Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Singapore & Malaysia 2017
Last full day in Singapore
Sunday got underway with another busy breakfast time in the Marriott's newly refurbished executive lounge. I had a tasty omelette as today's centrepiece of my first meal. As we set out to take the MRT to Bayfront, it was astonishing to see the hordes of people swarming around in the labyrinth of subterranean passages at this hour of a Sunday morning.
Our initial objective was Gardens by the Bay, one of many attractions in the Marina Bay area. On arrival, we soon realised that the gardens, just by themselves, constituted a huge site. We simply wouldn't have the time - or in this heat, the endurance - to see everything.
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LEFT: Some initial views of Gardens by the Bay |
There were two main highlights in the park that we did manage to cover, the first of which was Supertree Grove. This consisted of a number of tree-inspired 'vertical gardens', each between 25 and 50 metres tall. Strung between two of these structures was the vertigo-inducing Skyway, a 128-metre aerial walkway giving an altogether different perspective of the attraction.
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The second highlight was an enclosed space going by the name Cloud Forest which, thanks to air conditioning and the inclusion of a huge waterfall, had a lovely, temperate feel. We took a lift to the top and then enjoyed the slow walk down. There was an excellent final exhibition on climate change back at ground level.
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Realising that it was now time to move on, we walked back towards the Marine Bay Sands hotel and Bayfront station. When the opportunity arose to escape the steamy outdoor heat, we continued our walk inside the Shoppes at Marine Bay Sands mall. This was incredibly impressive, and we simply could not keep count of all the designer brands!
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On reaching Bayfront station, we transferred by MRT to the Dhoby Ghaut section of Orchard Road for a necessarily brief look around the National Museum of Singapore. Following on from my recent visit to the National Gallery, the National Museum was another impressive conversion of a historic building, and another striking combination of permanent and temporary exhibits. It was just a shame that we couldn't afford to spend more than an hour on this occasion. (We had a 4pm checkout and still hadn't eaten lunch.)
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Next, we rode the MRT a couple of stops to Orchard and went in search of a suitable dim-sum venue in our favourite collection of food courts across the road from the Marriott. Our quest met with rapid success, and we were soon settling into Din Tai Fung in the Wisma Atria mall, for the usual collection of Chinese dumplings and other small treats. While it was all very enjoyable, we both still felt that the Singapore-based Crystal Jade chain retained first place in our affections.
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Sunday lunch completed, we checked out of the Marriott comfortably within our deadline, and had a convenient (and ultra-low-cost) transfer to the InterContinental by Uber. This was to be a solo night for me, as Bruce was due to head back to Europe later this evening on Finnair, but he was of course welcome to relax in my new room for a while and take a shower before embarking on the long journey home. We spent some time by the pool and then we each had a cocktail in Victoria's Bar, followed by a glass of Australian Riesling in the main lobby lounge.
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All too soon it was time for Bruce's
departure, which also signalled that my own trip had now entered its
final phase. I abandoned my initial intention to go out again and
instead ordered some solid and liquid sustenance from room service.
I amused myself by making use of my free-movie Ambassador benefit to watch
Independence Day: Resurgence, which proved to be
every bit as daft as the 1996 original.