Games and Gardens at Marina Bay Sands

My first week at work has been very busy and exciting! Our team is in the midst of publishing a few papers and it really is a race against time, so everyone is frantically wrapping up measurements and putting abstracts together. On Friday I got in the lab around 9am and didn't leave until 7pm. This week has reminded me how tedious and time-consuming research can be, without even knowing whether you will have anything to show for it in the end. Luckily I was able to find something bizarre in my experiment, not exactly what we were looking for but interesting all the same. Who knows, maybe I actually stumbled onto something...time (and more measurements) will only tell though.

Today I visited the Marina Bay Sands casino/hotel/mega shopping mall/exhibition centre. I was able to go to the top (56th) floor and take a few pictures. The skies were clear and the view was absolutely stunning. I could see all the places I had been earlier and also some I have yet to explore. What really impressed me though were the dozens of cargo ships, tugboats and cruise ships anchored just outside the bay. Now I see why Singapore is known as a port city. I think I may have to dedicate an entire post just for those pictures.

After having hotplate pepper steak for lunch (which unfortunately looked better than it tasted, I don't know but something about the miso soup left a lot to be desired) I relaxed in the shade while observing the various rowing, canoeing and dragon-boat races take place on the channel. I also managed to catch the end of a cycling race which was neat; all of the events are part of the 28th South-East Asian (SEA) Games going on here in Singapore. It's a pretty big deal here and there are a lot of fans who come out the games (at least those with free admission).

The rest of my afternoon was spent wallowing in the beautiful Gardens by the Bay. So many different types of plants and themed gardens...I think they also may need their own picture post. There was even a skyway where (for a modest fee of 5$) you could walk amongst the tallest trees, where the views were, although not as breath-taking as those from the casino, still pretty amazing. I'm sure my pictures will never quite due them justice, but they're still worth a look. I'm exhausted now so I'll leave it at that, hope you are all enjoying the summer weather over there!Read more