foresttwitcher
Virtually unknown member

My other passion in life facilitated me being in Singapore on 13th May so I put an RFI on the forum asking for information on sites, guide books, etc., and received a lot of very helpful tips from dwatsonbirder - including links to a couple of useful Facebook groups, an introduction to a series of YouTube videos by James Tann and other advice based on his research for an upcoming trip - thanks again Dan, much appreciated.
Ticket for my event secured, I booked flights through Expedia, a hotel through Trivago, ordered some currency and set about looking into sites to visit and the practicalities of using public transport to get to them. For the latter, I recommend the Singapore Tourist Pass Plus which can be purchased at the airport for S$48 and covers the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) & LRT (Light Rail Transit) trains and public busses (plus some benefits for tourist sites that I did not investigate) - this lasts 3 days but can be topped up at machines in MRT stations after this period with an amount you wish (be aware there is no refund so don't put too much on it if you only have a few days of use left). Public transport is cheap, efficient, clean and easy to use.
If a UK citizen you will also need to fill out an online application for an electronic SG Arrival Card, as a sort of tourist visa, within 3 days of your arrival date. Again no problem and can be accessed via the Foreign Office gov.uk entry requirements website.
I bought 'A Naturalist's Guide to the Birds of Singapore' (Yong, Lim & Lee) second hand from Amazon - a small book ideal as an ID guide for in the field. This was the only country specific guide I could find and as I don't really like photographic ID guides I also bought 'A Field Guide to the Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore' (Jeyarajasingam & Pearson). I read the description and had a look at the example pages but obviously did not look closely enough as this is one of those annoying books with the plates all together but separate from the text descriptions and I have to say that some of the colours of some illustrations are very odd. It was useful to have back in the hotel for further reading but was not a necessary purchase.
I could find maps of the main tourist areas, 'city centre' and MRT network but not of the whole country / island. So I downloaded the relevant area on Maps.Me for use off-line on my phone and this worked very well.
So, on Tuesday 9th May I got an early taxi to Heathrow (T2) for a late morning flight with Singapore Airlines direct to Changi. There was a slight delay before taking off but not long and just over 13 hours later (and having overtaken the night) I was painlessly through passport control, collecting my bag and, having purchased my train pass, was soon boarding an MRT at the airport station to take the East West line a few stops to Aljunied, followed by a very hot and humid tramp to the hotel in the Geylang area. This took a bit longer and was a bit more of a struggle than I anticipated as, being used to GoogleMaps for navigation, it took me a little time to get used to the way Maps.Me worked. Once there, despite previously requesting an early check-in (it was before 09:00 local time), they wanted to charge me extra if I actually wanted to get into the room - so after getting a few essentials out of my hold bag I left it behind reception and set off back out into the heat to start the birding...
Ticket for my event secured, I booked flights through Expedia, a hotel through Trivago, ordered some currency and set about looking into sites to visit and the practicalities of using public transport to get to them. For the latter, I recommend the Singapore Tourist Pass Plus which can be purchased at the airport for S$48 and covers the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) & LRT (Light Rail Transit) trains and public busses (plus some benefits for tourist sites that I did not investigate) - this lasts 3 days but can be topped up at machines in MRT stations after this period with an amount you wish (be aware there is no refund so don't put too much on it if you only have a few days of use left). Public transport is cheap, efficient, clean and easy to use.
If a UK citizen you will also need to fill out an online application for an electronic SG Arrival Card, as a sort of tourist visa, within 3 days of your arrival date. Again no problem and can be accessed via the Foreign Office gov.uk entry requirements website.
I bought 'A Naturalist's Guide to the Birds of Singapore' (Yong, Lim & Lee) second hand from Amazon - a small book ideal as an ID guide for in the field. This was the only country specific guide I could find and as I don't really like photographic ID guides I also bought 'A Field Guide to the Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore' (Jeyarajasingam & Pearson). I read the description and had a look at the example pages but obviously did not look closely enough as this is one of those annoying books with the plates all together but separate from the text descriptions and I have to say that some of the colours of some illustrations are very odd. It was useful to have back in the hotel for further reading but was not a necessary purchase.
I could find maps of the main tourist areas, 'city centre' and MRT network but not of the whole country / island. So I downloaded the relevant area on Maps.Me for use off-line on my phone and this worked very well.
So, on Tuesday 9th May I got an early taxi to Heathrow (T2) for a late morning flight with Singapore Airlines direct to Changi. There was a slight delay before taking off but not long and just over 13 hours later (and having overtaken the night) I was painlessly through passport control, collecting my bag and, having purchased my train pass, was soon boarding an MRT at the airport station to take the East West line a few stops to Aljunied, followed by a very hot and humid tramp to the hotel in the Geylang area. This took a bit longer and was a bit more of a struggle than I anticipated as, being used to GoogleMaps for navigation, it took me a little time to get used to the way Maps.Me worked. Once there, despite previously requesting an early check-in (it was before 09:00 local time), they wanted to charge me extra if I actually wanted to get into the room - so after getting a few essentials out of my hold bag I left it behind reception and set off back out into the heat to start the birding...