There actually are a few fun and free things to do in Singapore and we sampled two of them on our second day in the country.
The first was visiting the impressive botanical gardens which were huge and absolutely gorgeous. We took the metro downtown and then walked to the gardens. We spent most of the morning just walking around and checking out the trails. There was a special orchid exhibit, ponds with swans, gazebos and a large amphitheater. It was really cool to see such a green area in the middle of the city. It was so well kept, large and pretty that I am surprised they don't charge an entrance fee. ($53 hotel, $12 lunch, $15 addition to metro passes)
After exploring the gardens we took a bus to Orchard Road where all the big malls are located. My guidebook says that Singaporeans like to do two things: eat and shop and Orchard Road is a perfect example of this. Lonely Planet even offers a walking tour of the malls since there are so many and each one has its own character - I've never seen anything like it!
The mall crawl turned out to be a ton of fun - especially since all the malls were air conditioned and it was deathly hot outside. One of the more fun malls offered a picture scavenger hunt which we completed and won a $10 gift certificate to a store in the mall. Of course all of the malls and restaurants were crazy expensive and none of us bought anything. Even the restaurants were out of our price range and we ended up having dinner at Wendys. ($11 iced coffees, $16 dinner)
Although the prices of everything were high in this country there were definite advantages: everything was clean, pedestrians had the right of way and traffic was orderly and obeyed laws. There were no motorbikes or tuk-tuks on the roads and you could actually drink the water. The public transportation was exceptionally clean and easy to use and there were signs everywhere to remind you to keep quiet while talking on your cell phone (this is in stark contrast to China where you can easily go deaf next to someone on a phone). Something else that I appreciated was the fact that Singapore was very welcoming to tourists. For example in many malls they gave you a complimentary coupon or discount book if you showed a foreign passport to the concierge.
One of the interesting but annoying things about the country was that internet was expensive - really expensive even if you had your own computer and just wanted wifi. My guidebook warned of this and I found that it was true - there was no free internet anywhere. My hotel charged $5 for 2 hours for wifi. If you wanted to use one of their computers you had to pay $1/15 minutes. Consequently, we didn't use the internet hardly at all in Singapore. ($6 internet and printing of maps)
Something else that was hard to get used to was the weather. It rained about every day and the weather would change in an instant. The locals carried an umbrella with them all the time which was smart because a downpour could come out of nowhere and last anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours. Fortunately, there are so many malls in Singapore that you could just duck into one for cover if you were ever caught in a shower. (Total for 2 people = $113)
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