I'll keep the words to a minimum here and let the pictures do the talking. Sunday we decided to go to Gardens by the Bay, sort of on a whim. We had talked about it the day before, but didn't solidify it as an actual plan. So when we (I) woke up on Sunday (late!), I decided we should give Satay by the Bay another chance, and also go to the gardens.
What a great idea! Turns out evenings around 7-8p is the busiest time (which is when we were there before) for Satay by the Bay, and the lunch crowd was very small. Fans were blowing, lines were short, food smelled good, and we were happy. We had some more delicious satay; the beef and chicken were okay, but the pork belly was the best. We tried mee goreng again and this one was better than the last. And black pepper chicken that was fantastic.
After lunch we headed over to the domes. The ticket line was about an hour long, and it was getting hot outside (even though we were under shade!). So we attempted to purchase tickets online, and also had the option of a discount because we're long term pass holders! First attempt failed because Jess' credit card thought we were thieves trying to buy attraction tickets in another country. He got a notification on his phone and responded 1 to say yes it's me! Second attempt failed; the notification response didn't go through, tried it again. Third attempt failed. I also forgot to mention, each time I had to type out all of our info, including name, address, both our visa numbers, and credit card information - three screens of forms.
Finally he started a phone call with Chase while trying to download an app - all of it was a hassle and took nearly 30 minutes, but we got it settled, purchased the tickets, and hopped out of line with over half an hour wait left.
We entered into the first dome, the Cloud Forest, and OH MY GOD! It was well worth the wait. This was the most pleasant experience in all of Singapore. We were greeted by a huge waterfall, and it was COLD. The dome is supposed to simulate a mountain, and it got colder and colder the higher we went. I had to put on a sweater.
The amount of selfies being taken was out of control, but we made it through the Cloud Forest relatively unbothered by it. By the time we got to the Flower Dome it was more of an issue, since loads more people come out later in the day. We didn't find the flower dome nearly as interesting though (thankfully), so we went through that one pretty quickly.
Most of the phone pictures inside the domes were taken by Jess. For once I didn't feel burdened by having my heavy camera with me, and even made use of all three lenses I brought along. These are the phone pictures from inside the Cloud Forest.
And phone pictures from the Flower Dome.
By the time we completed both domes we were pretty tired, and started to leisurely walk toward the cab stand. Good timing, it started raining just as we got under cover (too bad the rain actually came, because it was feeling nice and breezy, for once, to do a bit of the outside gardens).
We rested for a bit at home before heading back out across the street to Sangokai to grab some sushi for dinner. Yum! This place had some of the best eel we've ever had, and their rolls were really refreshing. The rolls were big, but I still left wanting more because it was so good.
We took a quick walk down Haji Lane then headed back to the apartment and grabbed some snacks at the mini mart before turning in for the night. More to come later, but I wanted to leave the Gardens in it's own post!
And now for a giant cluster of camera photos because the idea of organizing them seemed like a giant task.
The welcoming waterfall.
A few dragons...
Some flowers in the beginning.
Some weird things...
The view from the back of the dome/opposite side of the waterfall.
More ground floor flowers.
The top of the waterfall and another view of the gardens.
These awesome carnivorous plants made of Legos...
Then we headed out to level 2 that had this really neat view from behind the waterfall.
Then we took an elevator to the top floor where there is a garden surrounding a pond, then you start to work your way back down via the walkway shown before, then a series of escalotors.
Despite not really being a purple fan, these were a couple of my favorites.
The pond, some people taking pictures, and the view from above.
Then we headed down one level... I love this first one, I think it gives you the best sense of scale. This place is massive.
Then we went alllllll the way to the bottom, below ground level. This is when I realized it was getting late in the day (we had spent almost 2 hours in this one!) and we were starting to lose light.
Between the domes were these trees with giant ants.
Then over to the Flower Dome. This dome was much more crowded (there was a line to get inside!). I had one person stand directly in front of me to take a shot that I was in the middle of taking. This dome had a lot of cacti, and some cosplayers!
Outside of the domes we saw a unicyclist, a giant swam, some more flowers, and the supertrees on our way to the cab stand.
Jess has a video, but it's not edited yet. So I will either attach it here at the end and repost the blog to Facebook, or make another entry once it's up!