We woke late again. The morning revealed a damp, grey, steamy Singapore after a night of dramatic storms. Rather than brave the Botanic Gardens, we pivoted indoors to the Cloud Forest… Singapore at its most Singapore. A giant glass bubble, housing a rainforest wrapped around a 35-metre man-made waterfall. Nature, as Disney (or perhaps David Lynch) might imagine it. Add astonishingly animated animatronic dinosaurs and a loop of John Williams’ Jurassic Park score and… well, it’s ridiculous. But also, kind of unironically, it totally worked.
From there we wandered back to the Supertrees, 18 steel and concrete giants, up to 50 metres tall, dressed in ferns, orchids, and bromeliads. They look like sci-fi sculptures, but are in fact chimneys, solar panels, and rainwater collectors for the domes nearby. In Singapore, utility is often masked by spectacle. Pay a small fee, ride an elevator to the top, and you’re rewarded with a view across reclaimed land turned into manicured gardens, the looming Marina Bay Sands hotel, the CBD towers, and the F1 circuit being assembled. A panorama equal parts utopia, theme park, and infrastructure project. Very Singapore.
Needing sustenance and contrast, we jumped on the MRT to Little India for lunch and a blast of colour and chaos. Gone was the choreographed sheen of money and steel; instead we found food, crowded markets, and streets alive with human energy. Delicious, noisy, unpolished.
After that we retreated to our room for a snooze and the planning of evening adventures. Energy permitting.
After a brief snooze (well, brief for one of us 🙄), we decided to do what locals actually do on a humid evening… wander the malls. Endless escalators, window shopping, and air-con. Dinner was found in an adequate place, in a serviceable food-hall, where they seemed to fully grasp the concept of gluten-free. From there, a short walk home and an unapologetically early night.
And now, more photos. Barely edited. Some maybe in focus.
The Obligatory Blog 