Where to start! Our sabbatical is officially underway and we are hitting the ground running in Singapore. After the longest travel day of my life, we were in a plane for right around 23 hours total, we landed just after midnight on Saturday morning. After a super easy customs experience that lasted about all of 60 seconds, we got a room at the YotelAir at Changi Airport so we could just fall into bed. Was the room super small, yes, was it overpriced, also yes, but completely worth it so we could wake up and explore the airport after some much needed rest.
A couple of quick facts about Singapore’s Changi Airport:
- Named Airport of the Year 12 years since 2010
- Home of the worlds tallest waterfall at 40 meters (131 feet)
- Welcomes around 400,000 flights and 65 million people annually
While the terminals have their own uniqueness, the Jewel is the crown jewel (no pun intended lol) of the airport. This is outside security and where our hotel was. It’s marketed as a “nature-themed entertainment, retail, and lifestyle complex” but in everyday terms, a mall. In the center is the Rain Vortex which is what I wanted to see most. After waking up we walked around the various stores, ate some lunch, and relaxed people watching while we waited to head downtown to get our hotel.
After an early night we were up and ready to start actually exploring the next morning. We kept it simple and decided to head to Gardens by the Bay, a massive complex with a mixture of free and paid for activities under the backdrop of the Maria Bay Sands hotel. Two main attractions, the Flower Dome and Cloud Garden, sit in massive dome conservatory building and were what we went through today (we will head back later this week to explore more and see the famous SuperTree Grove and light show).
The Flower Dome was just that, a greenhouse structure (the largest in the world) filled with various plants. Their special exhibit centered around Sunflowers so the Kansas girl in me was really excited to see them!
While the Flower Dome was neat, the Cloud Garden was my favorite of the two. Six stories tall inside, it was set up where you can walk around elevated walkways, the views in here were incredible.
This was also home to a special Jurassic Park exhibit and several animatronic dinosaurs were placed within the plants. One of the things I enjoyed most was watching the kids get super excited about seeing them. One little girl who couldn’t have been more than 3 excitedly proclaimed “I love him!” as we were standing near the T-Rex that was moving and growling (do T-Rex’s growl 🤔) and breaking out of his cage. We also got to go into the Floral Fantasy with our ticket which reminded me of the Bellagio Conservatory in Vegas where everything is made out of flowers.
After leaving we walked around the Shops at Marina Bay Sands to stay in the air conditioning and just explore a little more. Glad that we did because we ran into the best tea shop which we’re now planning on going back to for afternoon tea and I cannot wait! For dinner we hit up our first hawker stall and got a bunch of satay sticks. Vendors had hundreds of sticks with meat cooking on open flames along a street. They were good, but if I’m being honest, I would have rather had something else. The great thing about this is we can just come back tomorrow and try something else!
17,000 steps later and I’m beat! It’s been a great first couple of days and I can’t wait to explore and share more!
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