Day 21. Singapore. AM walk, PM Gardens by the Bay and more. 24 April 2024.

We planned to do Hop on Hop Off bus, but ditched that idea last night.
This morning was a no alarm start to the day but both awake at 6. (Aunty Sue was reading so not sure what time she awoke). We lazed around – me blogging. Then leisurely breaky before heading off.
Man it’s hot here – I just melt and sweat, Aunty Sue not so much.
We walked to see some sights.
I captured

Flowers of Singapore.

Sights of Singapore.

Raffles Hotel.
Opened on 1 December 1887, began as a 10-room seaside bungalow run by the Armenian Sarkies brothers. Amidst the expansion of global travel in the late 19th century, the hotel grew in popularity and came to be synonymous with Singapore. The hotel has been a venue for important meetings and has hosted prominent figures from all over the world.

Walked through War Memorial Gardens.
Civilian War Memorial
A 61-metre tall Memorial comprising four tapering columns which symbolise the shared wartime experiences and unity of the four main races in Singapore.

Esplanade Theatres on the Bay

1. Video mask fun

2. Fabulous paper cut installation called Locus Amoenus by Ryan Villamael, latin for a “pleasant place,” the leaves that look like the Monstera plant are meticulously crafted out of replicas of contemporary and archival geographical maps from the Philippines.

Through the theatre complex to views across Marina Bay where we stopped for a cool drink and took in the views across the Bay to Singapore City, The Fullerton and Marina Sands Hotels.

Walked onto Merlion Park
Merlion

Victoria Concert Hall clocktower

Anderson Bridge

Cavenach Bridge

Sculptures – the River Merchants and First Generation kids diving.

Fullerton Hotel
where we checked out their museum and surrounds including Jade Fountain and an amazing Chinese Dragon. Then caught a cab back to hotel for a break.

Well the pm was a ripper today.

We headed into the Gardens by the Bay. Within this huge garden precinct there are many different things to see, lots of parks and gardens as well as the key attractions – The Flower Dome, which has thousands of plants from around the world, The Cloud Forest Dome which houses plants from the cloud forests around the world and finally and the towering super trees and supertree skywalk.

Firstly we entered the Flower Dome – a space age domed glasshouse containing flowering plants, trees, succulents and more from around the world.

I claimed early on I wasn’t much into cactus – but the sheer number of different types was fascinating and I have taken way too many photos.

The gardens here were themed by Country. There was an Australian garden, South African, South American, Californian (mostly edible plants), Tibetan, Mediterranean.

There are wooden driftwood sculptures (James Doran-Webb) through both domes – we didn’t find details on the artist. They were very cleverly done. and a funky one from the Alice in Wonderland garden. And a superb brass sculpture of a family (La Famille de Voyages)

There are trees here that are thousands of years old and so healthy.

We happened to notice a couple of men walking around talking about some brand new plantings of tulips from Amsterdam. We asked if they were gardeners or designers, they indicated they are part of the team responsible for the Flower Dome, and were only too happy to answer our questions. We ask them about the old olive trees that we had seen in the Mediterranean garden and where they had come from, and how they did it. The Young man responded that the trees were indeed 1000 years old, and had been imported from Spain. Further explained that the trees would otherwise have been destroyed either because they are in the way of development or that they were past their prime in terms of production and would be chopped up. we also asked about the Boab trees from Australia and he indicated that they also were under threat, either from land clearing or in one case were in the way of a road development so they were brought here.

There was some new plantings of tulips, and we saw boxes and boxes of tulips literally from Amsterdam stacked around the corner. He indicated that these would be planted out overnight and if we were here on Sunday, they would probably be all in flower. We were confused as to how they could fit any more into the space and we asked another woman working there about that. She explained that the pots of colour that were everywhere are in fact, just filling the space and would be removed overnight and more tulips put in, the logistics of this whole thing, fascinating. There were also cherry blossoms treat to transplant.

The photos will show just how amazing the plantings are and how healthy and thriving the plants seem. (Although looking back on hundreds of pics there is lots I didn’t take)

We had a brief ice cream break before venturing into the second dome which is the Cloud Forest dome. Immediately on entering the home we met with a huge waterfall, tumbling from high up in the dome.

The place was cool but lush with plantings and a vast array of flowers, spectacular foliage and information about our human interference and impact on the sensitive Cloud Forests and other ecosystems across the world. The ubiquitous orchid which Singapore is noted for were everywhere, large to almost microscopic.

There was a Tibetan display and I fell in love with the lanterns and the animal sculptures in there.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Jurassic food court. Char Siew from Hawker Chan – evidently the first Michelin starred Hawker…

…on the way to our next activity which was the Supertree Skywalk timed for sunset…

…followed by viewing the sound and light show in the Supertree garden.

It was tricky to find a seat, so we sat on the ground on our maps, the heat radiating from the stone and concrete added heat to the warm humid atmosphere.

The theme was Retro and both the lights and music were spectacular.

We then moved with many of the crowd through the Gardens to Marina Bay Sands Hotel, where we were going to try and get up the Lavo Bar on the 57th floor for a look at the views, we were hopeful for a drink too. (I’d picked up this plan of attack from an Insta post). We easily made it up to the 57th floor but the bar was closed for a private event.

However we could get to the viewing deck and had wonderful views across the gardens to the harbour and beyond. We stayed to watch the 8:45 light show.

Then downstairs to the Marina Bay Sands and we found a bar for a drink. We each tried a local gin – Orange for Suzie and Lemon one for me. We also had a pizza before cabbing it home.

I’m still writing this at 12:51am.

A brilliant day.