Two Domes and the Singapore Flyer

I also visited the two domes after exploring the Gardens.

The first one — the Cloud Forest — featured a Jurassic Park exhibition. Impressive and visually striking. However, the crowd made it difficult to fully enjoy. Constant stopping for selfies and photos at every step, combined with the sheer number of people, made moving through the space quite challenging.

The second dome - the Flower Dome - was even more intense.

Imagine everyone you know who loves taking photos of flowers. Now imagine about a thousand of them in a space showcasing over 130,000 plants. People stopped everywhere, all the time. Movement was less “walking” and more a chaotic, slow-motion shuffle in all directions at once - like some sort of Fibonacci spiral descending into Dante’s inner circle of hell.

I made a tactical retreat without properly exploring it. From what I saw, it looked beautiful - but under those conditions, not worth it. One positive note: it smelled fantastic.

After a quick lunch, I headed to another destination I had spotted earlier: the Singapore Flyer.

At 165 metres, it’s one of the tallest ferris wheels in the world. Getting there, however, was a journey in itself. I thought I’d just buy a ticket and board - but no. There was an entire pre-show experience spread across multiple levels: the “Time Capsule.”

After yet another queue, I finally entered a capsule - together with a mother and her three kids, roughly 15, 13, and 10.

So, here’s the situation.

A) They did not stop talking. Loudly. Constantly. The eldest even sang. Loudly. Non-stop. My patience was… tested. I wasn’t sure whether to say something - you can’t exactly forbid people from talking - but let’s just say younger me would not have gotten away with that.

B) Initially, they moved around, took photos and videos - fair enough. The views, especially around sunset, were incredible. Naturally, there were also a lot of selfies from every possible angle.
But halfway through the 30-minute ride, they were done. Phones out, Instagram on — and that was it. They stopped looking outside entirely.

I don’t know. That kind of thing genuinely puzzles me.Read more