Day 240 (February 17): A Huge Bite of Singapore

This was a day when we did way, way too much.

Part 1: Singapore Zoo.
We signed up for breakfast at the zoo. This meant being in a taxi at about 8am in order to reach the zoo between 8:30 and 8:45 in order to be seated at breakfast by 9 in order to have an Orangutan encounter at 9:30. And yet it was worth it.

Breakfast was an easy win. Our epic walk around the rest of this excellent zoo was also epic but not so much of a win. In particular, our goal was to find the zoo's waterpark. We found it but then we found out that it was closed, nominally for maintenance but probably because the Covid-19 travel ban in China has reduced demand beneath the point of justifying the staffing! Regardless, we had some terrific experiences around the zoo.

Part 2: Little India

Yeah, that was just part 1. We had walked about 6,000 steps at the zoo! Next, we took cabs to Singapore's Little India. In blogs, podcasts and travel guides, the consensus is that Singapore's orderly, "sterile" approach to Indian lifestyle makes it remarkably accessible. This was exactly our experience.

Our first stop was an excellent restaurant, which was a good choice as an alternative to eating in a more chaotic food/hawker centre. I'm not saying the kids ate particularly well but the adults had a great meal. Furthermore, we had good conversations with locals. I like that this picture makes it look like I ate all of this food. It's not far from the truth (see, Owen and Melanie look like they ate some). (Remind me of this the next time I complain about gaining weight on this trip!)

Then we walked around the district. Each of the kids got henna on one hand while I went off in search of a new power cord. I found something called the Mustafa Centre. It reminded me of Filene's Basement in Boston. There were multiple stores within one giant compound. I found a half dozen electronic's "stores but none of them had what I needed. But I did stop to take the picture of the calculator section of one electronics department of one "store." The clerk recorded my sale in a paper ledger. Totally fascinating!

Part 3: Gardens by the Bay

Because those two huge activities weren't quite enough, we also went on an evening excursion. (Oh, yeah, we threw the kids in the pool for a while to cool off from the morning at the zoo and the midday in Little India.)

Gardens by the Bay is one of Singapore's signature facilities. I could compare it to botanic gardens in other cities but that's not really it. The outdoor venue has a network of paths (like a typical garden), sectors with thematic plantings (like a typical garden), lovely water features (ditto), a meadow for picnicking or playing (ditto)...but it also has the "SuperTree Grove," which I'll return to later.

We started by eating dinner at a mini hawker centre called Satay by the Bay. I ordered 30 skewers and then another 20 because these proved immensely popular with the kids. We had some other dishes, too and celebrated a meal for 10 that cost barely $10 per person. Who said Singapore is expensive?!

Back to the garden. It has the "Flower Dome" and the "Cloud Forest," which were like visiting the traveling flower shows that I've seen with my mom in Philadelphia and heard of elsewhere. The photos are worth more than thousands of words. It's impossible to describe the architecture, though, or for mere pictures to convey the space. Just try to imagine being one of the huge indoor baseball/football stadiums in the US except that it's a conservatory.

Next it was on to the Cloud Forest. First, you encounter a massive indoor waterfall. 

Then, you take an elevator up to the seventh floor, though it's really hard to figure out the scale.

Then you follow a sort of serpentine skywalk around and through this indoor mountain of flowering plants. 

It was a good space for letting the kids run ahead and fall behind because there was really not very much chance of getting lost and there was nowhere more appealing than where you were standing in one moment, except that where you stood next was even better.

But that's not all! Every night, there is a light show in the aforementioned Supertree Grove. Cynically, I'd say it's a glorified version of those crazy Christmas light videos you've seen set to Manheim Steamroller. In this case, there are a dozen huge artificial trees covered in LEDs with choreography set, in this instance, to famous opera tracks. The theme is currently, "Garden Rhapsody."

I think the light show was probably better than my experience of it. I was chasing some of our kids who were tired and grumpy and understandably so. 

It was a 13 hour day, from when we caught the taxi to the zoo at 8am, to when we returned from the lightshow a bit after 9. The kids collapsed into bed, which is better than struggling to suppress their restlessness on so many other occasions. Like the day before, I simply can't believe our friends soldiered through so much activity so soon after a 17 hour flight! 

(Kudos to the reader, too, for sticking with me through this extended account of an extensive day!)