Advertisement
Published: November 15th 2014
Edit Blog Post
We had our first adventure as we checked in at the airport. Joan's bag got bumped while being weighed and went flying off down the conveyor before it got its tag. Luckily the person serving us spotted it and sent somebody to grab it. So we avoided loosing a piece of luggage. Whew!
After a lovely flight with Singapore Airlines we got through immigration and waited for our bags. Some bags came out but then no more. Then came the announcement that bad weather had delayed baggage by 30 minutes. Eventually we did get our bags and next we wondered if the shuttle to the hotel would still be there. We found a man holding a sign with our names. He apologised for being so late - the bad weather had delayed him as well, so everything worked out. On the drive he gave us lots of advice, which turned out to be very useful.
For dinner we decided to take it our drivers advice and walked several blocks to a chicken rice street. The meal was delicious, the beers large and the price low. A positive start.
After sharing a breakfast table with a lovely German couple
we headed off to explore the Singapore bay area by foot. The first things you notice are the skyscrapers surrounded by tropical gardens. The towers are very tall with diverse and vibrant designs. Near the famous Merlion the area was full of guided tourist groups. In the distance we could see three towers topped with what looked like a ship. As we walked around the bay and approached Marina Sands this building became more and more dramatic. How could they build something like that? We decided to take a closer look. The inside of the tower formed a huge atrium, but we wanted to see if we could get to the top. Eventually we found the lift for level 57. Most of the top was for hotel guest only but visitors had access to a couple of viewing platforms. Imagine our surprise when we discovered a huge infinity pool on the top level of of the ship! What a place to swim.
A sky bridge took us from the hotel over an express-way to the Gardens at the Bay. This was a kind of ultra modern version of a botanic gardens. Exotic plants were mixed with sculptures and structures.
A feature were the super trees, tree shaped steel structures that were being covered by climbing creepers. The logic became a bit more apparent when we realized that the tops of the trees housed huger solar panels.
We visited two massive climate controlled domes, one housed an international collection of flowers and the other was a cloud forest with a seven story waterfall, movie theatre and interactive display.
Next we hiked to the Raffles hotel where we indulged in a Singapore Sling at the Long bar.
After a few trips to a Harvey Norman near the hotel to give us the technical ability to do this blog on your our tablet we headed off to Chinatown to find dinner. This rounded off a most enjoyable day in Singapore and left us wanting to return.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.189s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0958s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb