Singapore is a special place for sure. Skyscrapers probably are one of the first things to come to mind, and although they are a common sighting, the crown jewel of the country for me belongs to one of the citie's lungs: meet Gardens by the Bay:
As the name implies... well, they're gardens, and they're by the bay! :)) But they're sooo much more than that; they are considered one of the top attractions in the world, and it's easy to see why when you visit. Not only the gardens are amazing, there are a lot of different thematic areas, two domes harboring thousands of plants that are by themselves another incredible experience, and crazy iconic structures called supertrees, the ones you see on the center of the first photo.
There is more than one entry to the park, and there's no shortage of infographics with explanations of the things to see and how to get there, some of them with the walking times. If you visit, be ready to spend minimum a full day here, and you still won't be able to see everything the gardens have to offer.
If you like wildlife as me, you have another layer of distraction, because there are a lot of different bird species here; and not only birds can be seen here:
Otters! Yes, the city line is on the background... but c'mon, otters are cooler!! It seems there are a few resident families, and they seem to be a common sighting. Unfortunately for me, not a single otter appeared. I've seen this sign while walking along one of the many roads, this one following the coastline.
This strange structure is one of the domes I've refered, the Clouded Forest. You can easily spend more than one hour inside (I did!), and if there's only one thing that you can do at the gardens... I would say a visit inside would be best decision you would take! This, and the supertrees, will deserve their own posts - I've took literally hundreds of photos here (yes, maybe I'm a little too fast on the shutter, but trust me, this structure deserves every photo you take!).
The Flower dome sits right next to it, and although deserving a visit as well, it's nowhere near the former in terms of awesomeness. Inside, you'll find a clouded forest, waterfalls(!!), art, orchid gardens, and a whole array of information!
Walking to them form the gardens entrance takes around 10-15 minutes; both of them are near the water, and it was after visiting them that I walked along the coast and saw the otters sign; of course, I've spent the next minutes franticly searching for any sign of the creatures.
Some pieces of art can be found scattered through the gardens, but I'm not the most artistic person, especially when there's also nature's art side by side.
Roads, bigger and smaller, intersect often, so you can easily roam to other thematic parts of the gardens.
And there's even a nice food court, with suprisingly very affordable food; being in one of the world's most expensive cities, and in one of the most famous attractions, I would expect everything to be price-inflated. But no, and I was even able to eat again the famous mango sticky rice!!
Yummy! And of course, all the food court is surrounded by nature; a few meters away, and a beautiful pond with some of the garden's inhabitants awaited.
With so many little details to see, it's easy to understand how you can spend hours here, right? After lunch and some turtle watching, I walked some more through the gardens, and reached one of the themed areas I wanted to see. Can you guess what it was, by the art?
Kingfisher's wetlands is the name of this section! There's (of course!) more ponds, and at least 4 different kingfisher species can be seen here! I'm fortunately to have seen most of them in previous trips to Asia, but again, luck wasn't on my side on what concerned wildlife watching this day. Yet, this section of the gardens is worth visiting, even if you can't see these beautiful species.
Again, tons of cool info, good indications, and well taken care spaces - just as every park should be!
From here, I went to another of the garden's attractions, an observatory where you can admire the gardens from above. And here's the view from above:
The two domes, with Singapore spreading far in the background. And to the opposite side:
I was on top of one of the supertrees, where one of the must-see sightseeing points is. But since I want to do a post just about them, I'll leave the rest of the photos for later.
With all this, the day was getting close to its end. And although I had seen quite a bit, one could spend easily 2-3 full days here to see all the different areas.
And as I was leaving the gardens back to the hotel, the roads took me to more lakes, and more beauty.
One last look to the gardens and its supertrees, in another great viewpoint...
And time to wrap up a perfectly spent day. I hope to do the follow up post soon, seeing these photos again awakens the great memories I got here.
Have a great week!
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