Another day without an official excursion. I took the Mass Rapid Transit trains to Gardens by the Bay park to visit the Kingfisher wetlands again and to see more of the park.
While in the MRT station, I took out my phone and took a picture of the route map and almost immediately the loud speaker came on and said, to paraphrase, “no photography allowed and you could go to jail”. I don’t think it was a coincident that the announcement was made just after I took the photo as there are CCTVs all over the place.
The MRT was amazing- it was fast, clean and easy to use. The signs were easy to follow and there were multiple levels underground to support all the lines going in different directions. I just used my Visa card to tap in and out to pay the fare- I didn’t have to get a ticket or special travel card or anything.
The Kingfisher wetlands opens to the public at 5AM and does not require a ticket. I didn’t get there that early but definitely earlier than 9AM when the rest of the park opens. Still didn’t see any kingfishers that weren’t sculptures but I did see a large monitor lizard swimming in the pond.
It had rained earlier in the day and since it was early in the morning it was very pleasant, not too hot and not crowded.
After the Kingfisher wetlands I went on the Supertree skyway which is an aerial walkway 60+ feet above the ground and winds between the tops of two Supertrees. There were very few people on the walkway so I could take my time- although I didn’t because it was a bit scary. The entrance sign asks folks to limit their time on the skyway to 15 minutes.
After the skyway, I went to the Supertree Observatory. It’s a viewing platform on one of the tallest Supertrees. I had a delicious breakfast with a view at the small coffee shop in the Observatory. The views of the bay and Singapore were amazing. I enjoyed the time on at the Observatory and the outside deck.
I wasn’t particularly hot but wanted to cool down a bit so rode the Big Bus about 30 minutes to the Raffles hotel and went to their famous long bar and ordered the custom drink they created in 1915: the Singapore Sling. It contains gin, curaçao, lime juice, pineapple juice, and Bénédictine. It was so delicious I had a second one! The drinks were very expensive but worth it. When I left there was a line out the door of folks waiting to get inside.
From Raffles hotel I took the Big Bus back to Gardens by the Bay to visit their cloud forest exhibit. It’s a large glass enclosed area that has a 100+ foot indoor waterfall and plants native to cloud forest habitats. It was kinda odd because there were no bugs or animals- just plants. It’s like a giant terrarium. I didn’t spend too much time there because there were so many people and it was crowded.
Since the ticket to the cloud forest included the flower dome, I visited it too. I spent even less time there because of all the people. It’s another giant terrarium but filled with dessert adapted plants and a special exhibit. This season’s special exhibit included lots of cherry blossom trees. Many folks were doing photo shots of themselves with the cherry blossoms.
Singapore is a tidy, clean and safe city where everyone follows the rules and CCTVs are everywhere.
