My ex colleagues who are based in Singapore invited me to visit them for a weekend. So I booked for an overnight bus trip from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, past Friday midnight.

I arrived at Singapore around at 7am after several bus transfers. Our bus broke down somewhere in Johor and barely had enough sleep. Since I was meeting my friends sometime later in the afternoon, I decided to spend the first half of the day in Gardens by the Bay.

My tiredness seemed to be washed away by the lush view of Gardens By the Bay as soon as I exited the MRT exit at Bayfront Station. As you know Gardens By the Bay is a nature park located at the core of Central Singapore, on a reclaimed area past Marina Bay.

The entire area is wide sprawling greenery with 2 conservatories and giant “supertrees”: tree-like structures which are actually vertical gardens, and are the superstars of the park. There is no fee for strolling inside the park. The entrance ticket is SGD28 (for non-Singaporeans, non-PRs) to both Flower Dome and Cloud Forest Conservatories.

Flower Dome

The flower dome is basically a huge garden containing a wide array of flowers and plants from all around the world. The flowers and plants are grouped into a specific geographic area of which they are endemic, thus you can find several themed gardens throughout the dome such as Australian Garden, South American Garden, Olive Groves, Boabs, African Cacti and Shrubs and so on.

In the middle of this garden is a huge flower park. There are also seasonal flowers on display. My friend who visited last April got a chance to see cherry blossoms on exhibit.

The Cloud Forest

Relatively smaller than the flower garden but more of an eye-candy. The gardens are built on top of the other forming a huge “mountain”. Misting is performed on several times of the day giving its cool, misty ambiance.

A tall waterfall drops from the top of this “mountain” and does not fail to thrill everyone as one enters the dome. The route exploring this garden will take you to the top of the mountain first and then descend as you go along by walking along the steel suspension bridge encircling the mountain, giving you this stomach-churning, acrophobic experience.

The flowers and plants corresponds to the altitude of their natural habitat. Therefore you can find mostly orchids on top of the mountain and transitioning to lowland plants as you go down. Inside this mountain is a limestone cavern and exhibit rooms regarding nature conservation

Short but Sweet

Unfortunately, I was not able to visit the Super Tree Grove and the OCBC Skyway since it was past 12 noon already. It was searing hot and I was super hungry. I was itching to leave which now, I regretted sorely. Well, this could be another reason why I need to visit Singapore again.

Directions:

The easiest and most efficient transportation getting there is the MRT.

The Gardens By The Bay MRT station is along the new Thomson-East Coast Line which is still under construction.

The nearest MRT station for now is Bayfront Station along Downtown Line (Blue). This station will also take you to Marina Bay Sands and Marina Bay Waterfront.