It was almost midnight and we were running like it was the end of the world at Changi Airport’s wide corridors. With heavy backpacks on, we barreled our way down to the basement where the last train to the city was about to leave. We entered its door a few moments before it closed. Panting in exhaustion, we laughed as we sat down the almost empty coach. We made it!

SINGAPORE IS THE LAST COUNTRY FOR OUR TWO-MONTH SUMMER TRIP

Singapore was our last stop for our Beach Hop Asia summer tour. It started out in Malaysia, crossing over to Thailand, spilling on to Sri Lanka, and then Maldives. After several weeks of traveling and beaching around, we’re honestly quite ready to go home and have our Jollibee Chicken Joy. But, yes, we still have Singapore left—plus a night in Kuala Lumpur—before we haul ass back to Manila.

THE BEARY BEST! HOSTEL IN CHINATOWN

We took a mis-stop on one station before finally getting our bearings right. We finally got the correct stop at the Chinatown MRT Station and emerged right in front of the Beary Best! Hostel. Cute name for a hostel, I thought as I looked at its colorful art deco facade, crossing the nearly empty midnight streets of Singapore.

ADAPTIVE REUSED FROM AN AUTHENTIC SINGAPOREAN SHOPHOUSE

Beary Best! Hostel is one of the three Beary hostels in Singapore. This is their largest one, with private rooms, mixed and female dorms, located on three storeys of sleeping space [CHECK DISCOUNTED RATES]. The hostel is set on an authentic shophouse building on adaptive reuse, an interesting way of preserving heritage structures.

COLORFUL LOBBY

We checked in, chatted a bit with the Malaysian dude manning the counter, dropped our bag inside our dorm room’s huge locker, and promptly went to snoozeland. Hopping from the airports of Male, Colombo, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in two days’ time, we were ready to drop dead from fatigue.

OUR BUNK BEDS AT THE THIRD FLOOR

It was way past ten in the morning when we awoke. The mattresses at the hostel were surprisingly very comfortable. They didn’t have a privacy curtain during our stay (although, I heard that they do now), we made do with a makeshift one using their blankets)), but still, we did have a fitful rest.

AN EVEN MORE COLORFUL LOUNGE AREA

Beary Best! provides the usual free hostel breakfast for guests—toast, butter, jams—but since we woke up too late, we’d have to scour for our own morning meal ourselves. We were assured by one of the staff that we need not go far. The area around Upper Cross Street is replete with hawker centers. Perfect.

FREE USE OF KITCHEN AND LAUNDRY MACHINES

After availing of their all-day complimentary coffee (and fast wi-fi), we crossed the road and found an area full of Singaporean street food. Everything looked delicious and surprisingly, the price weren’t as expensive as we expected them to be! A meal set us back SGD3.50 (PHP162.00) each. Not bad.

 

Surprisingly, we found Singaporean street food to be reasonably priced, considering its status as the most expensive country in the world. This particular dish set me back SGD3.50 or roughly PHP162.00. Err... that equates to a two-piece Chickenjoy right there. #BeachHopAsia2016

A post shared by Christian L. Sangoyo (@lakadpilipinas) on Jun 17, 2016 at 6:49pm PDT

 

The morning meal done and over with, we strolled around the neighborhood of our hostel and found it to be quite charming. We had no idea that we were right smack in Chinatown itself, a place I haven’t really been to during my first outing in Singapore. The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, Pagoda Street, Jamae Mosque, and the Sri Mariamman Temple were just a hop away from the doors of our hostel.

OUTDOOR PATIO AT THE SECOND FLOOR

Checking Google Maps, I was also surprised to find that the Festival Market, Club Street, Boat Quay, Fullerton Hotel, and even the Marina Bay were just about ten minutes away by foot. For farther points of interests, the MRT is just right in front of our hostel. Everything was just so accessible!

CUTE SLIPPER CABINETS, NO SLIPPERS ALLOWED PAST THE LOBBY

We stayed for three nights at the Beary Best! Hostel, with a routine of breakfast and coffee at the uber colorful lounge at the ground floor right after waking, go out to the nearby hawker centers to complete our morning meal, check out the sights and shopping along the streets of Chinatown, eat more hawker food for lunch, rest a bit at the hostel before going out via MRT to the farther sights of SG, meet some friends for beer, then back at the hostel again to rest.

Yes, we couldn’t have picked a better location for our Singapore base camp.
~ OUR STAY WAS HOSTED BY BEARY BEST! HOSTEL. VIEWS & OPINIONS, ALL MINE.

 

 

Beary Best! Hostel
Address: 16 & 18 Upper Cross Street, Singapore
Contact Number: (+65) 6222-4957
Email: enquiry@abearygoodhostel.com
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GPS Coordinates Map: 1.283907, 103.845411
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