Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Day 9 : Gardens By The Bay, Sands Skypark, LV Series 3 Exhibition & Botanic Gardens

This morning, upon the recommendation from my cousin T, we went to Amoy Street Food Centre for breakfast. It's easily accessible .... we took the MRT to Tanjong Pagar, got out from Exit G, turned left and walked straight to the Food Centre. The problem was that it was too early and all the recommended food here were still not ready .... too bad!

Economy Bee Hoon, SGD2.90
I bought this from Tian Tian Cooked Food. There was a long queue in front of the stall, so I joined the queue. If there was a queue, the food wouldn't be so bad, right? Lol. Anyway, today's noodles were better than yesterday's - it had a bit more flavour, .... and I liked the springy fishcake very much. The cabbage was so soft for my liking. 

S bought this economy noodles from another stall .... 

After breakfast, we went to Gardens by the Bay. The other night when we were there, it was too crowded with people visiting the Luminarie displays, particularly concentrated around the Supertree Grove grounds. There was hardly room to walk, and we had to shuffle slowly out of the packed areas. The other parts of the Gardens weren't very well-lighted and so it wasn't easy for us to navigate in unfamiliar territory. 

So we came again this morning, we wanted to explore the garden and enjoy the landscapes here. The weather, again, was so beautiful - cloudy, not hot and sunny, no scorching heat. 

Marina Bay Sands
Viewed from Gardens By The Bay .... I love this photogenic building! 

 Supertree Grove, Dragonfly Lake in front

View of the domes - Flower Dome & Cloud Forest, and the supertrees at Silver Garden 

Dragonfly bridge, leading to the Supertree Grove 

 Floral Clock

 View of Marina Bay Sands from Silver Garden

We manage to circumnavigate the Gardens, walking from the Malay Garden to the Chinese Garden to the Indian Garden to the Silver Garden to the Golden Garden to the World of Palms, etc .. 

After we have had our fill, we went to Marina Bay Sands Hotel, paid SGD23.00 to access the Skypark Observation Deck, located at Level 56 of the hotel. The smooth ride up the lift took only a few seconds. And here, we could enjoy the panorama of this beautiful city ... 

 Sigh ... what a beauty ... 

 The financial area .. 


The Infinity Pool
We couldn't access the pool .... it would be quite an experience swimming here I think ...... 

There wasn't any place to sit and enjoy the view, though. We spent some 50 minutes at the observation deck before making our descent. We were actually killig a bit of time because our next point of attraction would only commence at 11.00 a.m.

Louis Vuitton, to me, epitomises the classics. I only own 1 piece so far, and am now itching to own another. Well, I was at Louis Vuitton at Ngee Ann City yesterday and was feeling very tempted to buy something and was trying very hard to suppress that wanton desire of mine ......... phew! Then I was distracted by a staff who told me about the LV Series 3 Exhibition which was being held at the Crystal South Pavillion at Marina Bay Sands. Well, since I was in the vicinity today, I had to visit this exhibition.

Entrance


This exhibition brought visitors to the designer, Nicolas Ghesquiere's Autumn-Winter 2015/2016 collection for Louis Vuittion - it showcases his creative process, influences and inspiration. There were several sections ....

Accessories Gallery
This room was all white so that every piece of the exhibit stood out! 

Ooooh .... a vintage! This trunk was once used to transport cutlery! 

At Artists' Hands, a room with LCD displays on the tables, and these presented how La Petite Malle and the Dora bags are produced in real-time. But my favourite section was A Tale Of Craftsmanship. Here, I was able to see for myself how these LV mini trunks were assembled ....

LV Petite Malle or the Mini Trunk
So beautiful! I'd love to own one of these ....  

LV's skilled craftsmen (or craftswomen!!) at work
These very experienced ladies have worked at LV for many years, we were told. They are artisans in their own right, bringing LV icons to life! Here, they were assembling the Petite Malle .... and I got to help!! So exciting! Under their watchful eyes, I drove a couple of screws into the interior of one of the cases. They said I did a good job, and I asked whether there was a vacancy for me. Lol! 

We left the exhibition with 2 sets of stickers each! Happy. :))

S and I split up after this. She wanted to go buy her bus ticket to JB, while I went to meet up with my cousin T for lunch. T would be waiting for me at Tanjong Pagar MRT, the station nearest to her office. Once I exited from the station, T was already there waiting for me.

She brought me to Yayoi-ken, a Japanese Teishoku Restaurant. Teishoku roughly means "meal sets" and here at Yayoi, authentic Japanese rice is refillable. Eat as many bowls as you want! T ate 2 bowls and I ate 1 1/2 bowls. Lol. 

Mixed Toji set, SGD13.90
It consists of beef niku, ebi tempura and a tonkatsu topped with an egg in a hot plate; the food tasted very yummy! 

I met up with S again after that, and we shopped at Bugis Junction .... we both bought a top at a shop called TEMT, only SGD14.90 for a top. Cheap.

And even though I wasn't hungy, I snacked on these ... 

Churros with cinnamon, very yummy when eaten hot

Chilli con carne kebab from Stuff'd

From Dong Dae Mun, Seoul Street Food

From Twelve Cup Cakes

It was already 5.00 p.m. at this time .... and I decided to head to the Botanic Gardens, recently conferred as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. How could I give it a miss? We took the Circle Line MRT to the Botanic Gardens station. It took so long!! At that time, the Downtown Line was still closed ..... otherwise, going from Bugis to Botanic Gardens would only be a jiffy.

The sky was grey, and I feared it would rain, but we walked anyway, along the Cluny Park Way ... I wanted to go to Symphony Lake ...

Symphony Lake
So serene and so beautiful!! 

The Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage


Some pretty flowers I saw here ... 

And then we crossed the large field and reached the National Orchid Garden ....

Outside the National Orchid Garden

A tiny but nice-looking waterfall ....

It was starting to drizzle by now ... yikes .... and we could not turn back so we exited via Tyersall Avenue and walked along Holland Drive towards a bus stop at Napier Road .... and here we jumped into a bus towards Orchard Road ...

We alighted at Wheelock Place ..... and walked along Orchard Road for some more food ....

Paris Baguette
Strawberry Shortcake, & Kiwi & Orange Juice

Ben & Jerry's

We then headed back to our hostel for the night.

Both the Gardens by the Bay and the Singapore Botanic Gardens are beautifully landscaped .... and I would have loved to have more time to explore the different parts ....... sigh .... next time, I suppose.

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