Singapore - February 27th

We canceled our morning tour as it was going to cover much of what we had seen on our tour yesterday.  Around noon time we decided to go out for a walk to the Raffles hotel.  Of course, we picked the hottest part of the day, but thanks to my trusty neck fan, I survived.

Our hotel is located right next to Raffles place which is the financial district of Singapore.  Singapore has the largest financial district in Asia and the third largest in the world after New York and London.  We wandered around viewing the area and trying to stay out of the sun.  

Roving CCTV camera

We eventually headed back toward the riverfront and toward Raffles Hotel. We passed the old Parliament building and as we approached the Supreme Court building we passed a robot that was actually a roving CCTV camera. 

Our intention was to go to the Long Bar and have one of their famous Singapore Slings but were told by people exiting the wait was about an hour and decided not to wait.  Chris explored the lobby areas and then we took the subway back to our hotel. 

Marina Bay Sands Complex

The pickup for our evening tour was at 5:30 PM - Nightime Sightseeing with River Cruise.  Our first stop was the Skypark Observation Deck atop the Marina Bay Sands. The Marina Bay Sands is a large three tower complex owned by Las Vegas Sands which includes hotel rooms, high-end shops, a convention center, infinity pool on the top and a casino.  It opened in 2010 and cost just under $7 billion dollars.  The complex is built on reclaimed land...more about this later. From the Observation deck we had great views of the whole area. 

View from the observation deck

Our guide pointed out different buildings including the science and art museum, the performing arts center, the floating stage for concerts, etc.  There is interesting architecture everywhere you look.

Our next adventure was a Singapore River Cruise. The mouth of the Singapore river is the original port of Singapore but now has a barrier at the end so the river no longer mixes with the ocean. The river has been cleaned up and is now used as a reservoir. We cruised up and down the river viewing various sights along the way with commentary describing what we were seeing.  

We boarded the boat at Clark Quay and passed by Boat Quay.  The buildings in the 3 quays along the river were originally warehouses storing goods that were being shipped through the port.  They have since been converted into restaurants and shops.

DNA bridge on the left

Art & Science Museum

 

We passed the Art and Science Museum, meant to resemble a palm tree and the DNA bridge (which we later walked across) with the spirals around you and the base pairs in lights across the walkway.

We also passed the Merlion fountain.  The Merlion (half lion/half fish) is the official mascot of Singapore.

After our river cruise, we headed to Gardens by the Bay to watch the Super Tree Show.  The first picture below shows the Supertree Grove from the Observation Deck on the Marina Bay Sands. The grove contains 12 of the 18 super trees and it these 12 trees that put on a light and music show twice every night. Then I have included a link to part of the show below.  

Supertree Grove

 Here is a link to a very short part of the Supertree concert.  We tended to take short bursts of video but you can find the whole show on Youtube if you are interested.  Unfortunately we didn't get to visit the other parts of the Garden by the Bay.  That will have to be on another trip!

Supertrees

 I mentioned above, Singapore has been expanding its size with land reclamation.  Singapore as an island nation has limited amounts of land but has so far has increased its size about 25%.  Here is a link to an article about land reclamation in Singapore and some of the controversies.  Here is a link to a Youtube video showing the process, etc. In the Supertree Grove picture above, you can see some land in the background that is in the processed of being reclaimed.

After the Supertree show we went back to the Marina Bay Sands area and watched their fountain and light show. We ended our day by walking back to our hotel via a walkway by the bay and across the DNA bridge and stopping for ice cream.