A familiar breakfast
We had a very late lie in today, around noon, but there were no regrets. For breakfast, we revisited the cheap café we had dinner at yesterday. It turned out it was the right choice, because for breakfast we had, yep you guessed it, roti. There’s no escaping roti, and I’m very glad for it. After we’d demolished our breakfasts, we began to make our way to the Marina Bay Sands and the Gardens by the Bay.
Singapore was very hot today, which made the one hour long walk seem even longer and harder than it was. Whilst en route to the Gardens by the Bay, we walked past many peculiar buildings. We also walked through a large shopping centre, and in the centre was the ‘Fountain of Wealth’. This is a large water fountain, the largest in the world, but it wasn’t as awesome as I thought it was going to be. Once we were on the other side of the shopping centre, we crossed a bridge over the bay.
For some nice cityscape shots of Shanghai, click here.
The bay
As we crossed the bridge, we could see the entire bay, along with the skyline behind it. The icing on the cake belonged to the Marina Bay Sands hotel, which stood towering above us in all of its glory. The bridge ended right at the base of the hotel, and it really was a sight to be hold. Although between you and me, I thought it was going to be a bit taller. Before we knew it, we were already in the Gardens by the Bay. This is a large area filled with a variety of different styled gardens from around the world, and consisting of different flora.
For more info about the Gardens by the Bay, check this out.
I didn’t really know much about the Gardens by the Bay beforehand, but I can understand why it’s one of the biggest attractions. The different gardens and plants were beautiful, and a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of city life. There was a McDonald’s that stuck out like a sore thumb, right at the centre of the gardens. Sore thumb or not, we couldn’t resist the temptation put in front of us. Plus, there weren’t really any other food options in the gardens.
Beautiful gardens
After we had food, we continued our walk through the different themed gardens, including a giant fish aquarium, a large fish pond with water lilies, cacti, otters, and more! After we’d expended most of our options at the Gardens by the Bay, we headed towards the Marina Barrage. This is a large dam that spans across the bay, keeping fresh water in, and salt water out. You can also walk along the entire dam. There’s an information centre at one end, it explains sustainability, and Singapore’s infrastructure. After this, we went to the roof of the centre, and we were treated to an unblocked view of the bay, hotel, and cityscape in the distance.
Getting hungry for food, we decided to walk all the way through the gardens, and ended up at the Marina Bay Sands shopping centre. Both of us were expecting stupidly high prices, but we were both pleasantly surprised by the low prices, and great portions. We made our way back to the Gardens by the Bay so we could observe the city and gardens on the Skyway. This is a bridge that connects a few of the manmade trees that light up. To get there, we had to go through the hotel, and it was a spacious and impressive sight inside.
This place is lit
As night began to set in, we secured a couple of tickets to ascend up one of the trees, and get to the Skyway. It was cool to get a closer unobstructed view of the city than earlier. Whilst we were up on the Skyway, there was a music and light show where all of the ‘trees’ light up in time with the music playing. It’s quite a sight to behold, and we had the best seats in the house.
After the light show, we walked back to the Marina Barrage, where we got a wider view of the city. This time it was dark, and we had the opportunity to view the city in all of its lit up magnificence. As we headed back to the hostel, we also stopped on the bridge to take a few snaps of the bay and cityscape, at a much closer proximity. Eventually, we made it back to the hostel, and I flopped into my bed. Our 12-hour shift was over.
