We wanted to visit the Gardens By The Sea Park which is an area on the coast with lots of tropical trees. It also (being Singapore) has Supertrees, which are steel constructions that acted like trees, including regulating the climate with oxidation and cooling the environment. Basically man made trees. There is also an enormous Winter garden hosting even more tropical trees and plants then the one's outside.
As it should be in a rain forest (even if it is in the middle of Singapore) it started to rain (pretty strong, including a thunderstorm). We found shelter under an umbrella and met Nicole from Bolivia who was working at the French Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. She convinced Basti to also visit Bolivia when he passes through South America.It is pretty amazing what kind of peole you meet on these travels.
When the rain stopped, or rather reduced, we needed to move on to meet Hayk (a Armenian guy Basti met in Nepal) at the Microsoft building. It wasn't a far ride on the MRT and we arrived right on time. Unfortunately the convention Hayk was attending stretched on and on, so that we went to a cafe to wait for him.
After some time Hayk suggested, we should not waste any more time and continue our sight seeing tour. The two outstanding items on the list were right next to each other and we could walk there. The Marina Bay Sands Shopping Mall and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.
The biggest attraction of the Mall was the free Wifi and maybe the small gondola ride within the mall. Other wise this was a temple of really unnecessary consumption. The mall nearly solely consists of Louis Viton, Prada, Mont Blanc, Chanel and the like shops. All of which are not as you know it from home 30 Square meters in size, no over here there are more than 200 square meters and in some cases one shop of a certain brand might not even be enough, so that there are two or three Armani shops in this mall.
The prices for things that did display prices were outside of any morally acceptable margin, and there were plenty of things that did not display any prices. I mean I understand that people spend 300 000 € on a sports car if they can but where is the quality or value if you spend the same amount on a pen?
Especially considering we arrived from Indonesia the day before I really did not enjoy the mall very much.The other decadent expirience of the Marina Bay Sands hotel however was worth the time.
The Marina Bay Sands hotel is built of three 200m towers that make up hotel and function rooms and are connected on top with a platform that spans all three buildings.
It is free to go on top and have a look, which of course we did. On top of the building there is also a 150m long infinity pool, which of course can only be used by the guests of the hotel.
Anyhow, the free visit and a couple of snapshots from the top were great.
Meanwhile we had also heard back from Hayk, who wanted to meet us. As it was already 7 and I had to pick up my stuff at the hostel, I decided to not join. So it was good by at the Metro Station to Basti. It has been a great time to join him on his adventure for two weeks. I'm sure he enjoyed it as well and will now meet up with his brother in Australia.
Back at the Hostel I got my bags, charged the phone and laptop to the brink and left the hostel at precisely 9pm (once again German punctuality).
After check-in and passport control I was wandering around the Airport and found a Duty free shop in which I arranged my own quality Whiskey tasting (for free). None of the whiskies I tried was younger than 18 years.
In the end I decided to go for a bottle of Laphroaig Quarter Cask that was once (at a Whiskey Tasting in Ireland) suggested to me by the Master Distiller of Laphroaig personally.
Another security check and then it was onto the big plane again.
It all went very quick, boarding, sit down, a tomato juice, some dinner, one film and off to sleep.
In this case I watched Planes (the third part of the Pixar movie Cars) which was much more entertaining than Pacific Rim. Especially on a plane :-).
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