City Bus Tour

Figuring out the layout of a new place and understanding how it all fits together is important to do early on, right? So Ted and I decided rather than walk around the whole city/country with 3 (whining tired) kids in tow, we would take a bus tour. The girls were excited to be on top of a double-decker bus, Wy stopped crying for a few hours, and we had ourselves a great time. Here's what we learned:

Before we got on the bus, we had to walk over a pedestrian footbridge that overlooked a very common sight in Singapore, construction. This is a huge crater that I'm guessing will make the base of a building. Those tiny dots down there are people with hardhats, tons of them. There are sights like this all over Singapore. Anyone looking for a construction job, should look up Singapore's Ministry of Manpower and figure out how to get over here.

Can you tell how excited the kids are? The day was a hot one, but the breeze was constant and it felt great to be cruising around the city on top of the bus. Perfection.

And I was pretty excited too. Can't you just feel the breeze?

1. The first thing we checked out was the Singapore Flyer, which is a huge ferris wheel that overlooks the whole country and even into Indonesia and Malaysia. It's 165 m tall (30m taller than the London Eye, not that anyone is counting) and takes half an hour for a rotation. The capsules hold 28 people and apparently used to rotate in the opposite direction but it had to be changed due to feng shui considerations.

2. The next huge attraction is the Marina Bay Sands, a big hotel, casino, and shopping complex built by the Las Vegas Sands company. If you have seen a Singapore building before, it's probably this one. Made up of three towers connected by a ship-like feature on top, it has an infinity pool on top that makes it look like once you step into it, you'll float right over the edge and splat right into the city. You can pay to take the elevator to the top observation deck, but apparently can't get anywhere near the pool unless you cough up the S$300+ to stay there.

3. That building is crazy. Once you drive by it, the road turns you around for this sweeping view of the expansive Financial District. It's impossible to explain the scale of this section of skyline. It's breath-taking, jaw-dropping stuff.

And everything is new. Sparkling and new. I wish we had taken some pictures of this, but I think we were so in awe neither one of us could look away.

4. This crazy building is the ArtScience Museum which is shaped like the fingers on a hand, with one shorter thumb. It is connected to the Singapore Flyer by a pedestrian footbridge that has the double-helix DNA design. 

5. As we toured around the city, there were several themes that stood out. So many of the buildings utilize color. In the shutters. With the flowers. The buildings themselves. Colorful lights that make the structures, entire buildings, change color. Our tour was during the day, so here are some colorful daytime sights we came across:

There are more photographic examples, but I'm including them with the individual neighborhood shots later.

6. Another theme is nature. The central parts of the city/country are mostly concrete and steel, of course, but greenery is included in creative ways. And outside of the Central Business District and Financial District, there are tons of green areas. It's very lush and beautiful. The pedestrian walkways have planters, most roads are divided and have elaborate gardens in the center strip. It feels very tropical and posh. It kind of reminds me of a bus tour I took as a kid through Beverly Hills, greenery everywhere.

7. The famous shopping street here is called Orchard Road. It's the Rodeo Drive, 5th Avenue, whatever, of Singapore, full of Cartier, Dior, Prada, and all that stuff I will never buy, but the shops sure do look pretty. Everyone here tells us that Singaporeans have two hobbies: eating and shopping. And man, is that the truth. There are shopping areas everywhere, EVERYWHERE! And the shops are full of people. It's shocking. Mixed in are tons and tons of restaurants of every price-range. I snapped some pictures from Orchard Road.

8. This is a shot of the Fountain of Wealth. It is the largest fountain in the world. The water sprays inward instead of upward. It's in an area called Marina Bay or Suntec City, whose buildings are also arranged like fingers and a thumb of the left hand. This fountain is the palm. At night there are free laser shows here that I have only seen so far on youtube. The children's moods have prevented us from wandering that far away from home at night yet. But I'll post pictures when we do it!

At this point, Zoe and Wyatt had fallen asleep so decided to jump on another bus (same ticket though) on the Heritage Route. 

9. This bus took us to all the parts of Singapore that look like what I had imagined all of Singapore would look like. The older villages that are dedicated to one ethnicity and have such character, Little India

Chinatown

and Arab Street

Here are some other shots that didn't fit into the narrative:

We had such a great time, we were all exhausted and ready for a swim.

On the way home, we found this guy.

How big is that snail? He's this big

Wshew. That was a long one. Thanks for sticking with it. I think it may be a bit before I have time to post again. Ted started his first day at the new office today so I have 3 kids to entertain. Off to explore!