Singapore, Marina Bay

We finally arrived in Singapore after a delayed flight but straight through customs to the MRT (Singapore’s equivalent of an underground) to our accommodation for the last few days. We stayed at a budget hotel, little more than a basic but clean room with private bathroom. Capsule pods were the same sort of price but of course are capsules not rooms. Funnily this small hotel room cost the same as the luxury golden hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam. That evening we ate dinner at a local restaurant and then called it a day.

The following day was mostly spent at the Gardens by the Bay and around the Marina Bay Sands area. Gardens by the Bay are a man made outdoor garden with all sorts of species. It also contains the iconic Supertree Grove which is a collection of metal tree looking structures, one with an observation deck and a few others with a suspended skywalk bridge. These are quite a majestic to look at with plants growing up the ‘trunk’ lit up by coloured lights during the evening. The gardens also house two indoor biodomes or huge greenhouses - one called Cloud Forest and the other called Flower Dome. Although Gardens by the Bay is free to enter, the two domes were not but were amazing inside. Flower Dome, unsurprisingly contains all sorts of flowers from all over the world. We stayed and looked around for an hour or so before moving onto Cloud Forest which contains one of the larges indoors artificial waterfalls. Cloud Forest centres around a large structure and shows a range of vegetation that typically grows at altitude down the sea level. The structure includes another skywalk and every few hours a cloud show where the entire spaces fills with mist. Both domes were cool inside which was a nice change from the heat outside. The flowers and vegetation inside was very well done, but I must say I did think the actual structure last themselves were very impressive.

Later on we walked around the Marina Bay shopping mall. A little odd seeing such high end designer shops in a very modern looking complex given the typical shops we’re used to. Afterwards we walked across the bay to Merlion point with amazing views of the also inconic Marina Bay Sans Hotel. Whilst walking around we noticed how clean and tidy it is. There is no litter or rubbish in sight at least nothing compared to how other big cities too often look. There is a very clean and modern feel to Singapore that shows throughout.

As you can imagine, Singapore is not cheap. Restaurant food looks to have no limit so we opted to eat at a Hawker centre. A Hawker centre is an indoor food hall filled with street vendors selling much cheaper local food. There are loads of these Hawker centres around Singapore but we are at Amoy Hawker centre. This is much more inline with what we’ve been used to and could enjoy good local food for a fraction of restaurant price albeit still much more than the rest of SE Asia.

Afterwards we headed back to the Gardens, walking on part of what will soon become the Singapore F1 track, to watch the nighttime light show under the Supertree Grove. Tonight’s theme, retro music. We weren’t quite sure what to expect having seen a few light shows on various monuments during our travels but this show was very good!Meer informatie