Our Travel Blog

Gardens By The Bay

I'll keep the words to a minimum here and let the pictures do the talking. Sunday we decided to go to Gardens by the Bay, sort of on a whim. We had talked about it the day before, but didn't solidify it as an actual plan. So when we (I) woke up on Sunday (late!), I decided we should give Satay by the Bay another chance, and also go to the gardens.

What a great idea! Turns out evenings around 7-8p is the busiest time (which is when we were there before) for Satay by the Bay, and the lunch crowd was very small. Fans were blowing, lines were short, food smelled good, and we were happy. We had some more delicious satay; the beef and chicken were okay, but the pork belly was the best. We tried mee goreng again and this one was better than the last. And black pepper chicken that was fantastic.

After lunch we headed over to the domes. The ticket line was about an hour long, and it was getting hot outside (even though we were under shade!). So we attempted to purchase tickets online, and also had the option of a discount because we're long term pass holders! First attempt failed because Jess' credit card thought we were thieves trying to buy attraction tickets in another country. He got a notification on his phone and responded 1 to say yes it's me! Second attempt failed; the notification response didn't go through, tried it again. Third attempt failed. I also forgot to mention, each time I had to type out all of our info, including name, address, both our visa numbers, and credit card information - three screens of forms.

Finally he started a phone call with Chase while trying to download an app - all of it was a hassle and took nearly 30 minutes, but we got it settled, purchased the tickets, and hopped out of line with over half an hour wait left.

We entered into the first dome, the Cloud Forest, and OH MY GOD! It was well worth the wait. This was the most pleasant experience in all of Singapore. We were greeted by a huge waterfall, and it was COLD. The dome is supposed to simulate a mountain, and it got colder and colder the higher we went. I had to put on a sweater.

The amount of selfies being taken was out of control, but we made it through the Cloud Forest relatively unbothered by it. By the time we got to the Flower Dome it was more of an issue, since loads more people come out later in the day. We didn't find the flower dome nearly as interesting though (thankfully), so we went through that one pretty quickly.

Most of the phone pictures inside the domes were taken by Jess. For once I didn't feel burdened by having my heavy camera with me, and even made use of all three lenses I brought along. These are the phone pictures from inside the Cloud Forest.

And phone pictures from the Flower Dome.

By the time we completed both domes we were pretty tired, and started to leisurely walk toward the cab stand. Good timing, it started raining just as we got under cover (too bad the rain actually came, because it was feeling nice and breezy, for once, to do a bit of the outside gardens).

We rested for a bit at home before heading back out across the street to Sangokai to grab some sushi for dinner. Yum! This place had some of the best eel we've ever had, and their rolls were really refreshing. The rolls were big, but I still left wanting more because it was so good.

We took a quick walk down Haji Lane then headed back to the apartment and grabbed some snacks at the mini mart before turning in for the night. More to come later, but I wanted to leave the Gardens in it's own post!

And now for a giant cluster of camera photos because the idea of organizing them seemed like a giant task.

The welcoming waterfall.

A few dragons...

Some flowers in the beginning.

Some weird things...

The view from the back of the dome/opposite side of the waterfall.

More ground floor flowers.

The top of the waterfall and another view of the gardens.

These awesome carnivorous plants made of Legos...

Then we headed out to level 2 that had this really neat view from behind the waterfall.

Then we took an elevator to the top floor where there is a garden surrounding a pond, then you start to work your way back down via the walkway shown before, then a series of escalotors.

Despite not really being a purple fan, these were a couple of my favorites. 

The pond, some people taking pictures, and the view from above.

Then we headed down one level... I love this first one, I think it gives you the best sense of scale. This place is massive.

Then we went alllllll the way to the bottom, below ground level. This is when I realized it was getting late in the day (we had spent almost 2 hours in this one!) and we were starting to lose light.

Between the domes were these trees with giant ants.

Then over to the Flower Dome. This dome was much more crowded (there was a line to get inside!). I had one person stand directly in front of me to take a shot that I was in the middle of taking. This dome had a lot of cacti, and some cosplayers!

Outside of the domes we saw a unicyclist, a giant swam, some more flowers, and the supertrees on our way to the cab stand.

Jess has a video, but it's not edited yet. So I will either attach it here at the end and repost the blog to Facebook, or make another entry once it's up!

Animals are creepy in the dark

I said I would take more pictures in the graffiti food court...so I did! We went back the next day, Thursday, and I had some pretty good sushi (HUGE pieces though) along with a nice salad and a soup that I think was the baby of Miso and French Onion. Jess apparently had a fairly average burger. But the place was packed as usual... we got there right around noon, which is early for lunch here, and we had a limited choice in seats.

After lunch I wandered down Haji Lane for a bit (the real reason was so I could go get a piece of rainbow cake though). I went quickly in and out of a few shops, thinking they might be more interesting, but most were not. I got yelled at for taking a picture in one store, of their "home decor" section, then saw the big sign that said "NO PHOTOGRAPHY! $50 PER SNAP!"

Jess went out to dinner with some co-workers that evening, so I got that "amazing" salad from Going Om... not so great on the second go/as take-away. So I had Jess bring some beef satay home with him... that made up for it.

Friday I woke up with a headache, and Jess went to work a little later than usual... sleeping in is too easy with heavy drapes, especially if you're both zonked and just don't feel like waking up. We opted not to have lunch together because of that... also because I spent the entire day trying (and failing) to get rid of my headache.

I made spaghetti while Jess walked home from work... yes, this was the third time we've had spaghetti since we've been here. It's easy to make, and this kitchen makes it difficult. So that should explain why we're not being super adventurous about cooking our own meals. However... I did make some fantastic garlic bread in our microwave/oven/grill.

We had plans to go to the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo. This was literally the first thing I found when I started researching Singapore, so I was excited to see that there was a promotion for March. 50% off for Singapore residents and work permit/long term visit pass holders - yay! We have those! I felt extra fancy flashing my card to the employee at the ticket counter... he did not care, nor did he seem impressed.

We got there just in time for the start of the Creatures of the Night Show. It was silly... pretty much what you would expect from a zoo/amusement type show. They had a couple volunteers from the audience go up to do some things. First they got a young boy to hold a grape in one of his hands and had a bear cat choose which hand it was in.

Then they had a "macho man" go up (that is specifically who they were asking for - the host went and chose someone, thin guy with glasses) to pet a snake. The biiig snake was being held by three employees. They put the snake on the man's shoulders, then the lights started flashing, then they went out, then all the employees took off and left the poor man standing on the stage with a big snake around his neck. They left him out there alone for about 5 seconds longer than I felt comfortable for him (they probably only left him for about 2 seconds).

It ended with this super cute otter showing us how to recycle.

There were a couple raccoons, a hyena, and a cat that wouldn't do its trick. Thankfully we were sitting in the back row, so we got out quickly once it was over... getting in was a bit of a hassle. People here just don't seem to follow the rules of the queue, and they will walk up ahead of you even though you've clearly been standing there waiting because there is a line of people.

Let's also take a moment to appreciate how cute my hair was... this did not help with my persistent headache, but it did help with the heat.

After the show we hopped on a tram for a 40 minute ride through tour. I actually got a little bit chilly! Too bad we didn't end the trip with the tram ride because it was relaxing and cool.

There were a bunch of varieties of deer, some giraffes, elephants (one yelled at us as we drove past), a hippo butt, some piggies, a couple rhinos, some lions, and some tapirs that were RIGHT NEXT to the tram... the tapirs (like some of the other harmless animals) were not fenced in and they were so close that we could have touched them (if we were allowed to). Unfortunately the tapirs were not on a walk through path because I would have loved to have seen then closer, and maybe tried to sneak a pet.

After the tram we did the walking trails. We started with the wallaby trail and bat cave. There were no bats in the cave (except for the one that flew out just as we were entering), and I wasn't really expecting them to be outside the cave, but they definitely were. Once we reached the other end i said "whoa! there was another bat!" Then there was another, then another. I screamed only a ...few times. I am a fan of bats... but I'm pretty sure they wanted to take my head off. Also, I am not used to that many bats flying that closely to my head.

After this encounter I was a little on edge. I assumed these bats were just free flying bats and not necessarily part of the zoo attraction, so I wasn't expecting to get up close and personal with anything else. We entered an exhibit with doors (like the bird exhibits you see sometimes in zoos and aquariums at home)... this one had wallabies. Keep it mind it is after 10pm, and it's dark. They do not have many lights in the exhibits because these are nocturnal animals, but they have very brightly lit information signs. So your eyes are constantly transitioning, and not quickly enough. So... I noticed a few wallabies, even one being sneaky and very still next to a bush. The I screamed (again) as another wallaby came crashing out of a bush from behind me. We quickly hustled through the rest of the wallaby exhibit, and almost got run over by one of the little guys trying to cross the path. Of course I stopped dead in my tracks unsure of what to do, and he and I just stared at each other. Jess finally excused us from his path and we continued on.

I'll go ahead and insert an apology for the lack of pictures here. Like I said, it was incredibly dark, so I didn't lug my big camera with me (knowing it would be near impossible to actually get any shots without flash or tripod). So we made due with the few crappy phone shots we could get.

We ended up seeing a few of the animals we couldn't see too well from the tram.

Stopped for a potty break and clearly we were both fascinated by these outdoor bathrooms. For some reason the men's room had one tiny toilet, and the women's room (like a few other places here) had a small urinal right at the entrance. And once again... no paper towels or working hand dryers, it's a common theme here.

After the potty exhibit we passed by some civet cats, another cat that was possibly just a house cat, some sugar gliders, and a really fast tarsier.

Then there was another enclosed walk through exhibit. This did not feel like something we were supposed to enter, and it felt like entering Jurassic Park. Big big bats (flying foxes) everywhere. And it's so dark, and there are so many trees, you keep noticing more bats you did not see before.

We watched one bat hanging upside down, partially sleeping for a little while. Just as we started to walk away, he took off and flew across the enclosure. I am not proud of this, but I grabbed onto the back of Jess and nearly dropped to the floor. Their wingspans are huge and I felt the breeze on the back of my neck... he came close. The entire time we were there I didn't see any other person getting battacked. 

But look how cute they are. He was close enough to pet... but he probably would have flown away and cut my head off with his enormous wing if I tried.

After the flying fox exhibit was the giant flying squirrel enclosure. These guys were much more difficult to find. Not sure how many were in there, but just as we were about to give up we saw the tops of a tree moving. This thing was bright red and about 3 feet long, so I'm not sure how we missed it. We still couldn't get a great view of it because it was high up and really hiding behind some branches. We watched him jump from branch to branch, but didn't get to catch him "flying". He did launch himself off the tree further toward the back of the enclosure, then we heard a thump. Then we left.

We scooted pretty quickly through the rest since the park was closing soon, and I was starting to feel warm and kind of sick. Saw this cutie leopard resting his leg on a log. then some deer, mouse deer, random mice (not part of the exhibits), another civet cat, some porcupines, pigs, then we heard loud chirping... lots of loud chirping. We rounded a corner and found these amazingly super cute otters! When we got to the clearing they all swam over and stood up on the logs in the water and chirped right at us (one meowed). I could have watched them for a while longer, but I was about to climb in and pet them they were so cute.

Excuse the terrible dark video... it's from my phone. Jess' camcorder was dead, and again, it was crazy dark there.

The cuteness of the otters fueled me to finish the trek back to the front of the park. We walked into a glow in the dark gift shop and I'm so glad we did... we were wearing the perfect outfits for the black light.

Then obviously I was feeling sick by the time we finally got a car to take us back home. We got dropped off across the street so we could grab some food, I went ahead back to the apartment while Jess waited for take away. I watched a drunk girl almost get run over by a cab while jay walking. Then I had a fantastic blueberry cheese blintz when Jess got in with the food.

At some point I fell asleep on the couch with wet hair, while Jess dealt with maintenance getting our water turned back on (since it had apparently shut off sometime between my shower when I got in, and his shower about 25 minutes later after eating the food). He let me sleep on the couch a long time because he was busy playing video games.

My headache was still not gone.

Slept in this morning then finally went to a very late breakfast around 2. After lots of research (mostly Yelping for "waffles") we came across Tolidos. By process of elimination they won because of proximity. I had some amaaaaazing Banana Almond French Toast and basically a Starbucks caramel frappucino (though I think it had bits of fried chicken -not really but kind of tasted like it- in it, which was a disappointment since I thought it was big sugar crystals).

We got back and went to the pool for a bit, then stayed inside for the rest of the daylight hours. We did some Bali research and booked two hotels - two nights in Ubud and two nights in Seminyak. Both came with "free" stuff like massages, dinners, airport transfers, welcome drinks and private tours. Should be exciting!

We decided to go out for a bit this evening, since we haven't really done much across the street. We sat at Berg's and had some burgers while watching the sweaty drunks dancing in the street. Haji Lane gets crazy at night... we decided that, after all, we didn't really want anything to do with that part of Haji Lane.

We headed up the street to a place called Bar Stories, the bartender from Coq and Balls recommend we try it. Their thing is that they don't have a menu. You tell them what you like, and they come up with something for you. Unfortunately when we first got there we sat at a table instead of a bar, so a waiter came to "take our order." He asked us what we like, and we basically got exactly that. Jess mentioned that he liked margaritas, so he did get an interesting twist on one, but I got a straight up Old Fashioned with walnut bitters (Ooooo, fancy). I literally make that at my house.

For the second drink we had moved to the bar though and made a point to get the bartenders attention. My drink this time was much more custom and enjoyable, though the first was still delicious.

Now Jess is yelling at me for this post being so long. SORRY GUYS!!

Tit-bits at the mini mart.

Microwave brownies and accidental buffets

Monday was another late dinner (which seems to be a thing here), so we're never alone at our 8 and 9pm meals. I thought about the vermicelli bowl from Mrs Pho, where we went the first week, and that sounded like a great idea. It was a little less crowded this time, so we weren't tucked into a tiny corner and no one had to apologize to Jess for how small the space was.

Halfway through dinner I remembered that it was Pi Day and I wanted a pie... Jess pretend to humor me by allowing me to walk the "long" way back in an attempt to look for pie, but we did not find any. We did however find a strange little Malaysian (?) shop (coffee/grocery) that was filled with durian and durian flavored things. That's a smell. The two employees watched us as we wandered obviously confused through the three aisles.

Alas no pie... so I decided to just come home and bake my $7 box of brownies. With my unrefrigerated eggs. That I mixed in a glass salad bowl with a tiny scraper spatula. And then baked in my microwave/oven/grill. In a metal pan smaller than the smallest dimensions given on the bake time instructions panel. Yet it took even longer than the instructed time, and they still came out fairly fudgey in the middle... but good enough for me.

Tuesday I met Jess at Suntec and we decided on A-one Claypot for lunch. I picked out a few things on the menu that sounded good beforehand, but still had trouble when we got there because I wanted a bunch of different things. We didn't try any of the porridges, which I guess is the main thing, but the table next to us did and it smelled amazing.

Our receipt was almost completely Chinese, so we sat for a bit translating with an app on Jess' phone and his limited knowledge of some of the characters. Then the food came! First we were snacking on boiled peanuts, which made me nervous to look at, but they were good! I've never had a boiled nut... I didn't realize they get that soft. But yum. I had scallops, shrimp and asparagus in a spicy chili sauce, and Jess had claypot rice with chicken in gong bao sauce... not sure what that is, but it was spicy. (Jess just had a brilliant thought as I was typing this and asked if Gong Bao is Kung Pao. Turns out... yes, it is) We also ordered these carbonated drinks that tasted a little bit like otter pops. Jess wasn't too keen on them, but I could go for another one right now. Mine was strawberry elderflower, his was kiwi apple.

After lunch we walked across to the outdoor/sports/toys section of Giant (yes, the grocery store like at home). It's broken into four distinct stores (one of which being completely separate, the rest are linked). The one I just said, a home goods and clothing basics sort of store, a grocery store, and a bakery. They were having a $4.50 book sale, and I couldn't turn down any of these for that price.

I swung by the grocery section on my way out to scope out some possible ingredients for a homemade taco dinner. Gathered prices on items and decided to contemplate over whether or not we would use burrito seasoning, since there wasn't taco seasoning, and other items were questionable. I grabbed some cereal and bread and headed home. Oh yea... and I grabbed a Winter Melon Fresh Milk on my way out... I was corrected that it was fresh milk and not milk tea. I'm assuming the difference is that there was mostly milk in it with just a little tea, unlike the milk teas which are mostly tea with a little milk..? Either way... I like it.

While waiting for Jess to get off work I did what I do best... researched nearby restaurants. We decided on a couple halfway between us that we would walk past and check out their menus. One option being Porn's Sexy Thai Food (yes, that link is safe to click) because obviously the funny names have been drawing us in.

We met up and noticed an interesting looking place next to Porn's (where two employees were standing outside yelling "sexy thai food!"), so we decided to check out their menu first. It looked intriguing! A bunch of skewered foods that you can order by the piece, and seemingly reasonably priced. So we opted for this place instead (they also drew us in with the 2 for $9 happy hour beer special). I ordered the best Heineken I've ever had (I still feel like maybe their tap was labeled wrong, because it did not taste like Heineken) and Jess had his new favorite, Tiger (bleck!).

We sat and flipped through and stared at the menu for a while because we couldn't figure out how we were supposed to order. Since you could order by single skewers, it seemed like a chore to try to remember, or to flip through the menu while reciting your order to the waiter. When he finally came over to start our order he gave us a weird look when Jess asked how we order. His response was "...are you having the buffet?" (pronounced 'boo-fay'). Turns out... buffet! Anything on the menu, except the "premium selections" (which was a handful of items we weren't very interested in anyway), for $29.95 per person. WELL... yes. We did it. I even added it up in the end to make sure we came out ahead. We ordered (and ate) $84.20 worth of food. We also had 4 sets of 2 for $9 happy hour beers (half pints!).

We ordered in small batches and he would bring out a receipt for each small order. By the end we had 6 orders. Unfortunately our final receipt didn't list everything we ate either, I don't think it even includes half of it. The food was great...we had the most hearty edamame ever (moist and cold, unlike what we tend to get at home which usually seems kind of dry and extremely salty), and a pretty tasty Japanese garden salad to start. Then the skewers... beef satay, pork belly, chicken wings, thai sausages... and you could choose from 4 different seasonings for each skewer. So many options. And dessert was included... the choice of coconut creme brulee or cheesecake. I would not go back strictly for either of the desserts. Jess' cheesecake legitimately tasted like cheese...like a powdery fake cheddar flavor. My creme brulee tasted...store bought? But the non-dessert foods.... yum. Jess is already going back tomorrow for a work dinner (rats! I'll be missing out... but I think I'll go have that amazing salad from Going Om again).

We swung my the downstairs 7eleven so I could grab a couple more Tiger Radlers. Oh man... they are only 2% alcohol... but it tastes like mimosa and I love it. Before heading back up our elevator I snagged a piece of candy out of the bowl at the front desk. I had been eyeing them up, but I never took one because foreign candy. They taste like Laffy Taffy! I've now had every flavor... strawberry, guava and apple. Yep... I might take one every time now.

Those are the flowers that greet us at the bottom of our elevator every day. ...my hair got stuck in it once.

I tricked Jess into watching Gotham, even though he wanted to play video games. Let's just take a moment to appreciate how great that last episode of Gotham was!

Today Jess headed to work and I watched the season finale of Pretty Little Liars with Nicole (via Google Hangouts, after Ruby left) and it was also so good! Then I headed out to meet Jess for a late lunch. He wasn't going to question why I was so late, and I told on myself that I lost track of time while talking to Nicole about the finale. I met him in the mall... in front of the Kung Fu Panda display, where they happened to be doing...............whatever this is.

We decided to check out the first floor graffiti food court. We'll need to go at least two more times, since there are two more places I want to try. Turns out we either need to have a really early or really late lunch to have a chance of actually getting a seat. It was 1:30 when we ordered our food and there was still only one table available.

I got a "sloppy chili dog" and Jess had a pastrami sandwich, both of which were very good. They came with a side of our choice a cookie. None of the food stalls have drinks (unless it's something like a milkshake), so you have to order all drinks at a stall in the middle of the food court. I had passionfruit mint tea and Jess had blackberry lime tea. Also good! I'll never get over the lack of ready tea we have at home after this!!

Now let's talk about these chocolate chip cookies. I'm glad Jess offered his to me before we even got them. SO GOOD. Crunchy and rich, but not too rich, and actually sweet enough for me. I will need several more. I ate them too quickly to have even thought about taking a picture.

The food court itself is really cool, each of the stalls are individually decorated, and there is graffiti on all the walls. I'll need to take more pictures sometime when there are less people. If that ever happens.

The picture above is some sort of stuck on images, but there are spray painted ninja turtles and various other characters. They also have these crates all over the ceiling with lights in them. And there is a Cajun Seafood Truck that is actually a food truck.

After lunch I went back to Giant, this time with a cooler bag so I could actually purchase meat! I got all the taco fixin's, including shredded cheese that was on sale 2 for $11.80, what a deal! And loose minced beef that has to be scooped and bagged by the butcher. So... the butcher's case has two big tubs of loose ground beef, and pre-packaged chicken breasts, and I think a small selection of steaks. While the cooler cases that you can pick through yourself have large pieces of meat, whole fish, things like intestines, and I don't even know what else because I'm too concerned to look. Also... I decided last week that the only meat we're cooking in this kitchen is ground beef.

Anyway... made my purchases then trekked back home and waited for Jess. Cooked up the meat and it's really nice ground beef, this is the second time we've had it. It's super red and tender, easy to chop up really fine the way I like it. Even the burrito mix was good and close enough to taco seasoning. I almost forgot about my beans and corn. Delmonte corn was fine, but the black beans were very confusing. They smelled and tasted almost olive-y. Turns out they are preserved, and extremely salty. Those did not make it onto our food. Time to check the sour cream. I opened the package and it was completely dry on top.  I dug a spoon through about an inch of crust before hitting any sort of moist inner layer. It smelled extremely sour, like yogurt, and had a really fine gritty texture. That also did not make it onto our food. 

Otherwise the tacos (on top of crushed Doritos... Jess calls them Dunmire tacos) were delicious.

Oh yea... and Jess brought home Indian sweets. He tricked me into trying one by calling it "sweets." Turns out... Indian sweets are not among my favorite things.

Marina Bay East

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.

Singaplural

Singaplural is a pop-up museum that "celebrates design, in all its forms, functions, stories and inspirations." Singaplural has been organized since 2012 by the Singapore Furniture Industries Council. The name Singaplural is actually a combination of the words singular and plural, not Singapore and plural as I thought!

We went kind of on a whim on our way home from Suntec, after Jess got off work early on Friday. There were some really cool things, and some things that we just straight up did not get. Singaplural 2016 was housed in an old police building, and there were about 2-3 exhibits per room, and the rooms seemed to go on forever.

One of the first things we saw and walked through was an outdoor hallway made out of a series of different doors. The end of it lead to another exhibit that was partially edible. One of the cool things about this museum is that a lot of the artists were there and very interested in explaining their work. It also helped that we were there early in the evening, so there weren't many other people there yet.

The edible exhibit was a big garden planted in all recycled containers. We smelled lots of things, but only tasted the wormwood, and it was a very interesting and complex flavor that kept changing... it was pretty good.

Another favorite was this cloud forest. The clouds were made of ceramic pieces of varying sizes and densities. When you run your hands through them they clink together and make sounds like windchimes, and because they're different sizes they produce different tones.

The exhibits were supposed to stimulate different senses. The garden focused on sight, smell, taste and touch. The clouds were touch and sound (I guess all or most of them were sight as well!), and the next couple were very smell oriented. This one had a wall of viles with little bits of dried flowers and herbs... they were labeled, but it would have been neat to have to guess what they were!

When we walked into the next room it smelled SO GOOD. I recognized the smell, but didn't realize what it was until I got closer to the fountain, at which point my brain said "is that... whiskey..?" It was whiskey! A fountain if whiskey. Unfortunately this exhibit was not taste oriented... nor would I want to since there wasn't anyone monitoring it, but that would make a great exhibit.

Then we got into a human sized kaleidoscope! Part of the point was to get inside of it... but I think it looked cooler from outside, once you were inside you just saw lots of reflections of yourself, not so much of the display in the background.

I read the plaque about the blocks of wood above, and I really don't remember what it was about. It was interactive, you were supposed to write something on a block (about being green or something?) and then add it to a string.

Two of my favorites were back to back... First there was a room with 2 shelves, and they were lined with polaroids in frames. Each one had a switch, and when you pressed it a light would come on revealing a hidden drawing!

The next room was 3 different artists takes on Aurora Borealis. I only took pictures of the one though... which was laser cut pieces of opal/pearlized plastic with a swinging light over top... it made a really cool reflection of the walls, and I want it in a room in my house.

Then was one of Jess' favorites, which was just these ticking pieces on a board on the floor.

Then there were lots of colors and some weird and scary things. One room smelled strongly of cotton candy, but had flashing lights and loud sounds and I Could not hang out in there. Another had white button down shirts tied together and hanging from the walls, and pieces of paper asking you to pull off your emotion.

And we visited the gift shop where I got this super cute plushie merlion. As I mentioned in the previous post, the shopkeepers here tend to follow you around and explain things to you. No different here. The two employees followed us to each item and explained it in detail; what it was made of, what it's used for, what it represents, it's origins...whether or not it was allergy tested...? One of the employees made a point to let us know they paid extra to have the merlion tested for allergies.

Jess got a really cute little pixel-y squid pin... that I also wanted, but I couldn't be greedy and have two things. Then we were just exhausted and hot, as usual, and headed out. The cost of admission (which was free for current students) allowed you to reenter any other day of operation if you brought your wrist band with you, which we thought we might do, but we did not.

...the end.