Gardens By The Bay is a massive park spanning 101 hectares on the southern part of Singapore. Consisting of three different parks: Bay South Garden, Bay East Garden and Bay Central Garden, Gardens By The Bay is considered to be an integral part in turning Singapore into a "City in a Garden". It was announced back in 2005 and finally finished its construction in 2012.
The Gardens By The Bay is also the selected venue for the annual Laneway Festival in Singapore. So, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and woke up early in order to walk around and see the gardens before the festival.
But before I reached the gardens, I walked past the magnificent Marina Bay Sands Hotel. With a curve running up the building, the hotel looks interesting and unique even when viewed at different perspectives. The mall sitting opposite the hotel is equally as massive, but filled with high-class, branded shops that are lightyears beyond what I could ever afford
The gardens were constructed and designed in a kind of a maze-like pattern, having you walk in and oround different spots in so that you can see more of the garden by not even intending to do so. There are many varieties of flowers and plants on show along with the huge man-made marvel, the Super Trees. These trees stand about ten-storeys tall and they light up at night, which makes for a beautiful light show. There are also observatories and bird parks around the gardens, but unfortunately, I didn't have the time (or the money) to go to all of the attractions there.
Once I could hear the thumping of the bass near the festivcal grounds, I quickly made my way there. It had started to rain once I've reached there, but getting a little wet won't stop the festival goers from enjoying themselves. I made sure to fight my way through the crowd and get a nice spot near the front to see all the bands up close. The food vendors were delicious, the acts were amazing, and the crowd knew how to have fun. All in all it was an awesome day.
Haw Par Villa is a theme park located along Pasir Panjang Road, which is quite far removed from the hustle and bustle of the city centre. It contains statues and dioramas depicting ancient Chinese mythologies along with various illustrations based on Confucionism. The park, originally built in 1937 by the developers of Tiger Balm, were actually meant to teach its visitors of traditional Chinese values. Later it was then modernised with the goal of becoming an oriental Disneyland.
An oriental Disneyland doesn't seem far off, especially with the abundance of statues and zany depictions of traditional characters. But this theme park does not share the same happy vibe from a classical Disneyland park, I assure you.
As you enter, you are greeted with a garish and colourful ornamental hill, showcasing the park's name in bright red colour, and it would only get even more garish as I walked further. The so-called depictions of Chinese culture are quite gruesome and horrific, as it shows the many punishments that await those who sin. There is one dark cave that housed an intricate diorama installation, that depicted the phases of hell that a sinner goes through. Scary stuff.
But even with all the gore and blood, the theme park does retain a very light-hearted and humorous vibe. The trick is to not take it too seriously and have a laugh at bloody severed heads, decorated along a wall. There are other less violent Chinese mythologies on show, such as the popular Journey To The West. Others are simply bizzare, case in point: a statue of an elderly woman sucking on the nipple of a lady, while a young boy looks and points his finger.
Clearly, visitors of this theme park should not be taking any of it seriously and just enjoy themseleves for the absurdnesss of what's on display. While the original point of the theme park is to make people repent for their sins, I walked away feeling not really feeling guilty of my sins, rather, it felt like I just witnessed a comedy show. But a very weird one.
A historical riverside quay situated upstream from the mouth of Singapore River, it is the place to be if you like to go out at night. Historically, Clarke Quay was named after Sir Andrew Clarke, Singapore's second Governer and Governer of the Straits Settlements from 1873 to 1875. Clarke Quay is also the name of a road along the quay part of which has been converted into a pedestrian mall
When I came here for dinner, it was packed with all sorts of people. Since it was close to the business district, I could see a lot of office workers, and quite a number of ex pats along with locals. The restaurants along the river were an assortment of stuff. You can get Japanese, French, Italian, South East Asian and many other cuisines.
As I walk towards the bridge conneting the two sides of the river, I noticed a large group of people congregating on the bridge. Since I was there on a Saturday, I just assumed that this is what most Singaporeans do at Clarke Quay on weekends. They were all just chilling out and drinking beers and having a good time. It was a nice sight to see and I followed suit by sitting on the side of the bridge (I wasn't drinking any beers, though...)
Besides restaurants and bars, there is also a section of Clarke Quay with some sort of mini-carnival thing going on. I saw a big contraption where thrill-seekers could strap themselves on to a seat which is then catapaulted to the air until it slowly comes back down again. I am not a thrill seeker myself and I continued walking along the river and had a good time simply watching people past me by.
At the end of the night, after a good meal at a fancy Japanese restaurant, I decided to call it a day. The fantastic thing about Singapore is that it is well connected with public transport, namely the MRT. Unfortunately, there were none around that were close enough to walk to, so I had to take a cab back to my hostel. All in all, Clarke Quay is an excellent place to hang out with friends over dinner and perhaps a drink or two.