The Travel Sage
A Day in Singapore
We were supposed to have two days in Singapore, but Mark and I slept through the first one! Well, our excuse is that it was raining – a lot! Our nephew, Will, met up with us on day 2 and we headed out pretty early trying to beat the rain. When researching Singapore, it was the futuristic part of the city (Marina Bay) that really appealed to me, and that’s where most of the tourist attractions are. Singapore also has several highly rated museums, but since we were limited on time we opted to skip those (although that would have been the perfect rainy day thing to do). We arrived at Gardens by the Bay (part of Marina Bay) fairly early and walked around the grounds while waiting for some of the attractions to open. The gardens are approximately 250 acres and are filled with lush landscaping, sculptures, waterways, and some attractions that you have to pay for. The giant floating baby was pretty cool. The crane in the photo above gives you an idea of the size of this sculpture. I’d like to know how they keep it so clean and white. The next photo shows the back side. This is clearly a baby BOY.
We continued exploring by walking along the river, and then just took different paths throughout the park.
The photo below with the elephant leading a line of animals is the beginning of a sculpture which is apparently the longest in the world. Each of the animals is connected in some way. The sculpture actually wraps around the corner of a walkway. When I visited the artists’ website, I noticed that the sculpture has dates of being in Singapore from May 2023 to May 2024. So, I wonder if it will be moved after May of 2024. But moving it doesn’t seem very practical.
Our first attraction of the day was a visit to the Skypark Observation Deck on the roof of the Marina Bay Sands hotel, which is the building in the background of the previous photo. On our walk there we passed more cool sculptures and nice landscapes. There were panoramic views from the observation deck and of course Mark and Will were very happy they sold beer there.
After the observation deck, we took another scenic walk to our next destination, which was the Flower Dome.
I didn’t know exactly what to expect at the Flower Dome, other than flowers, but as it turns out, the sculptures were even more impressive. This attraction is said to the be largest glass greenhouse in the world. Some of the coolest sculptures inside were ones made out of small pieces of wood. There was a massive dragon with smoke coming out of his nose, as well as a lot of different animals.
But I think the coolest sculpture in the Flower Dome wasn’t one of the wood ones but rather the bronze sculpture pictured below. It’s called La Famille de Voyageurs (the Traveling Family). It’s not an optical illusion; the people’s midsections are missing.
After leaving the Flower Dome, we headed next door to our final attraction for the day – the Cloud Forest. Like the Flower Dome, the Cloud Forest was enclosed in glass panels, but unlike the Flower Dome, the focus was more on the overall atmosphere than on the individual sights.
After the Cloud Forest we headed back to the hotel to rest before dinner. Will needed some essentials, and I decided to do a little shopping with him. So we asked the person at the hotel desk where to go and they told us about a nearby underground shopping area. The desk clerk’s directions took us to what appeared to be a designer shopping mall – not the kind of place to find what Will was looking for. But then we noticed some stairs going down and took those. We arrived in a whole different place, one that felt a little like a basement with its low ceilings. But we were delighted that there was food everywhere we walked! And Will noticed that the exact same pastries he saw upstairs were downstairs for a quarter of the price. We felt like we had found the secret place where the locals shop! We pulled ourselves away from looking at the food long enough to find a tiny shop that just happened to have both of the things that Will needed, and he paid less than half of what he would have paid in the U.S. Of course, we didn’t make it out of the underground shopping mall without buying something to eat/drink. One thing that amused me was seeing multiple food stalls advertising “air flown” sweet potatoes from Japan.
It rained on and off all afternoon and it was predicted to rain even more in the evening. I really hoped that the forecast was wrong because Marina Bay is supposed to be beautiful at night. Well, the forecasters weren’t wrong – it poured. But below is a photo of what I would have seen if it wasn’t pouring.
Photo courtesy of Kosublog.com
Although we weren’t willing to go back to Gardens by the Bay in the rain, we did brave the rain to get some dinner. The cab driver that drove Will from the airport told him to eat at Lau Pa Sat, which the driver said was where the locals go. Well it just so happened that was where Mark and I had dinner the night before. But we were happy to go back so that Will could experience it. And it was quite an experience. It’s essentially a giant, covered open-air food court with around 70 stalls serving almost exclusively Asian food. The following photos were taken the first night we went, which was a Thursday. On the second night (Friday) it was too packed to even take photos. I must say that the experience was somewhat stressful. It was a bit of a sensory overload with so many different choices that somehow all seemed the same. But once we got our food and sat down it was kind of amusing watching other tourists walk by with their mouths hanging open looking lost and confused just like we were moments before.
In addition to the stalls within the building, when it isn’t raining they close off part of the street and have outdoor grills and additional seating.
The next morning, Will and I explored the 17th floor of the building that our hotel is in. It’s was a unique open-air park in the middle of a high-rise.
When it was time to check out of the hotel, we had the desk clerk in the lobby call a cab to take us to our cruise ship. Since there were three of us and quite a lot of luggage, we required a rather large vehicle. What arrived was an overpriced party bus. The vehicle came complete with neon lights, a refrigerator, a smoke machine, and what appeared to be dance pole for a little person. Well I guess that was a fitting send off to our next adventure – a 28 night cruise with the first stops in Thailand and ending in Tokyo. More trip reports coming soon.
My Impressions of Singapore
Singapore is a very new and clean city. The more touristy parts felt a little bit Disney-ish and were quite expensive, especially compared to neighboring countries. But I enjoyed my time there and wish that I had another day or two to explore other parts of the island.