Singapore (Part Two)

Now that Beth was out of hospital we wanted to achieve two things in Singapore:
1 - Get Beth well, ready to continue our travels.
2 - See some of Singapore!

We took it pretty easy for the next 5 days, booking a flight for 6th January, keeping a couple of days to go slowly and then to get out into the city. After a couple of days doing little beyond finding a fun place to eat and catching up on some 2016 blockbusters (finally some good internet!) we decided we'd start our sightseeing by going to Gardens by the Bay.

The gardens swing a few hefty facts about, like that it cost $1billion and that they're built on reclaimed land. Pretty impressive but we found that walking around them was even more so. They've a number of themed gardens you can stroll around but their main attraction is two large glass and steel domes, both air conditioned to provide the thousands of plants inside an environment that easily makes you forget you're in a sweltering Asian city.

The first of the domes we visited was the Flower Dome. You guessed correctly, it's full of flowers! Beyond that though there's also an incredible variety of themed areas like the Mediterranean garden, shaded by a giant olive tree, and the Madagascar area with iconic Baobab trees. This would be enjoyable to walk around but they've also included a number of fun wood, metal and stone sculptures including some very impressive dragons! As we were visiting just after Christmas they still had their 'Winter Wonderland' decorations out which finally made us feel a little festive...just a little too late for Christmas 2016, but they were still great to see.

The second dome is called Cloud Forest and is named so as it centres around a 30m high artificial mountain, covered in lush plants and topped by a gorgeous garden and water fountain that flows down the side of the mountain in a huge waterfall. It's quite a sight and has a very mysterious and magical feel to it, made more so by the countless carved dragons hidden amongst the flora. Impressively Beth made it to the top and down again, despite the way down being a series of see-through suspended walkways.

The other main attraction at the gardens is The Supertrees. Named so because of their design intended to look like towering trees, they have a huge number of colourful plants growing up them but the real highlight comes at night when they dance with light in time to music. It's hard to describe the fun and enjoyment you get from experiencing this show, which lasts for about fifteen well-choreographed minutes. This was a real highlight for us and as most of it was Christmas themed we couldn't help but sing along!

A short walk past the gardens takes you to another part of Singapore's recent development, the iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel and it's paired mall The Shoppes. The hotel itself is HUGE and walking under one of the arches was more than enough of it, although you can go up to a viewpoint 55 stories high! At that point we nearly went back to the hotel as we were exhausted from walking around the gardens but decided to have a quick walk through the mall while we were there and we were so glad we did - each evening they have their own light and laser show, where images are projected onto a water mist in the middle of the marina while music helps tells the story, with lasers, smoke and bubbles all joining in - it's a very impressive sight and we so nearly missed it, but are so glad we didn't!

The next day we went to the Chinatown Heritage Museum to learn more about the migrants who arrived in the late 19th century to settle in what is now Chinatown and how they lived and worked. The museum was very interactive and showed an example of a typical house with a number of businesses and well over 50 people living within; it was definitely not big enough, with some rooms sleeping a family of 8! We really enjoyed learning the history of the area and as this was our only museum out of dozens in Singapore we were happy with our choice...until we can visit again and see more!

All over Singapore there are countless options of where to eat, with TripAdvisor counting over 10,000! We mainly ate at food courts, found in shopping centres and in cow-shed like buildings dotted around the city. Some of the best food we had was a few quid, served in a plastic bowl and eaten at simple picnic style benches. Singapore is a foodie delight and even at 3am you won't struggle to find your dim sum fix. It also caters to a different palate entirely with - I'll put it plainly - some VERY gross options like fried fish head or leavened pork intestines. Even I wasn't brave enough to taste them!

For our final day in Singapore we went to the zoo, arriving about 1pm. The site is outside of the main part of the city and as we arrived we realised why - it's huge and has a lake as a part of it! We spent 5 hours in the main zoo walking between the different areas and we were amazed at the variety of animals they had, including some we'd never seen or even heard of before like the babirusa and hamadryas baboon (which takes the title of grossest looking bum of all primates).

What we were really impressed with was the enclosures, or lack of, that we saw around the complex. The orang-utan's area was an island with a large climbing frame type structure on it, surrounded by a little water but with a number of tall and large trees around it that meant they could choose whether they wanted to stay there or go swing in the trees - enjoyably, most did this when we were there! We also saw Inuka the polar bear being fed (yes this was the best thing to happen in 2017 so far!!!!) and a squad of playful otters, which were our highlights.

After a light dinner we then went back into the zoo complex but this time to their night safari, aptly named given that you climb aboard a silent tram type cart that takes you on a trip around another part of the zoo where the focus is on nocturnal animals. Some of the enclosures were very safari-esque, with wild deer, banteng and tapir amongst some of those we were within feet of. Thankfully the more dangerous animals were separate, but we still got to see moon bear, hyena and tigers all enjoying the cool darkness. They also have a few walking trails laid out that weave through the remainder of the park, giving even more opportunity to see some incredible animals up close. Beth was flagging by this point (it was 9pm and we were still going!) so limited how much she saw but I did the full walk before we met up again to see a pangolin (never heard of it before? It's the world's most trafficked animal and is used extensively in Chinese medicine) and another group of otters who all screamed at us, presumably hoping for food!

The zoo was the best we've been to and although it was a very full on day it was an incredibly exciting way to spend our final day in the country before our journey on to Indonesia.

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