Sitting in an air conditioned room at Linda’s house with some free time this morning and decided to write about the whole reason for being here.
Linda’s room and the care package she made me.
Flash back about a year ago and I see an online article about majestic man-made trees that look like something straight out of the movie Avatar. More investigation of this reveals that it just recently opened in Singapore. The photography nut in me just cries out to the normal planning self that “We must go here.” Yes, the proverbial “we” in this case doesn’t mean me and someone else, but the classic 3rd person Gollum narrative that I have with myself.
Then 2012 became the year I went to Paris again instead. Ted had decided to go visit Chiawen, and spontaneously I decided to join him. Keeping this in mind I promised Linda and other old coworkers that I would eventually visit in 2013.
Cut to the here and now. I’m in Singapore, having never researched it at all, other than the magnificent trees at Gardens by the Bay, sitting in my friend’s house suffering a bit from jet lag and taking time to update my blog. And it’s kind of wonderful.
A couple days earlier Linda takes me to see all the things I had on my 6 item to do list and now I’m left with all this wonderful time. Time to soak in the beauty and humidity.
Nevertheless one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. Fly by the seat of my pants travel with an awesome hostess with the mostest which I realized I could really hang out with since she understands the need for “social media breaks”.
Trip highlights include:
- Gardens by the Bay – The main reason I went to SG other than to visit Linda was to see this and it was just as epic as I expected. We paid to go up to the skywalk where I was petrified as Linda skipped along easily.
- Bumboat River Cruise – Beautiful ride along the water, great for photos and seeing an unblocked view of the Merlion on the pier.
- Singapore Flyer at Night – Walking to Satay with Linda we stopped along the water to take this beautiful longer exposure of the Flyer.
- Art Science Museum – I loved this place, saw every exhibit. Mummies, National Geographic Photography Exhibit and the Eames Exhibit
- Ku De Ta Club Lounge at the SkyPark – Best view in Singapore
- S.E.A. Aquarium – Had the best time here even though it was a trek. Packed my lunch for the day and ate in front of the largest aquarium viewing panel in the world while watching manta rays play in the bubbles of the scuba divers. I probably stayed in front of the tank for 2 hours.
- Crab Beehoon at Mellben Seafood – By far the best seafood soup I’ve ever tasted, not to mention it has crab in it.
- Grilled Sting Ray at Satay by The Bay – First time ever having sting ray, I didn’t even know you could eat it.
- Chicken Rice – Delicious pretty much anywhere
- Esplanade Theaters by the Bay – A gorgeous building shaped like a durian.
- Fountain of Wealth – Walk around this 3x with your arm in the water for riches.
- Din Tai Fung – XLBs!
- ION Orchard – Shopped til I dropped.
- Temporium – A really special pop up restaurant with a very hipster feel located in Little India. Was so happy to visit this place. Will probably write up a separate post on this alone.
- Marina Bay Sands – My second home aside from where I was staying. This was the mall, I spent one whole day in the food court reading the rest of Ender’s Game.
