Day 2 - Singapore (24th September ‘24)

simonmtalbot

Sep 29, 20244 min read

After a spectacular sleep, it was time to get up and get on with the day - it was Kirstie's birthday afterall. We grabbed breakfast from the cafe downstairs (included in the room rate at the luxurious Ibis hotel), which for me was avocado and eggs on toast and a tea. Splendid! The weather didn't look great, but unperturbed we decided to go for a walk to the Marina Bay area to check out the iconic three tower hotel and the 'Merlion' statue. As we headed to the entrance of the hotel, we became quite perturbed as it was storming it down. So we grabbed a cab - the Singapore version of Uber (Grab) is incredibly efficient and cheap. It took us to the (covered) ground floor entrance of the mall at the Marina Bay Sands hotel.

The hotel is quite a sight with three enormous towers with a platform that sits on top like a lid. The top has an infinity pool, a park and an observation deck. It is quite impressive! We got our umbrellas out and headed from the mall and took shelter under the building shaped like a lotus flower - which was the ArtScience museum. The rain eased off a bit so we walked round the bay passed the Apple Store (which is a futuristic looking sphere that sits on the water) and the boardwalk where the lightshow would be later. We got to the Merlion which is a statue of a Lion with a fish body (or a fish with a lion head). It spits out water into the bay. It is also where lots of insta-posers get themselves in position for their glamourous photoshoots. We paused for a drink by the Merlion - even though it had been raining it was very humid and we were very sweaty! We walk around the area a bit nosing at what was left of the Formula 1 set-up that had taken place at the weekend.

We grabbed a Grab back to the hotel to freshen up and smarten up (as much as we could with our holiday/travel wardrobe) and headed for Afternoon Tea at the Goodwood Park Hotel. It was Kirstie's birthday after all and Afternoon Tea is a fave activity! We were shown to our table which had a nice view of the gardens (but still in the cool and comfortable airconditioned indoors!). This afternoon tea was a buffet - and it was immense. It had the usual sandwiches, scones and little cakes, but it also had a cold meat platter, hot savoury and dessert options. It was stunning - the chefs were there behind the counter preparing everything and topping it all up so it was all pretty fresh. Definitely one of the best we have ever had!

After afternoon tea we walked to the nearest metro, just along the street from the hotel. We took the metro to Gardens by the Bay, which is a large park next to Marina Bay Sands. It is a pretty impressive set-up with Kew Garden style biodomes, woodland, a path that runs alongside the water and an area called Supertree Grove with 'trees' that are 50m tall. These trees are structures with solar panels at the top that power the lights that form the light show (more later), and on their trunks they have 'vertical gardens' which are plants that are growing out of the structure. They look like something out of a sci-fi movie.

We mooched around the park, but chose to save the Biodomes for another day. We found a bunch of smart looking people gathered on a rock formation that overlooked Supertree Grove and thought we would join them and wait there for the light show. It was a very good vantage point. At 7.45pm, on came the lights. Although I only figured it out later when Kirstie had to explain it to me, the music and light show was themed around the night sky from dusk through until dawn. Pretty impressive!

Not ready to call it a night and head back to the hotel, we burned off some of our afternoon tea calories with a stomp to the bay to catch the water and light show there (in between the ArtScience Museum and the Apple Store). We sat back and enjoyed the spectacle - it was particularly clever how projected animations onto the water spray. What was also impressive was a chap with some kind of learning disability 'conducting' the light show. He was waving the fountains up and down and beckoning in the animated birds as they appeared on the spray. He obviously knew the show to the beat. He was absolutely loving it, as was the many people watching him instead of the light show!

After the second light show we decided to rush to catch the last boat tour around the quays and harbour that set off from Clarke Quays (near our hotel). We managed to get a great seat on the deck to see Singapore waterfront by night. It took us past all of the busy bars and clubs on Clarke Quays, it took us past all of the skyscrapers of downtown, under all of the lit up bridges and into the bay where we had just seen the lightshow. The commentary told us all about the history of Singapore and how it became the city it is today. It really is a great city - everything just seems slick, polished and organised! After the boat tour we headed back to the Hotel for a well earned rest!