The journey home

On the way back to our room we pick up some croissants from a bakery for Ross and I indulge in the last of the Aussie rice crackers. Then it's a chance to peal off the sweaty clothes and have one more luxurious shower before we pack our bags and check-out at 2pm. The reception staff surprise us with a gift of hotel branded chocolates - their way of apologising for the inconvenience caused by the plumbing problem. It is an unexpected and very kind gesture.

Our plan had been to store our luggage with the Concierge and then kill some time in the Suntec City shopping mall, but we are not really prepared for the Sunday afternoon crowds.  The mall is thronged with families and people, people everywhere. Noise, nowhere to sit, and having to pick our way past shops that we're really not very interested in browsing. Our weary feet and hungry tummies eventually take us to a Japanese restaurant in the basement food hall where we have a late lunch - for me the ultimate comfort meal of tofu and rice. Although we still have an hour before we must go to the airport, the shopping mall proves too much to bear so we return to the comforts of the Conrad and make ourselves comfortable in the lobby. The pianist is back and in the music we lose ourselves in an effortless daydream of the days just passed.

The doorman reminds us about passports and with a wave, closes the taxi door. Singapore recedes into the late afternoon heat haze and then it's several hours of airports, cramped seats, bad in-flight movies, bad in-flight food, and broken sleep until the welcome lights of Perth. The cool air of the dead of night as we make our way home at 1am and the familiar, welcoming embrace of our own lovely lovely bed. 

A parting gift from Changi Terminal 1 - one last flash of botanical brilliance to see us on our way

Until next time Singapore...

Green space odyssey - Part 3

The sun rises on our last day in Singapore and I admire the golden sun-kissed facades from our secret window.

The golden city

We hit the breakfast buffet for the last time although we're so full from all our big meals that we both have quite a modest breakfast. Just after 8am we're on our way. It is Sunday morning and the streets and shopping centres are still slumbering. There are a few people waiting at the MRT station and the Bugis interchange is busy, but our 45 minute train journey past Jurong East is very quiet. The train emerges overground and our window seats give us a great view of uniform apartment blocks, roads, and shopping centres. We also see lots of trains heading in the opposite direction... loaded up with domestic workers and daytrippers on their day off, and all heading into the city.   

It is only a short walk from the railway platform to the Jurong Lake Gardens where we're immediately welcomed by a large pagoda.

Seven-storey Pagoda at the Chinese Garden

The Chinese Garden opened in 1975. The garden features teahouses and pagodas in the Chinese Imperial style dotted around lakes and linked by paths and bridges. A major bridge leads to the adjacent Japanese Garden, altogether making up a national park that covers 90 hectares.

Statue of Confucius - one of many eminent personages in the Chinese Garden.
Others include Mulan, and General Guan Yu.

We visit what must be the most beautiful part of the Chinese Garden. A collection of buildings around a traditional Suzhou-style courtyard with an exquisite collection of bonsai. The combination of outdoor rooms, round and rectilinear forms, water and of course soft and lush greenness, combine to create a very aesthetic and pleasant environment. 

Bonsai garden

Ross emerges from the foliage having made a discovery...

The beautifully manicured little trees all have something in common. As Ross discovers, the vast majority have been cultivated since 1977. That makes them exactly the same vintage as me! Nice to see that they are being lovingly cared for. 

The bonsai collection at the Chinese Garden

Treat this old lady with kindness!

Although a 'manufactured' green space, it feels right

An outdoor room

We walk around much of the Chinese Garden, and take in many of the landmark sights, sometimes more than once as we mistakenly backtrack on some of the more confusing paths. 

A pavilion set around a koi filled pond

Twin pagodas along the waterfront

Ross is most disappointed to discover that the 'teahouse' refers only to the structure and not the function of the lakeside building. He asks a passerby... hopefully... if there is coffee to be had, but alas. The sun is climbing higher into the sky and the day is heating up so we press on to the Japanese Garden.

The 'teahouse' by the lake

Crossing over the Double Beauty Bridge, we find ourselves in the less structured, and slightly 'wilder' Japanese Garden. There weren't many people in the Chinese Garden but there are even fewer here. As we don't have much time, we only do a quick circuit of the water lily pond and head back over the bridge towards the train station.

Spirit house in the Japanese Garden 

Water lily pond

Jurong Lake Gardens is known for its bird life

Ross crossing the Double Beauty Bridge

The sun and rising humidity is quite punishing as we walk back towards the MRT station. More people are starting to pour into the Chinese Garden now - mostly groups carting their picnic gear. We are hot and sweaty as we wait on the station platform so it is quite a relief to get inside the air conditioned carriage. The train is packed however. Everyone is heading into the city so we stand for the 45 minute journey back, the lush lakeside gardens rapidly receding into the distance as the train gets swallowed up by buildings and then the featureless blackness of underground tunnels.

Sedate Saturday

1am and still awake. After an antacid and a few hours of listening to soothing music, I finally fall asleep but it is very fitful. I wake up several times to find my body twitching and unable to lie still.

Sunrise comes with what feels like a dreadful hangover - the crash that comes after the immense sugar high. Ross has similarly had a restless night so we are both like zombies at breakfast. Neither of us feels much like eating and we are definitely agreed that we have had our last high tea ... certainly one that has So Much Sugar.

We have a much quieter day and spend a few hours visiting Orchard Road. Ross manages to purchase a few items but sadly runs out of steam before I can browse through the book heaven of Kinokuniya. 

We retreat back to the hotel for the afternoon and just rest our tired heads and bodies. In the late afternoon I manage to duck across to Suntec for 20 minutes - with Ross in tow - to pick up some items from Uniqlo, and that is the extent of my retail exposure on this trip!

* * *

Gearing ourselves up for another meal, we meet Ross' colleague at 6pm and spend an enjoyable evening at the hotel's Cantonese restaurant, Golden Peony. The food is glorious, and we tuck into crispy chicken with almonds, tofu and seafood claypot, fragrant fried rice, and stir fried kai lan. Best of all, our stomachs are much happier after this meal.

A very full Friday

We continue to cram as much as possible into our day and walk the short distance to the Red Dot Design Museum at Marina Bay.  The small museum showcases some of the world's best designs for objects ranging from telephones to active wear to robots. 

Marina Bay

My favourite work has to be "Life Stripe" by the artist duo SPREAD. The artists use coloured strips to map out 24 hours in a subject's life. The display shows the life stripes for animals and people from various professions (bankers, students, trainees). I think I found one that comes close to Ross' ideal existence... the dark orange stripes are meals, the light orange stripes are activities, and the blue stripes are sleep... I couldn't find one that was all blue!  

Could Ross secretly be a cat?

We leave the museum and walk into The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands - the very posh shopping centre next door. By now we are both tired and hungry as breakfast was a few hours ago. We don't want to spoil our appetites for high tea later though, so we decide to buy some snacks from a convenience store. Gluten-free isn't well-catered for here and so I end up purchasing some Australian rice crackers that I see in Coles all the time, but right now are very welcome indeed. We sit down outside for long enough to inhale some crackers and walnuts, and then decide we may as well just walk the rest of the way back to the hotel.  

A little oasis of calm at Marina Bay

Thankfully we're rewarded with magnificent views across the bay

It's wonderful being back in our room and having a few hours to rest before we head to the next thing. I spot a 'hidden' window that has been concealed behind a blind. The blind is exactly the same colour as the wall and flush with the wall surface so it is something of a revelation to see the astounding view over to Gardens by the Bay and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Happily the plumbers have repaired the bathroom sink and so we don't need to move away from our corner room. I am glad because the view is intoxicating.

The view from the hidden window

And another of Suntec City

At 5pm, suitably rested and freshened up, we make our way downstairs to the lobby to partake in High Tea at the Lobby Lounge. This is another of the 'extras' in our accommodation package and it is all very nice. A pianist lightly improvises popular tunes in the lobby as we sit on plush seats under the golden arch of the ceiling. We're informed that we are the first guests to try the hotel's Sakura High Tea as it is the 1st of March and the new monthly menu has only just commenced.

Sakura cherry blossoms by our table   

Waiting ...

When it arrives, the asymmetrical serving stand is a sight to behold. The lowest tier has beautiful savouries (sadly not enough) and the remaining tiers hold exquisite hand-made  sweet perfections that delicately float towards the apex. Keeping with the cherry blossom theme, the little mouse cakes, sponges, and scones are all lovely shades of pink. It is all wonderful but we struggle to get through the sweets, not least because both of us prefer savoury flavours, and (as we discover later), we're really really not used to eating sugar. But we have to give it a go so we at least sample everything and leave the table feeling very full indeed.

Sakura high tea

Fortunately this evening we have the opportunity to walk off some of the consequent sugar buzz. Hopping back on the MRT, we make our way to Bayside station and join throngs of people inching towards the Supertree Grove at Gardens by the Bay. It is our second visit here for the nighttime light show, but we immediately notice that compared to a few years ago, there are lots more people and it is standing room only. Perhaps it is because it is a Friday night. In any case, the 15 minute light and music show is just as dazzling and we enjoy it immensely. Funnily enough our last visit in 2016 also followed an indulgent high tea. Seems we are making something of a habit of going from tea to supertree...

The Supertree Grove reveals itself

The show begins - views of the enchanted forest

When the show ends we take a small detour through the gardens and happen across the slightly bizarre but captivating sight of a floating baby, suspended in front of the city lights.

An unusual view of the city at night

Comfortably back in our room by 9pm, we should be tired. Ordinarily at this time we'd be stifling yawns and struggling to keep our eyes open. Even more so after a very full and exhausting day walking around for hours. But we're both absolutely wired. The sugar from the afternoon's cakes has delivered a massive jolt and we end up watching Die Hard - the 1988 classic that until now I'd never watched all the way through. 

Lights out at 11pm, and then begins a very uncomfortable night.

Green space odyssey - Part 2

Our next stop - the Marina One 'Green Heart' development - is a different beast. This is a green building on a much larger scale. Here, there is a central 'atrium' between four skyscrapers that has been sculpted into a forest several storeys high. It is open to the elements and so it is bright and airy, yet it feels contained. The buildings are all crazy flowing shapes and resemble a surrealist fantasy.

Flowing building facades

What it does achieve is an incredible lightness of form. The buildings don't seem bulky even though they're large. Lots of light gets through and the central space doesn't feel claustrophobic.

Looking up to the sky

Once again, there's artistry (or should that be wizardry?!) here - lots of organic shapes, muted colours, water and a variety of textures 

The waterfall - not a gushing torrent but a gentle trickle that mimics the sound of rain

At ground level - inside the 'Green Heart'

Once again we take the lift upstairs to a garden terrace that is several storeys above street level. It is a vast space. It is a weekday morning and we are the only ones there apart from a cleaner. Hard to imagine who might use this space usually... office workers? Is it used for functions? Although warm and humid at street level, up here it is surprisingly breezy. There are garden beds densely packed with tropical vegetation, green walls, and an astonishing view across to neighbouring buildings.

The garden terrace... with twisting sculptures?

Green walls

Lush green wall

Garden bed and a visual link to the financial district beyond

It is not the most legible of spaces and we get a bit lost finding our way back down, but we eventually get to Level 2, where it's possible to walk down a winding ramp back towards the Green Heart. 

Twisting steel forms that encircle the Green Heart

Descending the ramp back towards the Green Heart

Back to the forest floor

We have already been treated to two amazing developments today and it isn't even midday yet! My green wishlist is satisfied however, so it is onto other adventures.

Green space odyssey - Part 1

In typically super-efficient Singapore style, the moment we report the plumbing problem to Reception, the call gets logged with a plumber. We casually stroll to the Level 4 cafe by the swimming pool and indulge in the first of our holiday breakfasts. I'm so excited to see char siu bao and absolutely relish the pillowy softness of its steamed skin and savoury-sweet innards! In less than 45 minutes we are back in our room getting ready to head out when the plumber arrives. We leave him to his task and make our way to the MRT station. 

From the Promenade station it is only a short journey to Chinatown. There, as we try to orient ourselves with a map, a friendly station official rushes over to offer us help and give us directions. At street level, it should be a simple matter of just looking around for a plant-covered building...

Chinatown

Chinese New Year decorations

And then it reveals itself. The beautiful green-clad revelation that is the Parkroyal on Pickering. Foliage tumbles down its facade and wraps around several terraces. The hotel boasts organic shapes that mimic rock formations and it claims that every guest room has a garden view.

Exterior views of the Parkroyal on Pickering 

The lobby is no less impressive. Natural finishes are complemented by water and greenery. A row of comfortable seats replace the traditional sofas that are a fixture in most hotel lobbies. These face outwards over a water feature that wraps around the outside of the hotel. Together with a screen of plants, it conceals the busy road beyond. It is quite magical.  

Green wall inside the Parkroyal lobby

Lobby dreaming

Keen to explore the public areas a bit more, we steal into one of the elevators and go upstairs to the garden terrace. It doesn't disappoint. There is more tumble-down vegetation and a sense of airiness and freshness several storeys above street level. 

Looking up at the green terraces

Parkroyal exterior

It is quite a spectacular design as the muted grey colours and different textures - hard and soft - combine to create a very aesthetic and soothing environment.

Different colours and textures 

Grand columns and tall trees line the terrace adding to the sense of space

Just when you might feel a bit overwhelmed by the scale of things, the designers cleverly throw in an knee-high herb garden with some old friends like borage and ginger. So there's a neatness and familiarity in the garden beds that reside between the sun loungers.  

The herb garden

And my... what a swimming pool. The infinity edge drops off into the top of palm trees and glorious CBD skyline. Walkways and colourful seating pods are evenly spaced along the whole length of the terrace. The pods almost look like they are suspended over the edge of the building and are little secluded oases of calm.

The infinity edge pool with colourful seating pod

We are both suitably amazed and it's hard to take our leave of the cool and serene garden terrace. As we head back downstairs and retrace our steps to the MRT station, we are slightly stunned into an awed silence. We agree that it should definitely be added to our wishlist of places to stay in the future.

Happily Ross isn't too bored being dragged around green buildings as there is one more development that I want to see. Just like the Parkroyal, I first heard about it during my PhD and it has only recently been completed...