April 8, 2018: Marina Sands Hotel/The Gardens by the Bay
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Today, we are scheduled to fly from Seoul to Singapore on the third leg of our Singapore Airlines flight from Dallas to Singapore (the first two being Dallas-to-Los Angeles and Los Angeles-to-Seoul). Our flight leaves Seoul at 9AM and will arrive in Singapore at 230PM. We don't know how much time that will give us to see stuff this afternoon; we shall see.

Flying to Singapore

Today's plane flight won't be anything like getting to Seoul; the trip will only be half as long- a bit over five-and-a-half hours as opposed to more than eleven.

We had the Ibis front desk put in a call to the taxi driver who'd brought us to the hotel from the airport originally, and he picked us up at the hotel a little after six in the morning. We could have left a bit later, as there wasn't much traffic at that time of the morning, but as it turned out we needed a fair amount of time at Incheon Airport for checking our bags and going through customs and security.

The Seoul airport was, of course, entirely new since my time here, and I took some pictures outside:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

I got a bit of a surprise here at the Seoul airport, seeing something I hadn't expected to see at all.

Adding Another Store to My List

My hunt for Baskin-Robbins stores has slowed down almost to a stop in recent years, as I rarely travel to places I haven't been before and, when I do, I am occupied with other pursuits than trying to find all the stores. (If you aren't familiar with my odyssey involving Baskin-Robbins, you can find much of the story in the album pages for 1979 or on my personal home page.)

As we were walking down the concourse to get to our gate, I passed a store, and of course had to stop and get a scoop of ice cream so I could add the location to my list. Fortunately, the store took my credit card, as I had given my last Korean currency to our taxi driver.

But by eight or so we were sitting at the gate for our flight, using the airport's wifi and checking email and stuff like that. We boarded the plane about eight-thirty, and took off right on time. Fred usually takes pictures when we fly, but it was overcast this morning and by the time we'd gotten very high, we were in, and then above, the clouds.

Singapore Airlines once again provided very nice service down to Singapore. This time, we had a little section of two seats and so didn't have to worry about someone sitting between us. We had basically the same entertainment system we had coming across the Pacific, so we watched the movies we missed. Just about two-thirty we were coming in for a landing at Changi Airport.

We both knew, from our planning, that Singapore was one of the most efficient cities on earth- and also one of the cleanest. (When chewing gum was discarded on sidewalks or streets, the city simply banned it; it is now illegal to chew gum in public.) So we were prepared when the airport lived up to its reputation as being quick and efficient. Less than 45 minutes after landing we were in the taxi queue, having also gotten some money changed.

We also knew ahead of time that the taxi ride into the city and to the hotel would cost $30 and take about 40 minutes; again, we not surprised that the ride cost exactly that and took almost exactly 40 minutes.

Our ride took us on an expressway (more like a broad boulevard with limited access roads) that ran right along the coast with the Straits of Singapore- through an area called East Coast Park.

The area reminded us both very much of Miami, with tall white apartments and condos on one side of the boulevard and parkland and water on the other. Our driver, who was quite chatty and liked to use his quite-good English, pointed out that the area was one of the most desirable areas in the city to live, and from the way it looked we could very much believe him.

He was quite familiar with the location of the Ibis on Bencoolen, and took us right to it. We told him where our friends were staying and he pointed out where their hotel was as we went near to it. The Ibis has a rear porte-cochere for automobiles and taxis; there is no stopping or parking on Bencoolen itself.

The Ibis Bencoolen

As you may be aware, Fred and I have stayed in two Ibis hotels before this one in Singapore. Last year, when we visited Prague, we stayed in an Ibis there, and, of course, we were in one just last night in Seoul.

At left is a 3D aerial view of the Ibis on Bencoolen hotel (courtesy of Google Maps) and the area right around it. Our room was on the 12th floor, nicely high up, and on the far side of the hotel in this picture. If we had been on the same floor on the near side of the hotel, we might have been able to see the Marina Bay Sands hotel in the distance.

Check-in was accomplished quickly at the reception desk:

The lobby was very spacious, running the length of the building.

Standing with my back to the reception desk, I am looking southwest through the lobby, and the auto entrance is to my left. It seems as if all the Ibis hotels have a separate desk in the lobby for check-in for their loyalty program participants, and this one was no exception (although I never saw anyone use it).

The windows open out along Bencoolen Street, and past the first set of doors there is the usual little Internet access place for business and other travelers who don't bring laptops, and then the elevator lobby is to the left.

Beyond that there was a large bar and restaurant, although we didn't avail ourselves of either while we were here.

The Ibis Hotels, we have found, fill a niche that isn't really filled in the United States. Here, you can either stay in a full-service hotel (one with all the amenities like a bar and restaurant, laundry, an Internet "cafe", swimming pool and fitness center) and pay a full-service price, or you can stay in a budget hotel, forego those amenities, and pay a budget price. But you can't find a full-service hotel at a budget price- and particularly not right downtown in a large city.

The Ibis hotels have all the amenities (at least all three of the ones we've stayed in have), but they provide them at a budget prices ($68 in the case of the Ibis on Bencoolen, $72 in the case of the Ibis Insadong, and $78 for the Ibis in Prague). One way they do this is by keeping the rooms plain and simple.

At left is our room (before we threw all our luggage around), and this room was striking similar to the ones in Seoul and Prague (as I assume there is a corporate hotel plan). There is everything you would want, but nothing that you'd not be likely to use (like a couch, or extra chairs, or endtables). The bath was similarly completely-equipped but very functional. (This hotel did not have the commode with "control panel" like the Ibis Insadong.)

Certainly, I wouldn't think of Seoul or Singapore as "cheap" cities, but I am pretty sure that if this hotel were on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, along Michigan Avenue in Chicago, or just about anywhere on the island of Manhattan, this room would go for upwards of $175-200. How Ibis does it, I am not sure, but based on our three stays so far, they'd be a first choice anywhere they have a presence. As far as the outside of the hotel goes, I only took two pictures, both on our last day here, just before we headed off to get on the ship.

At right, you can see the Bencoolen side of the hotel- essential a long veranda. And below, you can see the hotel in a view taken from a little ways down Bencoolen:

As I said, the hotel was right downtown, although not in the area known as the "core", an area right beside Marina Bay, and the newest area of Singapore. Even so, the views from the hotel were pretty amazing. Down at the elevator core in the building there was a large window to the southeast, and one morning I stopped there to take a couple of pictures:

Our Evening in Singapore

By the time we got all settled in the hotel, it was too late to make a trip to Marina Bay and the Gardens by the Bay, or maybe the Marina Bay Sands hotel for a look at that architectural marvel. And it was late enough in the afternoon that any other attraction we might go see would be close to closing. So we got on the phone to Greg and the rest of our party to see about plans for dinner. Greg and John and John were at the Botanical Garden, but Zoran and Richard wanted to meet us for Indian food a bit later.

So about six-thirty Fred and I, having gotten the name of the Indian Restaurant they wanted to go to, headed out for the short walk to an area called "Little India", only about eight blocks from the Ibis. The area was well-named, for when we got there, it was easy to believe that you were in Mumbai or Delhi; the streets were narrow and crowded, there were many, many stores and restaurants, all open and busy, and all of them selling Indian goods or serving Indian food.

We had just a bit of difficulty finding the place, as there were two restaurants near each other with similar names, but as we were trying to decide which one it was, the taxi carrying Zoran and Richard pulled up.

We had an excellent meal, ordering quite a few different dishes and sharing them. The food, the decor, and everyone working in the restaurant seemed authentically Indian (not hard to understand given Singapore's location in Asia and the fact that it is very much an open city, welcoming all kinds of people from all over the world).

After dinner, Fred and I walked back to the hotel via a different route, just to see what we could see. Back at the Ibis, we did some investigation for what we wanted to do tomorrow, jotting down times and directions. We checked the Metro map to plan our route, and then spent some time sending out our daily update for our second day in Seoul.

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	April 8, 2018: Marina Sands Hotel/The Gardens by the Bay
	Return to the Index for Our Visit to Singapore