Today was our third day in Singapore, and the weather called for much rain, off and on throughout the day. Once again, we were too tired last night to actually get a decent night sleep. It doesn't seem to make sense, does it? We both tossed and turned through the night, and managed to only snooze for about three hours overall, so once again we were out the door before eight o'clock. Last night we never made it back out, so today's primary destination had to be the Gardens on the Bay, one of the country's highlights. The brown subway line dropped us off near our destination, and we arrived before anyone else had shown up. We had the entire place to ourselves, for the first half hour at least. I thought I had taken several early morning photos, until I realized that I had not re-inserted the photo card into my Canon, and I had left it back at the hotel. Thank goodness for smart phones.
A most unique and immense statue of a naked baby seems to float on air.
Then it started to pour. Gardens on the Bay is a landscape sprawl of lush vegetation that anyone can enjoy for free. Within it are countless interesting statues, ponds, fountains, and several venues, such as the Singapore Zoo, the Botanic Gardens, a skywalk along the tree-tops, an aquarium, a cloud forest, and much more that can be visited for a fee. One of the highlights is the Supertrees, enormous man-made structures covered with real plants, that are quite iconic. They are best enjoyed by night, all colorfully illuminated, but neither Diane nor I feel the necessity to take another special trip there just to see the lights.
The Supertrees
Workers were hard at work to create the setting for a colorful Chinese New Year celebration.
The entire area has a Las Vegas feel to it. It is certainly impressive, but it has been created as a tourist attraction, and it certainly does not represent the reason we travelled half-way across the world for.
This giant statue was built entirely from recycled trash
The occasional selfie
We had read about an area called Orchard, which supposedly had lots of shops and restaurants, so we headed there for lunch. By then it had stopped raining. It was not what we had in mind, as it was a very luxurious area, reminiscent of Beverly Hills, with large Dolce and Gabbana, YSL, Gucci and other uppity stores, along with a myriad beauty clinics where rich mothers can keep their children entertained as they endure all kinds of beauty and health treatments . We ended up at Lino's, an Italian eatery where we enjoyed seafood vermicelli and a scrumptious salmon dish.
Buildings in the Orchard area
Landscape workers taking a lunch-time siesta in a most unusual but natural way.
The rain was intermittent. We decided to walk the several miles back to Chinatown hoping to take in and explore different parts of the city, but more than halfway through, the heat, humidity and off-and-on rain, as well as Diane's new shoes which she discovered to be painful to her feet, got the best of us, and we opted to continue by subway.
Well-kept elegant row-houses
Chinatown facades
In summary, Singapore is indeed an eclectic place. It is a world-class city with a strong economy, but unlike other Asian destinations, much of the local culture has been suppressed. Little India and Chinatown seem to be the only locales where it is still strong and survives. The place is impeccably spotless. You can be thrown in jail for littering. Gum chewing is frowned upon. In three full days we have not seen even a single cat or dog. Homelessness is not a thing here.
We think three days is the proper amount of time to spend in this place. Tomorrow we'll be flying to a new destination; another metropolis, but in a different country, and we are looking forward to sharing the new experiences with you. Thanks for tagging along. Enjoy the journey.
Simply amazing...