After taking the MRT to the botanical gardens, it was quickly clear that we did not need to spend the whole day there. In fact, 30 minutes was really enough for us.
We walked around the lake in the middle of the gardens before hopping back on the MRT to go to Orchard Road. We walked down Orchard Road - literally just a street lined with malls - stopping in different malls roughly once every 10 minute in order to cool down from the 90+ degree heat.
One of the nice things about Singapore so far is that...everything fits me in stores lol. We went into one store and I fell in love with every dress in it! Unfortunately, they only took cash (of which we were running low) and so we might try to return there tomorrow... we shall see!
We're not very good at carrying around cash with us. We always think we have plenty and then it turns out it's nowhere near enough. Even though we took quite a bit out of the bank back in Bangkok (and we still had plenty at the hotel), for some reason we barely brought any with us on our trip out to the city. WHY????? So we ended up (again) being in the position where we very much were trying to pay with card everywhere...annddd then ended up at a lunch spot that only took cash. Leaving us with roughly 15 Singapore dollars to our name to spend for the whole day, including taking the train back to our hotel.
Sometimes we are geniuses.
After a while shopping (and yet it only being 1 pm), we decided we needed a game plan for the day. We consulted our handy dandy free city map we had received at the airport and decided maybe we'd check out the Flower Dome, one of the world's largest indoor gardens. After consulting our (dwindling) finances, we headed off in the direction of the Flower Dome... very much hoping that they would take credit card...otherwise we'd be screwed and need to take out cash somewhere, OR go back to the hotel to pick up some Thai Baht to exchange somewhere around the city.
We arrived at the Flower Dome and fortunately they took MasterCard - HUZZAH! We paid for our ticket to Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest and proceeded to wander around the park on our way there.
Outside of the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest they have these massive manmade trees - they are SO cool to look at!
You can also pay to wander around them, but we were more than happy to walk underneath them on the ground :-p. We then walked over the bridge to get to our destinations!
We started in the Cloud Forest. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced before! Cloud Forests are exactly what they sound like - locations on earth where forests grow at such high altitudes they are basically in the clouds. Singapore created their own indoor Cloud Forest, complete with a huge waterfall, to portray the different plant life that exists in Cloud Forests - such a cool concept!
Also - who knew that impatiens (which we ALWAYS had at my house growing up - and my parents still grow when they can get them) are actually endemic to Cloud Forests!
After exploring the Cloud Forest we headed over to the Flower Dome. The dome is separated into different continents and habitats, so you can see the differences that exist between different areas of the world (cacti and Baobabs in Australia, olive trees in the Mediterranean, grapes in California ;-), etc. etc.)
After leaving the Flower Dome we wandered back through the big man-made trees (because...SUPER COOL) before heading over to Clarke Quay for dinner. We had read in our free map that Clarke Quay was the nighttime hot spot in Singapore. And we'd definitely agree! TONS of restaurants, bars, lights, live bands, ferries taking off down the river - such a cool area!
While we are well aware that it was a super touristy area and that there weren't many locals there, it was still an awesome place to see and we had a delicious dinner. After dinner we decided to get a drink the middle of an enclosed semi-fake "city street", which had a large fountain in the middle of it.
While the drinks were BY FAR the most expensive we've had in Asia so far, the ambiance was quite nice and it was a great ending to a great day :).
A quick taxi trip back to our hotel and we are OUT for the day :-p. Time for bed!
Jess' highlight of the day: Dinner overlooking Clarke Quay
Jon's highlight of the day: Clarke Quay
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