The top 3 experiences at Gardens by the Bay

Gardens by the Bay (Bay South)

My family and I paid a visit to the Gardens by the Bay (Bay South) during the weekend, located adjacent to the Marina Bay waterfront. It is a very popular attraction for both foreign tourists and the locals, which ranked as the No.1 attraction in Singapore by TripAdvisor. The entire park comprises of 3 gardens, Bay South, East and Central, spanning 101 hectares in total. The largest and the most developed of all is the Bay South, while Bay East and Central are still pending future development. The towering Supertree Grove and the 2 cooled conservatories (Cloud Forest and Flower Dome, which are the world's largest columnless greenhouses) are the most iconic landmarks of the Bay South Garden. Other than the mentioned, it also comprises of other themed gardens, such as the Heritage Gardens, Children's Garden and the Dragonfly & Kingfisher Lakes.

We arrived by the MRT Circle Line at the Bayfront Station. We followed the signage towards the Gardens by the Bay. From the MRT exit, we crossed the Dragonfly Bridge, which spans across the Dragonfly Lake. On the bridge, one can immediately see the majestic Supertrees in front us, as well as a good place to view other nearby buildings such as the Marina Bay Sands and the Singapore Flyer. After the bridge, we straight to the first attraction, the Supertree Grove.

Entering the Gardens by the Bay

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Supertree Grove

The Supertrees are tree-like concrete and steel structures with many plants (over 162,900 in total!) fitted to them. They are equipped with environmental technologies to mimic the ecological functions of tree, such as photovoltaic cells to simulate photosynthesis, collection of rainwater to simulate the tree absorption of water, and the intake/exhaust of air for the conservatories' cooling system to simulate the respiratory function of tree.

Supertree Grove

There is a total of 18 Supertrees in the Gardens by the Bay. 12 of them are located in the Supertree Grove, while the rest are located near the coach bay and Flower Dome. The height of the Supertrees ranges from 25m to 50m tall, making them very distinct within the park. Standing in between the Supertree Grove certainly makes one feel dwarfed.

OCBC Skywalk between the Supertrees

One of the Supertree also features a restaurant, IndoChine, at its top.

After spending some time roaming between these gigantic structures, we purchased the tickets to visit the OCBC Skywalk. The skywalk is 128m long, elevated at a height of 22m between 2 of the larger Supertrees. The view on top is awesome, which visitors could enjoy the panoramic view of the garden and the Marina Bay.

On top of the Skywalk

Fantastic view of the Marina Bay

Close-up view of the top of the Supertree

Introduction to the Skywalk

View of the Supertree Grove from the top

Cloud Forest

We walked towards the 2 cooled conservatories next. Upon arrival of the ticket office, we purchased the double conservatories tickets, which allow entry to both the Cloud Forest and Flower Dome. We visited the Cloud Forest first. As we entered the conservatory, we could immediately feel the cool mist inside and hear the thunderous sound of the waterfall.

"Cloud Mountain" and the Waterfall

What lies in front of us is the magnificent 35m tall "Cloud Mountain", with the waterfall (the world's tallest man-made waterfall) plunging down. The conservatory is maintained at a temperature between 23-25 deg C, meant to replicate the cool environment of tropical highlands between 1000m to 2000m above sea level. The "Cloud Mountain" is fully covered with plants to replicate a lush green mountain.

After taking photos in front of the waterfall, we followed the path around the "Cloud Mountain". Along the way, we could see flower beds beside the pathway, as well as the Cloud Walk and the Treetop Walk above us.

The Cloud Walk and Treetop Walk above us

The Cloud Walk at the top

Flower bed by the side

Another view of the Cloud Walk

The pathway led us to the elevator area, which we took the elevator to the highest level. The "Cloud Mountain" has many levels, each touch on different themes. The highest level is called the Lost World, which features plants typically found at around 2000m above sea level. Over here, we could also find carnivorous plants, such as the Venus Flytrap and Pitcher Plant. Being the highest point, it is also a good place to enjoy the surrounding Marina Bay scenery.

The Lost World. Marina Bay Sands can be clearly seen from here.

Pitcher Plant and Venus Flytrap

We proceeded to the next section, Cloud Walk, which is a steel-structural walkway that branches out of the mountain. The walkway is wide and relatively flat, thus it is not a problem even for people with wheelchair or baby strollers to move on it. On top of the walkway, one could have a close-up view of the various epiphytes plant species on the wall of the mountain.

The Cloud Walk around the mountain

Next, we reached The Cavern, which is to replicate the caves within the mountains. Over here, there's a lot of information about the cloud forests and the various plant species within them. Further down is the Waterfall View, a protruding ledge that allows a close view of the waterfall.

Close up view of the waterfall

We took the escalator down to the next level, Crystal Mountain. Over here, we could see various shapes of stalagmites and stalactites. These are formed from precipitation of minerals from water dripping through the cave ceiling. Visitors could spend their time reading on the information about the geology of the planet.

Crystal Mountain

Stalagmites

At the same level is the Treetop Walk. It is similar to the Cloud Walk, but its lower elevation allows visitors to have a close look at the canopy of the trees.

View of the Treetop Walk from the Cloud Mountain

After the Treetop Walk, we descended to another level called the Earth Check. It is an exhibition about the facts and figures about the Earth, as well as the impact of climate changes on our environment.

Inside the Earth Check

The next section is the +5 Degrees, which is a short interactive show that depicts the impact to the planet's climate and ecology when the global temperature rises by 5 deg C. We entered the last section called the Secret Garden, which showcases some of the rare plants. The tour ended at the souvenir shop, where visitors could find many horticultural related souvenirs.



Flower Dome

After the Cloud Forest, we visited the Flower Dome. Like the Cloud Forest, the Flower Dome is maintained at 23-25 deg C. It exhibits plants and flowers from the Mediterranean and semi-arid subtropical regions.

Flower Dome

Christmas decorations near the entrance

At the entrance to the dome, which is on at the 2nd level, visitors could enjoy the overview scenery of the entire Flower Dome. The entire conservatory comprises of various gardens, featuring plants and flowers from different parts of the world.

We visited The Baobabs first on the right of the entrance, which showcases odd-looking trees from the African region.

Overlooking The Baobabs section

Baobabs are also commonly known as Bottle Tree or Upside-down Tree, distinct for their thick and fat trunk, which can store a lot of water, an important feature to survive the arid environment in Africa. Out of all the Baobabs here, the African Baobab stands out, being the largest tree in the Flower Dome and weighs more than 32 tons.

The Baobabs

Overlooking the Flower Field from The Baobabs

View of Marina Bay Sands from inside the Flower Dome

Next to The Baobabs is the Succulent Garden, which displays various types of desert plants, such as Cactus and Aloe Vera.

Succulent Garden

Desert Rose

Aloe Vera

Cactus Plants

We headed towards the entrance to tour the other side of the dome, which features the Australian, South American and South African gardens.

Kangaroo's Paw

Tasmanian Devil mascot

Chilean Puya and flowers from South American region

Flowers in the South American Garden

Flowers from South African Garden

As it has been a long day walking, we rested for a while near the Pollen restaurant and Olive Grove. At the Olive Grove, we just realised that there's a 1000 years old Olive Tree over here!

Rest area at the Olive Grove

After the rest, we proceeded to the last section of the dome, the Flower Field.

View of Mediterranean (right) and South American (left) Garden en-route to the Flower Field

The Flower Field changes its display every 1-2 months, featuring flowers of different themes or seasons. As it was near to Christmas period, the entire Flower Field had transformed into a Christmas celebration.

Entering the Flower Field

Christmas theme decorations at the Flower Field

Just by the side of the Flower Field is the Flower Field Hall, which is an event hall that could be booked to hold corporate or wedding events.

It had been a long day and we decided to call it a day after the Flower Dome tour. In fact, we had yet to explore the other parts of this huge park, which we would certainly come back again in the future.

Planning a Free and Easy Tour - Part 5 of 5 (Maps and Travel Insurance)

Importance of Map

Travelling in a free and easy trip means that there is no tour guide along with you, thus you have to depend on yourself while travelling from one point to another. As you are in a foreign land, having a map with you is extremely important to navigate around. There are several means that can help you navigate around:


1. Use Google Map

Google Map should be your first choice for planning your navigation. It is free to use and its direction function provides you in detail the available modes of transportation (walking, car and/or train) to get from one point to the other, in addition the distance and the estimated travelling time. If you intend to use mobile data while travelling, then you can gain access to Google Map on your smart phone or tablet. Note that access to Google is restricted or partially restricted in certain countries. In this case, you can print screen the Google Map direction and save it in your smart phone or tablet while you are still at your home country. Alternatively, you can also print out hardcopies of the Google Map, so that you do not have to worry that your device's battery runs out and unable to access the digital maps.


2. Use Online Maps

Some of the city government or tourism boards may post their city maps online (in JPG or PDF format) on their websites. These maps are helpful as they typically show the locations of the major tourist attractions and even hotels. You can also find many more maps online when your search for images in the search engine. For example, if you are going to Bangkok, type "bangkok tourist map" in the search engine to look for images and you will find a lot of different maps. Some of them are also physical maps that some visitors have scanned and posted online. Download the appropriate ones (those with good resolution and serve your needs) to your smart phone or tablet. Similarly, you may also want to print them as hardcopies and bring along your travel.


3. Use Hardcopy Maps

Travel guides like Lonely Planet will have maps integrated as part of the book. Since you will be having your travel guide along, thus you can use these maps to help you navigate around. When you landed at the airport, you may find there are free hardcopy tourist maps available for tourist. You will also find some of these free tourist maps in hotels and major tourist attractions. If you are looking for something more professional, then you can purchase proper maps from Periplus for example. Something to take note, since you need to plan your tour upfront at your home country, you will need your map much earlier and cannot depend solely on the physical tourist map when you reach your destination.


Importance of Travel Insurance

As you travel, there are a lot of unpredictable events (flight delay/cancellation, theft, loss of belongings, medical needs etc.) that might happen and disrupts your travel plan. Although money cannot solve everything, but at least you will be compensated in some monetary form when you have a travel insurance to protect yourself from the unfortunate events. Therefore it's highly recommended that you get one for your travel. It is relatively inexpensive and easy to purchase directly from the Internet. The basic insurance plan is typically sufficient for most travelers, unless you have expensive jewelry or golf set along with you.


Follow the links below to the other travel tips:

Part 1: Weather/Public Holiday/Passport/Visa

Part 2: Flight

Part 3: Hotel

Part 4: Attractions and Activites

Part 5: Maps and Travel Insurance

Planning a Free and Easy Tour - Part 4 of 5 (Attractions and Activities)

Planning the Attractions and Activities

Planning of the travel activities and attractions to visit for the free and easy tour is very much dependent on individual's preference. Some would prefer a slower tempo, such as spending time quietly at the lush green hotel pool side, reading your favourite book or enjoying a glass of cocktail, others would prefer a frenzy shopping trip or embark on a mountain trek for the nature lovers. Nevertheless, the following tips can be considered to plan how you can spend your day at the travel destination:


1. Look out for the Popular Attractions

Every location is well-known and popular for its own unique characteristics. For example, Hong Kong (China) is famous for its metropolitan city skyline, shopping malls/streets and the delicious Cantonese cuisine, London (UK) is famous for its world class museums and musical plays, and Siem Reap (Cambodia) is famous for the Angkor Wat, which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can find out the destinations' top tourist attractions from various sources. The first way is through travel magazines or guide books like Lonely Planet. They will provide you with quite a lot of details such as the background/history of the attractions, their significance, what you can do and see over there, how to get to the site and photographs of the site. The second way is to visit the official tourism board websites. Most of the city government/tourism board would have websites to introduce the popular attractions and activities to do within their city or country. The third way is through independent travel websites. Just type in location's name in the Google Search and you can easily find many of them listed on the page. Even the Wikitravel pages (which I often use for my own planning) are useful for you. The fourth way is to take reference from the offerings of the real travel agents. These travel agents would have posted their travel itineraries online, so that you can easily make comparisons with them to decide the popular attractions that you can visit.


2. Filter and Select the Attractions/Activities

You will have a long list of attractions and activities recommended from various sources. Now you will need to shortlist some of them based on the following criteria. First, if you have no much interest in history, paintings and artifacts, then most probably you will give museums a miss. The recommendations would encompass all sorts of attractions and activities, ranging from museums to sea sports or theme park visits. Depending on your own preference, you have to shortlist those attractions and activities that interest you. Second, depending on your available time and budget you have planned for, you have to further trim down the list that will fit into your travel plan. Third, a particular attraction looks awesome from the various recommendation sources, but the admission fee is very costly and you are doubtful if the visit is worthwhile. Well, similar to checking the hotel reviews, you can check with Tripadvisor to go through the feedbacks and reviews provided by hundreds and thousands of travelers who had visited the attraction previously to determine is it of any value to visit the attraction. One advice from me is that you should not miss out any attraction that is iconic to the location. For example the Great Wall in Beijing (China), the Sydney Opera House in Sydney (Australia) and Eiffel Tower in Paris (France) are must-visit attractions if you are visiting these locations the first time.


3. Arrange the Sequence for the Attractions and Activities

Once you have shortlisted your attractions and activities to do, you have to slot them into your travel plan. The trick here is to group the attractions of close proximity together, so that you can save time and money on the transportation. For example it does not make sense if you have to travel to the east for the first attraction, travel to the west for the second attraction and then back to the east again for your final attraction of the day! You can simply use Google Map or any other maps available to check the approximate locations of the attractions. You have to take considerations of the transportation time from one attraction to another in the planning as well. Nowadays Google Map allows you to check the travelling distance and time between 2 locations by walking, bus, train or car (taxi), so it is very convenient for you to perform this check easily. You should also check the opening and closing time for the respective attractions, so that you plan the sequence which attractions should be visited in the morning or evening. In addition, some attractions may be closed on a particular day of the month for maintenance, so it is important to check the admission information so that you do not disappoint yourself to find out the attraction is closed only when you reached there.


4. Meals

While you travel, you still have to take a break to have your meals. Personally, I am not so particular about the choice of food. Most of the time during my own free and easy travel, I will have my lunch and dinner at the attraction or near the attraction, while breakfast is typically at the hotel. I prefer local food, so that you can have a taste of the authentic local delight and cuisines. Each city or destination may be famous for a particular food, which you may want to try it out. For example the Quanjude's Peking duck in Beijing (China), Cha Ca La Vong's grilled fish in Hanoi (Vietnam) and the Jumbo Seafood Restaurant's Chili Crab in Singapore are all iconic dishes of the respective locations. Similarly to the attractions, you can find more about the popular local food and their locations from travel magazines and guide books like Lonely Planet, online websites, and also the reviews from Tripadvisor.


Follow the links below to the other travel tips:

Part 1: Weather/Public Holiday/Passport/Visa

Part 2: Flight

Part 3: Hotel

Part 4: Attractions and Activites

Part 5: Maps and Travel Insurance

Planning a Free and Easy Tour - Part 3 of 5 (Hotel)

Booking the Hotel

While planning your free and easy tour, the hotel accommodation selection is a key part of the planning. Booking a hotel by yourself has quite a number of considerations to take note, which I will go through each of them:

1. Hotel Listing

You have decided to visit your dream destination, but where should you stay? What are the hotels available? There's a few ways to go about. The first way is through travel guide books such as Lonely Planet, where different types of hotels within the area will be listed and recommended. The other easier way is to make use of hotel booking websites such as Agoda.com and Booking.com, where you just need to key in your destination and it will provide a long list of hotels available within the city or area. The list of hotels generated by the website filter could be in hundreds or thousands. If you know which particular districts you would want to stay in, the website allows you to filter by the districts to further narrow down the options.

 

 
2. Location

Location of the hotel is a very important consideration. The hotel location should preferably be close or easy to commute to the attractions within the area that you would want to visit. If the beach is the main attraction that you would visit, your hotel should then be close to the beach, so that you can simply walk there and without a need to hire a taxi. If there are multiple attractions that you would want to visit in a city by the public transportation, then your hotel should be close (within walking distance) to a metro station or bus stop. Simply use Google Map to check on the hotel location. For the shortlisted hotel, you can also use the Google Map Street View function (if available) to look around the hotel's surrounding environment. Check if the hotel is near to any cafes, restaurants and convenience shops, and if it is easily accessible from the main road. If you have been screening through the hotel list from hotel booking websites like Agoda.com and Booking.com, they already have Google Map embedded in their website, which they will show you the location of the hotel you are looking at, as well as other hotels within the vicinity. A good located hotel will give you a lot more convenience on your transportation and access to amenities.

3. Budget

Hotel accommodation can constitute to a large part of your entire travel costs. Everyone has different financial background, thus your hotel budget depends on how much you can afford. Using hotel booking websites, you can find hotels with all different prices, ranging from luxurious 5 Star hotels or private villas, to budget bed & breakfast hotel or hostel. Using their website, you can easily filter the selection to list only hotels within your budget.

4. Hotel Review

You may have encountered a hotel which their price is reasonable and the room looks good from the hotel website photos. However, is it really value for money? What about the actual condition of their room and hotel facilities? How is their quality of breakfast and customer/room services? Most likely you will not be the first few to stay in your shortlisted hotel. Hundreds and thousands of visitors would have stayed in that hotel previously, so wouldn't it be good if we can get their feedback? Nowadays, you will see that thousands of people are providing their hotel stay experience in the hotels on travel websites like Agoda.com, Booking.com and Tripadvisor. Anything with more than 100 recent reviews is sufficient to provide a good indication of the actual conditions visitors have experienced. The higher the overall hotel rating, the higher chance you can ensure your stay will be pleasant.

Personally for my own free and easy trips, I have always booked the hotel rooms through hotel booking websites, such as Agoda.com and Booking.com. I will recommend Agoda.com if you are looking for hotels in the Asia Pacific region. Agoda.com specialises in this region, which they have a huge hotel database and they are often the cheapest among other competitors. If you are looking for hotels in Europe, then I will recommend Booking.com.

I have used both Agoda.com and Booking.com before, so far all the bookings are successful and error free. I have already discussed some of the advantages that these websites can offer to you as above, such as ease of making quick comparisons and filter options to focus exactly what you need. In addition, these websites have many more features which make things extremely convenient for the user:

• You can set the language and currency of your choice on their website
• You can check the photos of the hotel facilities and the different rooms
• You can check on the available hotel facilities, as well as the room size and facilities
• You can see the breakdown of different review ratings, on hotel location, room cleanliness, customer service quality, and whether it is value for money
• You can see constant streams of discounts for almost all the hotels listed!
• They will provide add-on information on nearby rail/metro stations, attractions, bar/restaurants
• Booking the hotel rooms through their website is easy and fast

Follow the links below to the other travel tips:

Part 1: Weather/Public Holiday/Passport/Visa

Part 2: Flight

Part 3: Hotel

Part 4: Attractions and Activites

Part 5: Maps and Travel Insurance