Our four islands holiday (3): more Singapore
Our second day in Singapore was very different because we were on our own. We decided to visit a location called Gardens by the Bay. Following information given us by Bridgit yesterday, we successfully travelled there by metro which involved taking two lines. We returned by a slightly different route so we were quite pleased with ourselves.
A small point: on the Singapore metro, one stands on the left of the escalators whereas, on the London tube, one stands on the right.
Gardens by the Bay is an urban park spanning 105 hectares (260 acfes) located adjacent to the Marina Reservoir. The park consists of three waterfront gardens and the largest, Bay South Garden, is 54 hectares (130 acres) and opened in 2012. Here we visited three outstanding features.
The Cloud Forest: this the world’s tallest indoor waterfall with a fabulous collection of plants, all seen to great effect by a wandering walkway from top to bottom, providing endless photo opportunities.
The Flower Dome: this is the world’s largest column-less glasshouse and it has an impressive collection of plant life indigenous to a Mediterranean climate which includes parts of Chile, South Africa and Australia.
The so-called “supertrees”. Supertree Grove consists of 18 tree-like gardens ranging from 25 to 80 metres (82 to 164 feet) and covered with over 162,900 plants including exotic orchids, ferns and vines. There is an Observatory at the top of one of the ‘trees’ and a Skyway – which we took – between two of the ‘trees’.
We had left our hotel at 9.45 am and we returned at 5.20 pm, so it was a full day of seven and a half hours.
In the evening, Tess and I went for another waterfront walk, but this time to Merlin Square. All the buildings around the marina were illuminated and there were laser lights shooting from the ropes of the Sands Hotels, making a magical scene for our last hours in the city. Dinner was at a Indian restaurant called the “Anjana Kitchen”.