Tasmania to Tokyo – At Sea – Day 37 can be found here.
Today’s Chronicles can be found here.
Disembarkation day for those travelling solely on the first leg. Some sad moments as we bid fond farewell to old friends and new. Perhaps we shall see them on future cruises.
As for us – once more unto the breach! Our Silversea-organized tour starts at 9:30 am but we depart the ship at 9 am in the faint hope of making it through the Singapore cruise terminal in a reasonable amount of time.
That hope is not to be realized, unfortunately – not only do we have the disembarkation crowds with which to contend, a ferry arrives at the same moment as we’re trying to clear customs. There’s a 5 to 10 minute wait for the passport scanners, plus another 5 minutes to go through baggage security.
But then we’re in the clear. We’d been directed to head to bus 4 of the Gardens by the Bay and Marina Sands tour, but end up on bus 3 instead. But there’s plenty of room, so no one seems to mind – the tour is largely self-guided, so it won’t make a difference to anyone participating.
On the way, our guide explains that almost 80% of Singapore residents live in government-built flats. Among them, the majority are owners rather than renters – with 90% of those in government-built flats owning their properties through 99 year leases. This large-scale response was in response to massive overcrowding that took place in the 1960s.
We soon arrive at Gardens by the Bay:
There are two exhibits here – the flower dome and the Cloud Forest, which is currently set up with a Jurassic Park theme.
Everything is immaculate – even the glass dome, which is currently being cleaned:
Our guide carefully shows us to the gift shop, where we will be meeting in 90 minutes’ time. He recommends we visit the flower dome first, but we elect to start with the cloud forest as we arrive just in time for one of the ‘misting’ periods.
It’s absolutely stunning inside:
During any trip, there are plenty of moments when you wonder if you’ve made the right decision – particularly when travelling with kids. But there are also moments when you see that jaw-dropping expression of awe on their faces, and that makes it all worthwhile. This is one such moment.
Gardens by the Bay was designed as an expression of Singapore’s vision of being a city within a garden. The initial design competition began in January 2006, with ground broken in November 2007. The Flower Dome was first opened to a preview in November 2011, while the Cloud Forest opened in 2012. Remarkable that this was all built so quickly.
We start by circling the bottom area:
The Jurassic Park theme is a bit in-your-face, but the kids really enjoy it.
Beyond the flora, there are also interesting statues throughout:
We then take an elevator up to the top, and spiral downwards from there:
The contrast between Singapore’s architecture and the indoor garden is striking:
There is also an interactive exhibit – the Hidden Forest – in which you can conjure different flowers and learn their scientific names:
The Cloud Forest is home to one of the world’s largest indoor waterfalls.
We continue downward:
Passing through an interactive dinosaur show:
A smaller waterfall:
And a macro zone:
It’s just beautiful.
We then head over to the Flower Dome, which holds the Guinness World Record for world’s largest indoor greenhouse:
The Flower Dome is currently celebrating Chinese New Year, and the year of the Fire Horse.
There are a wide range of different gardens within the Flower Dome, including the flower field, the Mediterranean garden, the olive grove, the Australian garden, the California garden and many more.
We enjoy the Flower Dome, but the Cloud Forest steals the show.
Back through the gift shop to our designated meeting space. And – everyone shows up! (This is far from guaranteed when dealing with tours of twenty-plus participants.)
Time to bid adieu to Gardens by the Bay:
Off to Marina Sands, where we take the elevator to the Observation Deck on floor 56.
We also spot the lotus-shaped ArtScience Museum:
The guide warned us it was going to be hot, and he was right – it’s scorching up here.
We’ve already let our guide know that we’re heading off on our own from here – no arguments, he just ticks us off his list and away we go.
We take the elevator back down to the main level and then wander through the Marina Sands hotel for a time, searching for lunch – and getting fantastically lost in the process. We eventually just grab some croissant and a reuben from Origin + Bloom:
It’s expensive – roughly S$30 for two croissant, a sandwich and a coffee – but should be enough to tide us over.
We’ve downloaded the Grab app in advance, but a bit of online searching suggests we would be better taking a taxi instead. Usually this is a huge hassle, but Singapore has taxi stands at regular intervals. We hop into one and are soon on our way to the Mandai Wildlife Reserve, better known as the Singapore Zoo.
Lunchtime – we visit Roberta’s Pizza on the way into the park.
The menu:
And the end result:
Just what the kids are looking for, right down to the zany decor.
We then head into the Zoo itself. We start by visiting the buff-cheeked gibbon:
Initially built in 1973 at a cost of $9 million, the Singapore Zoo now consists of 5 separate parks spread out over 311 acres of land holding 21,000 animals across 1,000 different species. The zoo is renowned for its “open zoo” concept in which barriers are largely hidden, and enclosures look and feel as natural as possible.
This is quickly evidenced by our close encounter with a cotton-top tamarin:
They are immensely photogenic, and have such soulful expressions.
We then visit the Asian small-clawed otters:
Baby otters!
Even baby otters get grumpy, apparently
“Mondays, am I right?”
One last backward look at our new otter friends:
And it’s time to move on.
We soon realize that – despite the proximity of the various enclosures – the Singapore Zoo is still massive. And it’s also swelteringly hot, even while overcast. We struggle a bit, but then begin draining water bottles with reckless abandon. There are plenty of refill stations – and ice cream vending machines – so at least we know we won’t run out.
On to the pygmy hippo enclosure:
And the false gharial:
Then onward to the tree kangaroo:
And the baboons:
Past the meerkats:
And a Malaysian flying lemur (also known as a calugo):
Where we spot a tiger doing what tigers do best:
We loop back around to the Africa exhibit, where we spot cheetahs:
Lions:
African wild dogs:
Rhinos:
Giraffes:
And some ever-present “wild” macacaques who live at the zoo and have succeeded in stealing some food:
We are already at late afternoon at this stage, so we head to the nearby River Wonders park – also part of the Mandai Reserve – to go on the Amazon River Quest. We’re glad to have the chance to relax on a boat as it floats through a range of enclosures. (And the kids are glad to cool down in the splash zone.)
It’s challenging to photograph animals at the speed we’re going, but we do spot some jaguars:
And a giant anteater:
The Rivers Wonders park itself is quite scenic:
And we get a chance to visit the pandas:
We then head off to see if we can find dinner in advance of our visit to the Night Safari park, which doesn’t open until 6:30 pm. We look for a restaurant, but they all seem to be inside the park itself.
According to the Mandai app these restaurants open at 5:30pm but you can’t get in the park until 6:30 so after some headscratching and searching for an external entrance – which is barricaded – we end up eating at KFC instead. (Ugh.) It gets the job done.
While at dinner, we sign up for the Creatures of the Night show. Seating opens at 7 pm for the 7:30 pm show, and I’d recommend getting there as soon as possible – seats fill up quickly.
They start by bringing out warthogs:
Then a binturong:
Owls:
A Fennec fox:
An Indian-crested porcupine:
As well as some other animals that are too quick to photograph, including a serval and a hyena.
The show is fine, but I think our time would have been better spent exploring the park itself – between getting our seats and the show itself, we’re in the theatre for almost an hour.
We also want to do the Safari Adventure Tram, but the line-up is running 45 minutes after we get out of the show. We know from earlier research that this is likely to decline sharply as night wears on, so we head off to explore the Pangolin Trail.
We spot an armadillo:
A Brazilian porcupine:
A well-hidden pangolin:
We all get a better look at a binturong:
A slow loris:
Then we go through the flying fox enclosure:
Spot another binturong:
And we get up-close-and-personal with a civet:
Big thanks to my wife and daughter for asking the keeper where they were!
We get some faint glimpses of a leopard and a clouded leopard, but nothing worth photographing. But we do spot the elusive fishing cat on our way back:
And a tamandua:
Known as the “stinkers of the forest”, they have a special place in our hearts.
Time for the Adventure Tram. As predicted, the line is much shorter at this stage. We can essentially walk on to what becomes perhaps the greatest highlight of our visit to the zoo.
We see flamingos:
Hyenas:
Lions:
A sloth bear:
Rhinos:
A Bengal tiger:
Elephants:
And much, much more.
It is 10:30 pm at this point, and we are pushing a cumulative 100,000 steps amongst the four of us. Though we had some concerns about getting a ride back, there is still a healthy line of taxis at the taxi stand. We hop inside one, give them the address and are back on the ship by 11 pm.
Thankfully, the return trip through the terminal isn’t nearly as onerous as our outbound trip. We still need to present passports and go through the usual security scans, but the late hour means that we essentially have the cruise terminal to ourselves – and a few of the Moon’s crew, who are headed out for a night on the town.
Time for bed! It’s been a fabulous day, though an exhausting one.
We couldn’t possibly add anything on for tomorrow – or could we?