Saturday we took an Uber to the Marina Barrage, since we heard this was the place to take a picture of the skyline. That was very accurate. However... most of the photographers seem to be lined up in not the best spot; they were all on top of the barrage and on the bridge, but the best spot really seemed to be across the water, which was the only place where you could also see the Lotus Blossom shaped building, and block out a couple of unsightly cranes.
The top of the barrage was really cool, not what we had expected at all. I didn't expect that it was going to be such a large area, but it was filled with people having picnics, flying kites, taking selfies, and just hanging out. Like... so many kites. Serious kite flying. It looks like it might be a locals' secret space, since we only spotted a couple other white people. Also... the breeze up there was amazing!
We decided to head across the bridge before the sun set to get the shot I wanted. It became less breezy on the other side, and a bunch of little bunches quickly came out at sun down. I couldn't tell what was sweat and what was a bug, it was disgusting, but I wanted the shot.
I wanted to like the shot with the green ferris wheel more, but I think the blue one works better. Jess also got a bunch of great shots on his phone... what do I even have a big heavy camera for, anyway?
The plan was to go to Satay by the Bay for dinner, which is an outdoor area with a bunch of food stalls. It sounded like a good idea before I was cranky and covered in bugs and sweat, and wearing a long dress so I couldn't do anything about it. (Jess was very polite given how inconsolably cranky I was about the heat). We walked past Satay by the Bay and it smelled amazing, but it was so hot and crowded, we just couldn't do it.
We had also kind of planned to walk through some of the gardens at night, since we assumed it would be cooler. As you probably guessed, that didn't happen. We did, however, find ourselves walking through the Supertree Grove... which we will probably go back to. There is a skywalk (where I'm sure it's breezy) and a restaurant on top of the biggest tree.
We finally got to Marina Bay Sands and found a bathroom that magically happened to have paper towels (many DO NOT!). I proceeded to wipe my forehead and neck and shoulders with a cold paper towel and felt much better. Considering we were both tired and hot, trying to find a place for dinner seemed like a chore (especially since it was also nearing ~9pm, I think). We decided to take an Uber back to our neighborhood, but then found out Uber can only pick up at certain points at this hotel, and we couldn't figure out where to place the pick up point, and the line at the cab stand was extremely long.
For some reason we thought it would be just as easy to walk back home at that point. ...tired brains? Thankfully at that point we decided to just eat at Marina Bay Sands, and we ended up at the Comic Cafe. Food was fine, drinks were fine (they didn't have tap water!? We had to pay $5 per bottle). Again... nothing comes cheap here. But it was fun to experience the restaurant theme, and it put us both in better moods.
We had considered just going to the food court, but can someone explain to me why this mall, especially the food court, is this crowded at 9pm?? It was a fluke that we were eating dinner so late... is that just a thing here..? We noticed they seem to take later lunches, typically starting around 1 instead of noon on the dot.
After our late dinner, and since we had decided to walk home, I wanted to get a shot of the helix bridge with my actual camera. But guess what? There were so many people we could barely walk against the crowd (all for some reason headed into the nearly closing mall..?), and that was not a shot I wanted. Looks like I'll have to go back in the middle of the night sometime... maybe there won't be crowds of people then.
Jess did get a couple shots of the Science building though, where they were projecting a video and playing music this time, instead of the broken visuals.
Then we very begrudgingly walked the rest of the way home, since we couldn't get a cab to pick us up anywhere.