum.
On our own, we easily took the very modern subway system to a spa town called Beitou on the outskirts of Taipei. It’s a pleasant place to spend an afternoon or if you want to dip in the hot springs, you can spend more time there. This town maintains some of its Japanese characteristics which are a product of Japanese occupation before WW II.
Taipei is well worth a visit. We are certain that if we had more time, visiting other parts of the island would have been worth a week or more but atlas, we ran out of time.
Please let me know if you have any follow-up questions and I’ll try my best to answer.
Keep traveling,
KS Chan
Hello Fellow Fodor Travelers,
This is our three-part trip report on our recent two-week trip to Singapore, Bangkok, and Taipei.
We had a terrific time and would to share some of our highlights with you. For context, we are super seniors but relatively fit. On the trip we averaged 8-9 miles of walking a day.
First, we flew United Airlines Polaris Class (business class) from San Francisco to Singapore. The service was fine but nothing remarkable given the price. While the business class seats fold flat for sleeping, they are surprisingly narrow seats. We are average to small size but we think a large person would find the seat and compartment narrow and uncomfortable, but of course, greatly better than economy. The 17.5 hours flight was bearable but the food and inflight entertainment were average at best, so bring a good book or download your own entertainment.
We arrived in Singapore and was greeted by our hotel driver. We stayed at the Park Royal Pickering. It is more expensive to arrange for the hotel to pick us up rather than a taxi or other transportation but after 17.5 hours, it was true luxury to be greeted by the hotel, guided through immigration security and taken to our hotel without a single moment of worry. If you can afford it, we highly recommend doing this. By the way, immigration was fully automated and took just minutes.
The Park Royal Pickering Hotel is a fantastic place. The service and breakfast were first class in every way. It is very well located within easy walk to Chinatown, museums and much more. It is also close to the subway.
Singapore is perhaps the best organized city/state we have ever visited. Crime is basically nonexistent. There is not one piece of litter on the streets and poverty either doesn’t exist or is very well hidden. The people seem very content and relaxed even though by U.S. standards; their personal freedoms are somewhat limited by their government….a trade off for such a well-organized society. Hawker food centers are actually as depicted on the many YouTubes you can watch. They are super clean and the food is really great and cheap. We only went to one fancy restaurant and ate most of our meals at some Hawker center or food mall.
Singapore is also basically one gigantic super shopping mall. They have giant malls everywhere with every world name brand having shops seemingly in every mall…who buys all this stuff? We aren’t shoppers so we can’t help you here.
We hired Leo Loo as a private guide for two days ([email protected]). He was really great. He is native born and grew up during the early development of this city/state so he knows the history first hand. We are history nerds so he took us to many historical sites not usually visited by tourist and gave us a crash course on the history and government of Singapore. He also showed us how to use public transportation and how to eat at the Hawker centers. We did our tour with him by public transportation which was really easy. He was well worth his fees which really wasn’t that much considering the time we saved and all that we learned.
In addition to the popular tourist sites, make sure you roam around the various ethnic communities including Chinatown, Little India, the Malay area, etc. there are so many different groups blended together in one city. The Singapore Botanic Gardens with its world famous National Orchid Garden is well worth a visit.
If you have time, try to spend time at the Singapore airport before you leave the city. It is considered one of the best airports in the world and has a giant waterfall, park area, and of course, a giant shopping mall. For non-shoppers like us, 30-45 minutes walking around was enough, for shoppers, you won’t have enough time to hit all the stores.
On to Bangkok
It was hard to leave Singapore because it was such a peaceful yet bustling city but after five days we left for Bangkok.
Bangkok is also a world class city. It has really advanced in the last forty years since we last visited. It is quite modern with a good and growing subway/skyway system and the traffic is not nearly as bad as its reputation. Like Singapore, much of the tourist areas seem like one giant shopping mall. Again, giant malls were everywhere with every world class brand hosting many shops. They also have a street food culture.
We stayed at the Anantara Siam Hotel which was perfectly located across from a skyway station that linked to the subway system. We also used their airport limo service for easy pickup and delivery. Anantara service was fantastic and we stayed in room that gave us executive lounge privileges that include afternoon tea and evening cocktails AND food that was enough for dinner. Breakfast buffet that came with our room was gigantic and included Asian and European foods.
In Bangkok, we sign on with “A Chef’s Tour” Backstreets food tour of Bangkok. It was amazing. It was limited to 8 people (although they were hosting many groups at a time) and took us to food spots all around Bangkok’s Chinatown area. We tried over 15 different foods at many different locations including a Michelin star dumpling place in a back alley that we would never have found on our own. It wasn’t just tastings, they gave us big helpings of dishes at each stop. We highly recommend this adventure as a safe and health way of experiencing Bangkok Street food.
Our hotel arranged for a private guide to take us on a city tour to see the main highlights including the Grand Palace and several major temples. We toured the Jim Thompson House on our own.
We also hired Nok Thai Tour, a one-woman private guide service to take us out of the city to visit the historic city of Ayutthaya. Nok arranged for a car and driver, picked us up at our hotel, and provided a very informative tour of this ancient site. She also took us to a nice restaurant for lunch.
We were surprised at how developed Bangkok is and how it is working hard to improve transportation, housing and their education system. It was well worth a visit to this city.
On to Taipei
Our next stop was Taipei, Taiwan
Flying into Taipei was again a world class experience. The airport is terrific and like Singapore and Bangkok, immigration took just minutes and was fully automated.
We stayed at the Metropolitan Premier Hotel which was well situated near a subway line. We used the hotel airport limo service here too which saved us time and worry. The hotel was very nice, the breakfast buffet was huge and the executive lounge served cocktail hour food that was enough for dinner if you wanted it to be.
To tour Taipei, we hired a private guide for two days (Martin Lee WhatsApp +886 905 188 365). He was terrific and really knows Taiwan. On day one, he took us on a city tour of the major sites except for the ones we could more easily do on our own. He also introduced us to Taiwan street food. Day two, he drove us to Yehlio Geo Park in Northwest Taiwan which is an amazing geological site. We also visited temples and historic sites around Jiufen but skipped walking round the hilly town of Jiufen because if was a very rainy day. In any case, we had a very nice tour of a small piece of Taiwan outside of Taipei. I think Martin would be an excellent guide for a multi-day trip around the island. We did the National Palace Museum on our own and highly recommend signing up for the free English guided tour of the museum.
On our own, we easily took the very modern subway system to a spa town called Beitou on the outskirts of Taipei. It’s a pleasant place to spend an afternoon or if you want to dip in the hot springs, you can spend more time there. This town maintains some of its Japanese characteristics which are a product of Japanese occupation before WW II.
Taipei is well worth a visit. We are certain that if we had more time, visiting other parts of the island would have been worth a week or more but atlas, we ran out of time.
Please let me know if you have any follow-up questions and I’ll try my best to answer.
Keep traveling,
KS Chan
Nov 29th, 2024, 04:27 PM
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Thank you for the trip report.
We’ve never been to Taipei or Taiwan, but have been to Bangkok in Singapore and we truly love Singapore. We found it as you have described it. I would love to go back someday, but it’s such a long flight. I don’t think we will.
I’m glad you had a good time and I’m glad you found Singapore as nice as we did.
We’ve never been to Taipei or Taiwan, but have been to Bangkok in Singapore and we truly love Singapore. We found it as you have described it. I would love to go back someday, but it’s such a long flight. I don’t think we will.
I’m glad you had a good time and I’m glad you found Singapore as nice as we did.
Dec 1st, 2024, 12:48 AM
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Thank you for posting. An interesting perspective on these cities.
Singapore is a city I have visited a few times, usually just for a few days on the way to somewhere else. I have never really taken to the place, it is just way to bland and sterile for my tastes. I guess I just prefer places that are a little more edgy, but that’s just me. My brother in law was there for a few days this year and like you, absolutely loved it! Perhaps I am missing something?
Like you, my first visit to Bangkok was some 40 years ago and yes, how it has changed! Much easier to get around than it once was and I could really do without those shopping malls. Shopping possibly being my leas5 favourite activity when travelling ( or anytime!) . One thing I like about Bangkok is that no matter how many mega malls and skyscrapers they put up you can always walk around a corner and step back a few centuries into a temple or market etc.
Only been to Taiwan the one time and Taipei was easily my favourite city of the three. Agree with your comments re teh street food, arguably the best in Asia. Loved the people, the sights and like you, really wished we had more time there. Indeed , reading your post has got me hankering for a return trip. Thanks again for posting.
Singapore is a city I have visited a few times, usually just for a few days on the way to somewhere else. I have never really taken to the place, it is just way to bland and sterile for my tastes. I guess I just prefer places that are a little more edgy, but that’s just me. My brother in law was there for a few days this year and like you, absolutely loved it! Perhaps I am missing something?
Like you, my first visit to Bangkok was some 40 years ago and yes, how it has changed! Much easier to get around than it once was and I could really do without those shopping malls. Shopping possibly being my leas5 favourite activity when travelling ( or anytime!) . One thing I like about Bangkok is that no matter how many mega malls and skyscrapers they put up you can always walk around a corner and step back a few centuries into a temple or market etc.
Only been to Taiwan the one time and Taipei was easily my favourite city of the three. Agree with your comments re teh street food, arguably the best in Asia. Loved the people, the sights and like you, really wished we had more time there. Indeed , reading your post has got me hankering for a return trip. Thanks again for posting.
