Басылган: 30.10.2016
If you come from Germany and have been traveling for over 14 hours and at the end of the journey still have to climb steep uphill for what feels like 1km, and you think the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight, there is actually a staircase of about 10,000 steps that you have to climb with your luggage. With an additional negligible humidity of 100% at 30 degrees Celsius, it wasn't all that bad. When we arrived at the hotel, we were faced with the decision of either defeating hunger or tiredness first.
After a long nap, we headed towards Little India around 3 pm. The neighborhood - within walking distance from our hostel - was festively decorated due to the Indian festival 'Diwali' taking place in October. At the entrance of the neighborhood, there were huge peacocks with their tail feathers made of flowers. There was a bustling atmosphere with pedestrians and cars in Little India, just as you would imagine India on a relaxed day. We walked through the streets for a while and quickly ended up at a market. Thousands of chains and red balloons hung from the ceiling. There was so much stuff to admire (such as waving cats and fans).
On the way back to the hostel, we had some Asian food and fell into a food coma for 15€, completely satisfied, until the alarm clock rang at 8 o'clock the next morning.
We were able to enjoy the second day a bit more, as we surprisingly adjusted well to the time difference of a full 6 hours. After breakfast, we went to the Gardens at the Bay, which are adjacent to the Marina Bay Sands hotel. Despite the incredible heat and humidity, we spent quite a lot of time in the park. For 3 Singapore dollars, you could have taken a small shuttle bus through the park, but the walk was very manageable and you can see much more by foot. Particularly interesting in the park are the artificially constructed Supertrees, which absorb polluted air and release clean air. The entire energy of the park, including lighting, is generated within the park itself.
Afterwards, we went to Chinatown, where we found a market that primarily targeted tourists and where we could find even more stuff than in Little India. Behind the market, there was a large temple that was particularly ornate inside, as can be seen in the pictures.
On the third day, we got to move again: we booked ourselves into the Marina Bay Sands Hotel for our last night - according to the motto, treat yourself to something nice.
Until we could go to our room, we spent time at the adjacent Science Art Museum. The Future Art exhibition seemed perfect for us, and we turned out to be right. It was very well done and particularly interesting for children (like us). Many interactive objects and the merging of real and animated things excited us. One station in the exhibition was especially entertaining: you could color images like from a coloring book with crayons. We scanned them and the buses and UFOs were then integrated into a traffic network on an animated canvas.
Back at the hotel, we were 'lucky' that it rained, precisely on the day we wanted to use the hotel pool. Fortunately, it stopped raining in the late afternoon and we were able to jump into the breathtaking pool after all. It was breathtaking because from the Skypool (57th floor) of the Marina Bay Sands, you have a wonderful view of Downtown and the Gardens by the Bay. By chance, we also received a room upgrade. It was called a suite and had over 90 square meters!!! The 300€ for one night had definitely paid off. We ended the evening with the nightly light show in the bay, with water fountains and fire against the backdrop of skyscrapers.
On the last day, we went to the museum for the second time, to a exhibition of Escher (a famous Dutch painter) who painted, among other things, infinite/impossible pictures, with endless staircases, for example. After that, we had one last visit to the mall, where you could find everything from Chanel to Louboutin and Ferraris for kids. And shortly after, we were back at the airport to continue our flight to Melbourne.