Sightseeing in Singapore

 1st September 2023

Everyone was very tired when we retired last night and there was no hurry to get to breakfast, so we had agreed to meet at around 9am. It was easier to dine at the hotel rather than hit the streets in search of breakfast, so we had a leisurely start, enjoyed our breakfast and checked out at 11am.

Our flight to Oslo does not depart until 12.04 am on 2nd September, so we put our luggage in storage and put together a plan to fill in the day.

None of us had been to Gardens by the Bay, which was still under construction near the marina Sands complex when we were last in Singapore, so we plan to spend a bit of time there this morning checking it out.

The shear scale of the complex took us all by surprise. It is enormous, and we quickly realised that it would take at least a whole day to see everything on offer. Fortunately there were managed packages you could purchase to combine parts of the complex. We opted to visit the Supertree Observatory and The Flower Dome. We were strongly advised to do the Supertree Observatory first, as it was mostly outdoors and not a good place to be if it rained.

Map of the Gardens by the Bay Site

Walking towards the observatory, life sized statues of various jungle animals lined the walkways with the Marina Sands Towers filling in the background.

They were very popular with the families with young kids

Soon we were at Supertree Grove (the area with the purple towers on the map), where the observatory was located at the top of the tallest tower.

A lift took us to the upper level where the views of the area made it well worth the visit.

Looking back towards the city

The Singapore Cruise Terminal

The Flower Dome (we plan to visit later)

Ships waiting for port access

The structure of these "flower like" towers is truly amazing, with vegetation growing right up the base of the towers.

Eventually we had to return to ground level and explore the other venue we were ticketed for, the Flower Dome. We were incredibly lucky that right at the time of our visit, the main display is the Orchid Extravaganza, which lasts until the end of September.

A short walk through the lush gardens took us to the Flower Dome Entrance

As we entered the dome it was clear Orchids were the feature display

Some of the prize winning orchids made up the display in the hut at the entrance

After the initial orchid display the path guides you through gardens highlighting the native species of different countries. The Australian display was both large and very well done.

Sharon and Carole at the Australian garden entrance

A huge grass tree in pristine condition

Boab trees and beds of Australia native bushes

South Africa was next and clever sculptures were interspersed amongst the plants in many of the different themed gardens.

There were Mediterranean Gardens with Olive Groves and very old gnarly trees.

and palms

But it was really about the orchids for this particular seasonal display and we soon found ourselves back in massive beds of displays of orchids of every variety.

The clever sculptures throughout the dome were also a highlight

We spent a lot longer in the Flower Dome than we would ever have expected as it was stunning and impossible to capture in a few photos. By now were were quite hungry and headed off to a hawker centre located within the Gardens by the Bay called Satay by the Bay. It was good street food and we shared a number of dishes washed down with some nice cold Tiger Beer.

Most of us had had enough time out in the heat and we headed back to the hotel for a bit of a rest and cup of coffee in the lobby cafe area. Our taxi to the airport is not booked until 8.30pm, so we still have quite a bit of time to fill in.  

John and I ended up going for a walk down along the river to Raffles Place to stretch our legs, and somehow ended back up at Brewerkz for a cold beer reward for our walking effort before arriving back at the hotel where the girls were still chatting away, but looking thirsty.

A few drinks later, it was time to head to the airport, check in and ready ourselves for the long haul to Oslo.

Checkin was via kiosks and baggage drop which went smoothly for John and Sharon, but when we tried the kiosk would not process our check in and we we diverted to a checkin counter. There were a number of other people with a similar problem. The check in agent disappeared for a while whilst trying to check us in and later explained she had to go and talk to her supervisor, as the flight had been overbooked and they were trying to divert people to later flights, Fortunately, she managed to get ours through.

There were also issues with malfunctioning baggage drop stations, and the usual seamless Changi Airport was not at its best.

Next was clearing immigration to get to the departure gate side. It was harder to leave than it was to arrive. First you had to scan your passport and then your boarding pass. A couple of the scanning stations could not match the names on the passports with the boarding passes, resulting in everything screaming to a halt in those queues. Then, you had a photo taken and the same stations were having trouble matching photos with passports. Once you got through all of that you would have thought you were in the clear, but no, there was another gate which required a thumb print and another photo match. A bit disappointing for an airport that known as the best airport in the World. The staff were a bit rattled trying to rectify these issues.

Eventually we were through and headed off to the Ambassador Lounge for a shower, which was very easy to organise, with no waiting and reasonably priced at S$20 each.

We are not going to be fed until around 1.30am and it is only 9 pm, so we headed up to food street (the street food court in terminal 3), where we had a good reasonably priced light meal to tide us over. The shower and meal did a lot to restore our faith in Changi Airport.

The fight left on time at 12.04 am.