We spent most of the day at the Gardens by the Bay. We visited many of the sights in the park, including the Marina Barrage, the two domes, and the Supertrees. It was a good amount of walking in some pretty strong heat when the sun was out.
We started from the new Gardens by the Bay MRT station. We headed towards the Marina Barrage, partly visible here in the background behind the sculpture. The Marina Barrage is a dam that was built to keep seawater out of Marina Bay to allow its use as a reservoir. Apparently, a barrage in this context is a specific type of dam.
As we entered the barrage structure, we decided to walk to the far side first. We passed by this very shallow pool of water. It is part of a little playground for children.
This sculpture seems like it would fit well on the Olympic Walk by the Marina Bay Sands.
Finally, the dam is visible! To the right is the ocean, though technically it is probably better described as the Singapore Strait.
Many ships lie at anchor near the shore, a daily sight here in Singapore.
We then walked out on the dam for a bit. The ocean water looks much prettier from this direction!
Looking inland, a nice urban landscape with many of Singapore’s iconic sights visible in the distance.
The Marina Barrage, besides being a piece of infrastructure, is also an urban park. The roof of the pump building is covered with grass and was being used by picnickers and kite flyers as well as others just enjoying the landscape. We took the elevator up to the top.
There are also two long ramps that lead to the roof. They create a wide circle around an open area with a basin of water below.
We had a similar view up on the northeast corner of the roof as we did when we were back down on the dam.
We took one of the ramps back down to ground level. This ramp had a nice elevated view when looking inland. The other ramp is lower down at this point.
We then started walking towards the Supertrees. We first passed by this pond filled with lilies. This pond seems to be named the Lotus Pond according to a sign we saw. We didn’t see any lotuses though, only water lilies! We could be mistaken about the name. It is not labelled on the official park map.
We crossed a small bridge to get to the other side of the pond. It seemed to be fed by this small waterfall.
We then walked by the Kingfisher Lake. There were kingfisher sculptures around the lake. We didn’t see any kingfishers here though we did see some earlier around the MRT station.
We didn’t try to do any birding due to the heat. This might be a female Black-Naped Oriole.
We continued on and soon found ourselves below the main grove of Supertrees.
We headed up to the Skyway, a one way path along what is basically a curved suspension bridge supported by wires attached to the Supertrees. It is accessed by two elevators embedded within Supertrees at opposite ends.
The supertree structure is basically made up of metal tubes surrounding a central structure. Plants grow on the tubes adding a bit of naturalness to the otherwise artificial trees.
We could see some structures down below for the Christmas illumination event that is taking place this year. It requires tickets to enter though they were all sold out for tonight.
The walkway isn’t too long but is rather narrow other than near the ends.
We then headed to the Supertree Observatory. It is located atop the central Supertree. This one is taller than all the others. There is an outdoor path that circles the top. It offers some nice views of the surrounding scenery and the other Supertrees though obscured a bit by its branches.
There is another observation area a bit higher up at the very top of the Supertree.
We then walked over to the Cloud Forest, one of two glass domes in the park. It consists of a large mountain-like structure in the middle with a waterfall flowing down from its side.
The structure is covered with various plants, some of which were flowering. There are also many pathways visible from below.
There is currently an Avatar event taking place in the Cloud Forest. There are various Avatar related sculptures throughout the dome as well as some Avatar related interactive activities.
A small section near ground level was dedicated to orchids.
We then headed up to the top by elevator and stairs. We looked down to see some of the paths that we had already walked and others that we would walk on as we descended.
There were lots of great places to take photos.
We could see some of the Avatar sculptures from above.
So many plants! And they’re all so green!
As we headed down, a misting system turned on. This is apparently how they water the plants?
Our next stop was the adjacent Flower Dome.
Although it is called the Flower Dome, it houses many other types of plants as well as many sculptures like this one of a goose-like bird.
A dragon sculpture.
There were a few species of Baobab.
There were also many little cacti.
Looking down, we could see some Christmas trees and a fake ice structure!
There also appeared to be some little cabins surrounded by many flowers!
Most of the flowers seemed to be one floor down, though we did see some on the second floor where the entrance is.
We headed down to to see the cabins surrounded by flowers.
We noticed some reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh!
After leaving the Flower Dome, we started walking towards the Bayfront MRT station. We decided to take a path down by Dragonfly Lake.
There were two metal sculptures of kids riding damselflies. Look closely at what they’re doing!
Earlier in the day, we saw a warning sign about monitor lizards, a type of poisonous lizard in the same family as the larger Komodo dragons. We saw one swimming in Dragonfly Lake! Or at least, we think that is what we saw.
We were planning on taking a path that would lead up to a bridge that crosses the lake around here. Unfortunately, the path was closed for maintenance. So, we continued onward… So hot, even with mostly overcast skies.
Eventually, after walking though some pretty oppressive heat, we walked by an area that was being set up for Lunar New Year. Year of the rabbit!
We crossed a bridge taking us to the other side of Dragonfly Lake and closer to the MRT station.
The final sight of interest, a tiger sculpture that is made of trash. It seems like it should be related to the current year of the tiger but is not, or at least, there is no mention of it in this article about the tiger.