When we travel plan, we make copious lists. We write out the places we want to see, the things we want to do, what and where to eat, how to get there etc. Mostly it is me who is delving into every resource I can find…hence why these trips take a year to plan! However, it was the mister who located today’s adventure. Our goal was to cover gardens today. We would also be revisiting the Bay of Gardens later in the afternoon. It is a place everyone should see at least once in their lifetime. I will cover that part in a different post.
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Singapore is like every city: big, loud and filled with people. After our long journey, we needed a respite before delving into it all. Following a great “Western” style breakfast,outside on the patio at the hotel, we set off to find the sanctuary of green space known as “Chinese Gardens”. Alan had found this place like he does so many of our other special locations, simply by giving me a photo off the internet and a mission to track down what it was called and how to get to it. This is how we came to plan our first activity in Singapore.
We loaded the handy backpack we take on most of our adventures. Sunscreen check, umbrellas and raincoats (based on our last experience here) check, sunglasses and good walking shoes, check. As the temperature soared to about 95F by noon, we soon remembered we should also carry water. We won’t forget that again!
We had picked our hotel because it was close to the subway station.. The walk to the subway station is about 10 minutes from our hotel. Along the way we discovered a Chinese temple, the first of our unplanned detours for today.
Chinese Temple near our hotel
Getting to the Chinese Gardens would test our traveler’s skills. It was the first time we had used the Mass Rail Transport system (MRT), which is as easy as tapping a credit card at the entry and exit points of your desired destinations. There are about 5 rail lines but all are color coded and the trains run every 5 minutes. Everything is presented in English here, so it is pretty straight forward.
One station change and a short subway ride later, we got off at the Chinese Garden depot. We knew we were in the correct place because there was a giant, 7 story. cloud piercing pagoda across from the station. As planned, the Chinese Gardens were the perfect place to begin our day. With Singapore being situated just 85 miles from the equator, the morning weather was very comfortable 80 degrees but climbed quickly to about 95F! We will remember to bring our water bottles tomorrow.
Here was the quiet space we craved, a place we could wander, while enjoying the wildlife and nature. Best of all, the gardens and monuments were free to enter! We love free things since we only carry the equivalent of $50 per day in local currency, which is meant to cover all the small expenses such as transportation, tips, market purchases, coffee etc. We would later spend $12 on a cup of ice cream!
There was so much to see at the gardens, before we knew it, a couple hours had passed. We finished our time there with a $12 ice cream. The skies opened up as we made our way back to the MRT station. We were ready with our umbrellas.
We spent the remainder of our 10 hour day in the Gardens by the Bay, where we would explore the Cloud Forest, Floral Fantasy and end the evening by laying on our backs under the metal trees, to watch the famous Garden Rhapsody Light & Sound Show. We are surprisingly energetic for our first day in Singapore! We will see how our feet recover. I estimate we walked 10 miles today. One of us drew blood, the other had her socks meld to her toenails after melting my nail polish.