Merlion Memories : Visit to Singapore: Day 3

Day 3 : Botanical Gardens, Singapore Zoo and Night Safari

   Woke up to rain pattering on the windows. After a heavy breakfast, we set off to Singapore Botanical Gardens. We decided to use the buses today. The bus stop names are posted at the bus stop,so you'll know where exactly to get off. We counted the number the stops to get off at the right one. But we seemed to have counted wrong and went two stops ahead, took the bus in the opposite direction and found our way to the gardens. It's a leisure garden which celebrated its 150 years recently. It's always calming to enter a park and to be surrounded by green. The park was alive more so because of the morning rains. There's a small swan lake which had a handsome sculpture of swans. This place felt really good and absolutely non-touristy. The orchids on display at the national Orchid garden were beautiful ! Very well documented,there were information boards about the orchids. It was pleasant weather thankfully,so we weren't too tired yet. The National Orchid Garden is definitely worth a visit. Thumbs up! We had a lunch picnic on one of the benches. The place was blissful in a way, lots of children playing,families on lunch picnics, dogs running about wagging their happy tails. Just a wonderful morning !
   We took the MRT to Ang Mo Kio. At Ang Mo Kio , once again no problems finding the bus interchange to go to the Singapore Zoo. After a 15 minutes ,we got the bus no 138 to the zoo. It was a little after 2 pm when we got there. The park hopper pass got us right in,without having to wait. We waited a while for the tram. We made it a point not to get off on all the stops in the tram as getting a seat on the tram again is rather difficult. The animals were interesting ! The chimpanzees and orangutans were my favorite ! The polar bear was huge ! and so adorable and scary. We managed to catch the feeding show of the Polar bear. Among other lovely animals we saw the tiger, zebras, rhinos, giraffes, cheetah (wow!!). We watched the elephant show (a lot of people!) and the sea lion show. A part of me felt horrible to see these dangerous and beautiful animals domesticated and kept in a zoo,but from what we read, looks like they are more in danger in the wild. If  there's one thing I learnt after the zoo visit,its about wildlife conservation. Lets please do our part to conserve the wildlife.
    The Night safari opens at 7:30 pm. Completely underestimating the crowds , we lazily went there only at 7pm. The crowd was absolutely mad! The length of the queues there reminded me of temple visits in India ! The Sunday evening saw humongous crowds ! In the mad rush, we couldn't get in on time to watch the creatures of the dark show at 7:30pm (and the next was at 9:30pm). In utter confusion , we ended up waiting at the queue for the Japanese tram ,only to realize it after a while and had a hearty laugh. The waiting time was an  hour. We saw the rhinos, deers, hyenas among many other animals. There were no dearth of the number of animals at the singapore zoo , but it didn't appeal to me much. Maybe I went in with a lot of expectation about a safari in the WILD or so. It felt very artificially placed there under a neon bulb. At the end of it, I definitely didn't think it was worth it. Although i did notice a lot of young children enjoyed it ! We retraced our way to Little India and out our tired feet to rest .

Review :
 -- Botanical gardens is a MUST visit ! Go as early as possible .
 -- Please avoid weekends for the zoo and safaris If unavoidable, please get in line 40 minutes before.
 -- In two minds whether to suggest to skip the night safari. Kids would really enjoy it though.  

At the National Orchid Garden,Singapore Botanical Garden :

Swan Lake , Singapore Botanical Garden :

   Elephants at Play, Show at Singapore Zoo :

Merlion Memories : Visit to Singapore : Day 2

Day 2 : Jurong Bird Park,Singapore Flyer,Raffles and Bugis

     We set out after breakfast at 10 am heading for the easiest transport around the city. Little India MRT station to Chinatown MRT. At Chinatown , we bought the 3-day MRT tourist Pass at 30SGD. Continued our journey to Boon Lay. At Boon Lay, the directions to the bus interchange  were well written and easy to  find. After about a 10 minute wait ,we boarded bus 194 that takes you to the entrance of the bird park. At the bird Park, we bought the 3-in-one Park hopper pass (that covers the bird park,night safari and sng zoo inclusive of the tram rides). The tram rides generally give you a glimpse of everything around the park so that you can explore on your own when you get off, there are some stops along the way in the tram ride and you could alight the tram again once done with that portion of the park. Beautiful birds and a very well kept park ! Had a good time feeding the Lory's and at the Royal Pigeon's area. The flamingos were a delight to observe,as there beaks quiver and their entire head vibrate as they sip water. Delightful and worth a visit ! By afternoon we left the bird park to make a quick pit stop at Little India for some food. We discovered Anand Bhavan which was quite a huge relief  for mum's south Indian food craving. At 5 pm,we took the MRT to Promenade to ride the Singapore Flyer. A ride on the flyer costs 33SGD but luckily the hotel we stayed at gives us a discount of 15%. The ride on the Singapore flyer lasted about 40 minutes but enjoyable. The city looks beautiful from that altitude.We caught a glimpse of everything around the harbor area of Singapore and beyond. The people who constructed this structure have done a phenomenal job, the sheer magnitude of the Flyer makes you wonder. We ambled around the Harbor Front. The structure of Esplande resembles the fruit Durian's outer cover, amazing architecture. We stopped by an open auditorium where a young Singaporean funk rock band melodiously entertained the crowd. Was a pleasant cultural experience when she sang a foreign language song(I didn't register the name when she mentioned it). Walked along to the Merlion Park , and watched the laser show cast from the Marina Bay Sands. The waters glimmered from the reflection of the city lights.Sparkling. On the way back , we took a reroute to Bugis and shopped around a bit. It's overwhelming. and you can get basically anything at Bugis Street ! But I found it cheaper to shop in Chinatown.  Collapsed on the fluffy bed by 10:30pm with tired feet.

Reviews -
  -- Get to the Park as soon as it opens, you can catch the bird feeding shows. At the Park, if it is too crowded,avoid getting off at every tram station because it's quite a wait to alight on them again. Try and carry some packed lunch, to eat inside the bird park is expensive.
 -- The laser show at 8pm at Marian Bay Sands is worth a watch.
 -- Take the Singapore Flyer at twilight for best views. Nice souvenir magnets at Bugis,must buy!

Feeding the lory at the Bird Park :

 Business hub Singapore :

Merlion Memories : Visit to Singapore : Day 1

  Where : Singapore

  When :  August 9th - 15th

 Mode of travel  : No Travel agent, no packaged tours! *note: Singapore is very convenient and safe to make your own plans to travel around* .

 Experience : Read on ! *Will earnestly try to keep the descriptions short*.

  Day ONE : Checked in . Explored Orchard Road and around.

      Boarded the flight to Colombo on Srilankan airlines at 3 a.m from Bangalore. After an hour,landed at the Colombo airport.It's a rather small airport. I was impressed by the Internet kiosks at the international boarding area ,very convenient. Boarded the next flight(srilankan airlines) to Singapore at 7 am Colombo time. The boarding at Sri Lanka for the flight was difficult as the boards would read: flight number --> boarding, and we would get into the long queues for check in, when the ground staff would tell us that the board read wrong and we weren't boarding. Frustrating ! After a good four hours of catching up on sleep ,we landed at Singapore. I was slightly scared to take a peek as we were flying over Singapore for landing, but gathered the courage. Beautiful view! I've seen pictures of the a lone island  surrounded by vivid  blue waters around only in photographs, but this was truly mesmerizing ! Landed at 1 pm (sg time), had a pickup till the hotel. Greeted by a humid atmosphere.
    Most of the hotels at SG have a check-in time at 3 pm. We checked in at Parc Soverign (http://www.parcsovereign.com/) on Albert Street, close to Little India. In my opinion, plus points : the location was perfect, 5 minutes form the Little India MRT, 15 minutes into Little India and 2 minutes away from South Indian food, not in the heart of little India and therefore safe for two Indian woman travelers and a jump away from decent shopping at Bugis. Negatives: Rather expensive (168SGD for a night) and no free WIFI. 
   With half a day done, we quickly freshened up and took a Metro to Orchard Road(The prime shopping location in Singapore). Explored our way around and watched the National Day Parade as it was telecast on huge screens. A Lot of places to shop and eat. Noticed an entire floor dedicated to beauty (!!) in the Wheelock Place Mall, ranging from botox,some weird cosmetic corrections to extensive nail care and fish spas. By six pm,we rode on the MRT back to Little India and explore the place a little more. There was an Ambal Kovil (Veeramakaliamman Temple). As it was an auspicious Friday,the prasadam was elaborate enough to constitute as dinner. Ambled the streets and got back to the hotel.
  Review : Orchard Road - nothing that you haven't seen before.
                 Little India - nothing to be said, I'm an Indian,absolutely nothing  new. But a mini chennai i must say. Decent places for Indian comfort food and well within the budget!
                 Was beginning to fall in love with the infrastructure,cleanliness and easy transport of SG. So very convenient ! Kudos to their government.

An interesting  sign board at Wheelock Place on Orchard Road. :

 The Mall ION Orchard On Orchard Road :

  The deity adorned: 

   Everything is looking up again ! At wheelock Place :

Painted Wall 2

I've always dreamt of having a personal library and stacking up the collection of books stored in my dingy cupboard . Cleared out a room to re-paint the walls, buy good bookcases and get those books out. The room been my favorite since.

I would like to welcome to you to my imagination room ! Where all things art and creative are allowed and only negativity and closed minds are prohibited.

 The painting started off with a different idea,but over time and with a lot of busy days in between , it compelled me to rethink ideas and paint my mind at that moment.

I've realized it's very effective to leave work for sometime , so by the time you come back to it, it forces you to look at it in a different perspective and probably do something better than the initial idea.

Let me know what you think of it !