Published: 26.10.2023
We were very excited about breakfast at the hotel. But everything went great. We are very satisfied and can breathe a sigh of relief. Lucky 😅.
Then things started slowly. But what exactly? We didn't really know that ourselves. We just went for it. True to the motto: The plan starts without a plan 😃.
As we walked through the city, we realized how extremely clean it really is. This means: We saw no packaging waste, no bottles, no chewing gum (banned), simply nothing on the sidewalks. At most we could find leaves that had just fallen from trees. Cool!
Additionally, Singapore seems to have a lot of cameras. We suspect that crime is very low. Example: We found an opened, in-use notebook on a public table without an owner... Apparently you can leave your devices in public without having to fear theft 😅. That is unthinkable in Germany.
It is also noticeable that the city is quite green (lots of facades) and that the element of water is played around a lot. In many places you can see small fountains, waterways or just flowing water. Very interesting.
I was also a bit surprised that we saw “few people” on the sidewalks. Suddenly we discovered an inconspicuous, quite small staircase leading down. We climbed down this one. It was pretty narrow, a bit winding and you didn't see anyone else. Elisa wanted to go back upstairs. But then suddenly there was a door! Another world has opened up behind it. There were people everywhere. Shopping streets have revealed themselves “underground” or expressways for pedestrians with plenty of shops and restaurants 😅.
After a few meters in the basement we went back to the surface. The hotel, Marina Bay Sands, caught our eye there. It was immediately clear that we had to go there. Of course we went to the top. We have gained a lot of experience in this so far 😅. When I got to the top floor, my jaw dropped. The view over the city, with the green gardens, the sea and what felt like hundreds of ships at anchor, really blew me away. However, the sun played a part in this. It was incredibly hot up there and we could barely stand 10 minutes in the sun. Sweat was literally running down my body. I then asked an employee at the sink in the toilet room how he could endure that. He laughed and said, “Max. an hour outside, then an hour inside” 😅. Afterwards we quickly rushed back down and took a magnet with us (and bought it beforehand).
We then headed to the park behind the hotel: Gardens by the Bay. The Supertrees immediately caught our attention. At the ticket counter we got advice about what we should see and when. The decision was made to visit a Supertree and the Skyway (because the weather was good).
We had a snack in the café and then wanted to go to a Supertree. Suddenly it started to rain really heavily. Great 😅. The outside area of the tree was closed, but we went up anyway because we could get a good view of the area from inside.
Meanwhile, we noted that no one was visible on the skywalk. This was also blocked. But as quickly as the clouds appeared, the rain period was over and the sun came out again. Yay! The Skywalk was open again! We were numbers 3 and 4 in line (no one else after us) and basically had a free run! But have we thought this through carefully?
…
The bridge is 22m above the ground and you can look down through it. It becomes increasingly narrow towards the middle, so that only one person can actually walk along it at a time.
I have to admit: we had really weak knees and the adrenaline levels were high. Phew! Done 😅. Afterwards you could wring out my T-shirt 😁.
So that was enough for one day and we retreated to our hotel. The taxi ride back was quite amusing. The driver was in the mood to talk, but we mostly only understood a string of syllables. Difficult 😅. Finally, he knew two more German words: Oktoberfest and Erdinger.
On that note: good night 😁