Taking pictures of the residential tower that's part of this hotel
Hunter and I got ready for breakfast which was included in our stay at the Beach Road Kitchen. We were expecting a small normal breakfast but it turned out to be a massive buffet spread with about 7 different stations of food. It was a little overwhelming. While eating breakfast we actually noticed some Delta Tech Ops people sitting across from us. We introduced ourselves and found out they were here for the LATAM A350 cabin refresh program. These are new (to Delta) planes that are just entering service this summer. The modifications are done here in Singapore since it is one of the world's biggest cabin MRO locations. It was super cool to be on the far side of the world from ATL and still run into Delta people.
Outside of the hotel walking to the restaurant
The restaurant
Pastry station
Pancakes, waffles, toast
Mushrooms, sausage, and hashbrowns
Juices, the guava juice was amazing
Fresh saved bacon and a chili she-crab omelet
Fruit and salmon
Salmon, marlin, brie, and watermelon
After becoming stuffed with amazing foods, Hunter and I decided to check out the pool for a few hours before our lunch reservation which actually was back at the Beach Road House restaurant (I didn't know breakfast was at the restaurant, and prior to arriving I made a reservation for the Saturday lunch special). The pool was located on the 18th floor and we scouted out the area before putting on our bathing suits. There was a garden, a pool table, a foosball table, a ping pong table, and an outdoor bar area too.
The hotel lobby
A unique bench
Floor 18 which has the pool. This is a seating area.
Rooftop garden
The other tower
Pool furniture
The pool was lovely, albeit cold. Unfortunately, it's not heated so many guests complain about that. It does make for a refreshing start to the day, however! While we were up there I took advantage of the picturesque pool furniture to work on my last blog post. My website updates have made it a bit easier to post, however, it still takes me a few hours to get everything perfected before submission. We hung around the pool till 11am and while there met a retired private flight attendant from Australia. She was expressing her disappointment with this Marriott property which Hunter and I both kind of agreed with afterward. Her complaints were with the overall quality and we could definitely understand given the rate this hotel goes at. If we had paid cash this last-minute stay would have cost nearly $1,400 USD. Thinking more about this stay, since we have only been here for around 10 hours and most being asleep, Hunter determined the best way to describe the Hotel is "underwhelming" which I totally agree with. We are still very content with our choice of hotel, however, and are enjoying our short stay.
The elevator lights change colours and then different pictures appear!
The pool edge
Hunter enjoying the frigid water
Bloggin' away
Lunch was at noon. When we arrived we were quickly seated, given water, and told to go enjoy the food. Hunter and I took a quick tour of all the stations and determined a plan of action so we could try everything! I think the food speaks for itself!
This was the Indian station
This was the meat station
Here were more Indian foods
Fresh seafood
Cured fish
Steak
Fresh fruit
Cured meats
The seafood nook
Seafood plate
Meat plate
Desserts
Cakes
Even more desserts
Hunter and I shared some of everything!
Early Grey Tea Cake that Hunter particularly enjoyed
After lunch, we went back to our room, packed up my backpack, and headed out for afternoon exploring! We planned to visit the Gardens by the Bay since we loved it so much last time. We went to the MRT station below our hotel to buy transit cards but we were redirected to another station, City Hall, to buy them. Thankfully, the stations were connected by tunnels so we didn't have to walk outside in the hot and humid air. It was about a 10-minute walk and we got our 3-day Singapore Tourist passes. The passes cost $30 SGD each, but at the end, if you return your card, you are refunded $10 SGD so a 3 day pass is really only $20 SGD which is about 15 USD for unlimited transit around Singapore.
We stopped by the lounge for a drink before leaving the hotel - this was some art on the way
Entry to the lounge
We stopped at a 7-11 to check for diet coke and came across this. $15 SGD for a pint of Ben & Jerry's.
One of the train stations
There are many shops in the stations and Hunter and I both laughed at this sign "fix it or live with it"
Once we got our cards we headed to the bus station to catch a bus to the Gardens. We got on one of the buses and started heading in the right direction when we came up on road closures. We thought the bus would detour and still bring us where we needed to go, but it didn't. We tried a different bus and the same thing happened. On the third bus, the driver let us know that due to the NDP (National Day Parade) rehearsal the busses would not be able to access the gardens, and the trains would need to be used. At the last stop he dropped us off at, another transit employee gave us directions for how to get to the nearest train station so we headed there and eventually made it to the Gardens nearly two hours later.
Waiting for our bus
The famous hawker center
Once we arrived, we took a shuttle buggy to the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. We redeemed our tickets we bought online at the ticket counter and headed into the Cloud Forest where we were instantly refreshed with cool air and mist from one of the tallest indoor waterfalls! After our transit adventure, we needed some rest as we were hot and sweaty and this climate felt amazing! As always, we took hundreds of photos on our journey through the Cloud Forest!
The waterfall when you enter
Looking up at the walkway just behind the waterfall
Fuzzy plants
Many things are hidden in the Cloud Forest
Misting time
Beautiful orchids
Orchid wall
Masks are required indoors and most wear them outdoors too
Happy to be surrounded by nature
The flowers were so vibrant the camera struggled
Pitcher plants
This is a magnolia tree like we have back home
We took an elevator to the top of the cloud forest where we then venture down to the different levels found in this climate
Looking out of the class you can see lots of things! Do you see the Super Grove Trees?
Here you can see the Marina Bay Sands hotel
this plant had water and green goop in the center
The leaved on this plant have a strange bumpty texture
You can see one of the waterfall spouts
Looking down from the walkway
Hunter is afraid of heights and would not get close to the edge
I love this view of the Cloud Forest. Our phones have come a long way since 2018!
These are tiny orchids
Hunter and I thought this "Little Tree Plant" was adorable
A lion carving out of tree roots
Some exciting facts about the Cloud Forrest include: it is as large as 1.5 regular football fields, it features a 35m-tall indoor waterfall, temperature ranges from 23°C to 25°C (73-77 °F), and has a humidity of 80% - 90%. You can read more facts on the website here! The sustainability information of the Gardens, including the domes, trees, and lakes can be found here! I've included a great infographic below and more cool facts!
- Chilled water pipes within the floor slabs help to cool the air. This method, called "thermal stratification", helps reduce the volume of air to be cooled.
- The two conservatories are fitted with glass with a special coating that allows optimal light in for plants, but reduces a substantial amount of heat. The roof is fitted with sensor-operated retractable sails that provide shade to the plants when it gets too hot.
After enjoying all the cloud forest had to offer, we exited and used our credit vouches that came with our tickets to buy drinks, coke lite, at the cafe! We sat on a bench outside the cloud forest and flower domes and as we sat there we saw a ****aircraft***** and then a bunch of parachuters with red smoke were coming down over the bay. It was pretty neat!
After our break, we headed into the Flower Dome. The Flower Dome contains plants from all over the world and it's pretty amazing, however, it is a bit less exciting than the cloud forest in my opinion. Some interesting facts about the flower dome include: the Flower Dome's volume is equivalent to 75 Olympic-sized swimming pools, it is covered with 3,332 glass panels, the temperature ranges from 23°C to 25°C, and it has the Guinness World Record for the largest glass greenhouse. You can read more information here. My favourite parts are the succulent garden and the baobabs which I hope to one day see in real life in Madagascar!
Miniature succulents
Cactus
All sorts of cacti
Madagascar baobab
African baobab
The center of the Flower Dome
Can you spot the living rocks?
As mentioned earlier, it was rehearsal day for the National Day Parade (think 4th of July/ Canada Day) which will be held in August. As a result, traffic was all blocked off around the central business district. However, as we explored the gardens, it soon became clear that it was a FULL rehearsal. At various points we witnessed C130 dropping parachutists with red smoke, a Chinook helicopter with a massive Singaporean flag, F15 and F16 fighter jets flying over, Apache helicopters maneuvering at very low altitudes, and massive fireworks. It was very hard to get photos from inside the domes of the gardens but was crazy to look up between the trees and see a fighter jet whizzing by for a second.
Apache Helicopter Gunship
More baobabs aka bottle trees
I thought this was a neat plant. It looks like a ball with spikes.
Bird of paradise
The Dutch flowers exhibit
Once we finished at the flower dome, which wasn't too long since we skipped some better-known areas as our feet were getting pretty tired, we headed to the Super Grove Trees. The super grove trees are one of my absolute favorite things in Singapore. I love the unique creation of the structures and their amazing environmental impact that makes the entire gardens by the bay sustainable. You can find more information here! A few cool facts include: the tallest Supertree is the height of a 16-story building, the Supertrees are sustainable vertical gardens housing over 162,900 plants of over 200 species, the nightly Garden Rhapsody shows use 68 independent audio speakers, and 7 of the Supertrees are designed to harvest solar energy!
Walking to the Supertrees
This trip, unlike our visit in 2018, we decided to do the skywalk which is an elevated walkway between the trees. When we arrived to line up, we were informed it would be about a 40-50 minute wait. We were okay with that since that would put us right on time for the light show at 7:45 pm. While waiting in line, we saw a Chinook with a huge Singapore flag fly past as well as several flights of fighter jets. The line moved much faster than anticipated and we only waited for like 20 minutes. Luckily we walked very very slowly when we got up there and managed to catch the start of the light show on the walkway before we exited!
Hunter attempting to capture the F-16's highspeed past
Another shot of the F-16s moving extremely fast, earlier some were breaking the sound barrier
Heading up to the walkway in the trees
Hunter snapped this awesome picture before we went up!
One of the many trees that are so picturesque
You could see the Singapore Flyer, Flower Dome, and more trees
Plants attached to the tree
The tree in the center has an observation platform as well that you can go up separately
Marina Bay Sands Hotel
Plants growing on the exterior of the tree
The walkway is 22 meters (72 feet) above ground and was constructed to give visitors the unique sensation of floating.
The walkway is pretty large and each Supertree consists of four parts: a reinforcement concrete core, trunk, planting panels for the living skin, and the canopy.
The lights starting to turn on
The trees are so pretty it's hard not to have a billion pictures of them!
There was a firework display by the hotel while we were on the walkway
A few clips from the light show! Make sure to change the quality to the highest option for the best viewing results.
The light show continued for around 15 minutes and it was just as amazing as I remembered. Once it was over, us, along with many other people, headed to the train station. It took us about 30 minutes to get to our hotel, just in time to stop by the lounge for some drinks and a snack! While we missed the evening food, we still were able to have some pretzels and nuts, plus we were not super hungry from all the food we ate earlier in the day!
Watching the light show finish from the ground
The trees look good in every colour
This tree was very easy to take amazing photos of from the ground and the skywalk
Here we are walking towards the train station that's by the Marina Bay Sands
Crossing the bridge
A lookout point towards the Supertrees
Back to our hotel!
Date: Saturday July 9, 2022.
No comments:
Post a Comment