Singapore Diaries - Day 1
We started at 12.30 am from Bangalore International airport. This was my first flight abroad and the longest flight I had ever taken 4 hrs. I was on cloud nine. This would be the most memorable trip of my life. First journey abroad and that too, to my dream destination. When we reached Singapore it was early morning. We got down from the flight and walked out to the baggage counter to collect our luggage's. Wow!! what a place! The airport itself was so huge and beautiful. The Changi Airport, it is one of the busiest airports in the world and had been awarded as the best airport from quite a few years now. The airport has a lot to offer for free of cost the massage chairs which gives you a full body massage, the movie theater which plays all the latest movies, for the gamers they have Xbox 360s and playstations and the beautiful orchid gardens and butterflies.
We were excited to see the airport. We spent some time in airport collected our baggage's and decided to explore the entire airport on our journey back. We hired a taxi to our hotel in the city which was 15 kms away from the airport. The roads were very wide and the taxi was just speeding through it. I saw the speedometer in the taxi it was 120kms/hr and then we see a high board flashing on the road: 'Maintain your speed 120km/hr'. Just Wow!
Within 20 mins we reached the hotel entrance. We checked in for 6 days and got into our room. It was a simple room with basic necessities. It was clean and well maintained. Only drawback was it did not have windows. Then we thought for a minute, why do we even need the windows? Our plan was to leave the hotel room soon after the sunrise everyday and come back late night. So that issue settled, we freshened up and ate breakfast in a nearby shop. The shopkeeper spoke to us in Tamil. We managed to communicate in broken Tamil to him.
We came back to our room sorted out our plans for next few days and relaxed for a while.
In the evening, we started a bit early, soon after lunch since we needed to find ways to travel inside the city, get a sim card and reach the planned destinations on time. We went to the nearest bus stop and waited for the bus. Few buses came in and we tried to ask them whether it goes to Marina Bay Sands? No one even cared to reply to us!! We were surprised, confused and scared. For a moment we thought we took the wrong decision of coming on our own instead of a package tour. We slowly noticed that the people came to bus stop, looked at the maps on the wall there to plan their travel and boarded their bus. We knew what to do now :-) We took a bus and reached the bus station just before the Marina Bay Sands. We went inside the Promenade Subway station nearby and asked them about the metro card. We loaded around 50 SGD in each card and walked our way to the Marina Bay Sands. We had planned to see the Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay Sands this evening.
Gardens by the Bay has an entrance ticket of 28 SGD (approx) and its well spread across 250 acres of land. The ticket includes the fee for the gardens, Supertree grove and the Cloud Forest. The nature opened up more as we walked inside. The flower dome is the largest columnless greenhouse in the world. I honestly have no words to describe how beautiful it was. In the Flower Dome there were a variety of flowers, shrubs and trees close to a 1,000,000 varieties. It felt like we were walking through the field of flowers. Those vibrant colors were captivating.
Then we entered the Cloud forest, the entire conservatory was cold and misty. Cloud forest replicates the tropical mountain conditions. We were allowed to walk through the circular path then at top we could see a 35mt indoor waterfall. This is the World's Tallest Indoor Waterfall. It has many levels with different themes on each of them. The entire sight and sound of surroundings had given us a magical feel.
As we moved further more we saw the SuperTree Grove. No one can leave this place without visiting these! These trees literally transport you to another world altogether. The trees which are about 25 mts - 50 mts come alive during the Garden Rhapsody, a 12-minute music and light show. All the 12 trees come alive, changing color to the tune of the Garden Rhapsody music.The OCBC skyway is a bridge which connects 2 supergroves. The most amazing part about these trees are that they are built with a futuristic view. The trees harvest solar energy which is stored and acts as the power supply for major part of the gardens by the bay.
Make sure to spend at least 4-5 hrs here to enjoy the complete beauty of this man-made nature. It is a wonderful masterpiece by the architects. The way from the Gardens to the Marina Bay Sands goes right through the Marina Bay Sands itself. The Marina Bay Hotel has 3 towers and 2500 rooms. Though we did not stay there, we were able to see and appreciate the beauty of the architecture. It was already 9pm by now. We went back to our hotel at Joo Chiat, had our dinner and ended our day.
