Jeff's office was being remodelled, so while it was being torn apart, he spent a month working in Singapore and a month working in Bangkok. Since he had a hotel room already, we figured we would come down and join him for the lunar new year long weekend in February. The girls hadn't been to Singapore since we lived in Thailand, so they were excited to explore.
We got to Singapore around lunch time, so the first thing we had to do was feed the children. Jeff took us to a Mexican restaurant near the hotel.
He was very happy to see us all, and the girls were happy to have chips.
After lunch, he and Elena got in some pool time, although one of her favorite parts was sitting on the bench in the elevator.
Later that afternoon, we headed over to one of our favorite spots in Singapore, Gardens by the Bay.
One of the domes had a special dahlia display for new years, along with lots of dragons for the year of the dragon.
It's such a fun place to walk around and discover cool new plants.
The dahlias though were definitely the show stoppers.
It was worth taking time to look at the smaller flowers too though. Many of them had intricate buds and beautiful colors.
There were also lots of good luck symbols woven throughout the displays.
After the dome, we took some time to play in the Children's Garden,
and explore some of the other quirky areas.
Our original goal had been to stay until the park lit up, but it kept getting more and more crowded, and we could tell that traffic was getting increasingly congested, since it's at the end of the island. We finally decided we'd better book a Grab to get back to the hotel. Our Grab driver told us we did the right thing. We were his last trip to the end of the island, and he was telling his friends not to go down there, because they would get stuck. Instead, we watched the sunset from the hotel to end our first day in Singapore.
The next morning we were super excited to get one of the alcove tables for breakfast. We felt like royalty and took our time enjoying the delicious breakfast spread.
Our destination for the day was the newly opened bird park, an extension to the famous Singapore Zoo. There was a big waterfall at the entry, and when we took an escalator up, we found the top of it.
It really was set up as a paradise, and we got there right when it opened, so it wasn't crowded at all, a relief after the crowds the evening before.
There was a fun photo op near the entrance, so our girls became birds.
Our first stop was the Penguin Cove. We do love penguins.
Elena even made a friend.
Although we weren't sure how to feel about the penguin baos. Their filling was red bean paste, which made it seem extra wrong. Needless to say, we didn't get one.
We did get a kick out of the bird warning signs though.
The main park was a series of netted enclosures. Each one featured a different habitat and had plants, birds and other animals that would typically be found together.
Between each habitat was a little information building that was blessedly air conditioned.
The birds were fantastic, and of course Jeff took hundreds of pictures, but we had a couple favorites. One was this guy, who stood with the humans like he was a tourist watching the flamingos with the rest of us.
The other was these two who were clearly having a disagreement about who owned this rock outcropping.
The girls admired the birds and the grounds and enjoyed themselves thoroughly.
After a couple hours, we were ready for lunch. Luckily, there was a restaurant overlooking our favorite part of the park, so we didn't have to stop bird watching.
The decor was fun,
and the food was yummy.
They advertised a strawberry pie, and it looked so good we couldn't resist. We may have overdone it though. We ended up carrying it with us for later.
We worked our way back around to the entrance. The girls nested a few times, and we weren't sure if we could keep them moving or if they were just going to stay at the bird park.
Our final verdict was that the bird park was an awesome day out.
Our flight back to KL was the following evening, so we had time for one more Singapore adventure. We headed over to the Botanical Gardens. When Jeff and I had gone, we started at the southern end, so this time we decided to take a Grab up to the northern end where the Children's Garden is and then walk our way back down. The girls enjoyed the Children's Garden.
One of the most interesting parts was a farming area where lots of different things were being grown.
My favorite was the baby pineapple.
We enjoyed walking around until we came to the central "square" and our destination for the day, the National Orchid Garden.
Most of the gardens are free, but there is a fee for the orchid part. They were very nice though and gave us student fees for the girls. Singapore takes it orchids VERY seriously. Elena was especially fascinated by the area that explained how they create special orchid hybrids as gifts for VIPs who come to visit Singapore. The entire place was beautifully landscaped. Wherever you turned, there was a stunning creation.
Our favorite part though was the lovely, cool greenhouse that sheltered hundreds of different kinds of orchids.
It was a stunning way to finish our outdoor adventures in Singapore.
We went back to the hotel, cleaned up, packed up, and headed to the airport. The girls were immediately drawn to the giant TWG store.
The hotel had TWG tea in the room, and we discovered we really liked their chamomile tea, so we had been hoarding it. We found comfy seats and waited for our flight. The Goerss family consensus, we love Singapore.
