Familiar faces. Colourful fish.

A early 7:15am start in Singapore is only 9:15am back in Australia. So it’s not that bad, just waking up when it is still dark is confusing.
We took a multitude of public transport which the aircon must be working very hard to keep up. We visited Republic Polytechnic and caught up with some students that we meet back in Australia when they were visiting. One of the students gave a very good presentation and I have hopefully now made a good international connection, as I can see him going far in the professional world.
We were given a tour around RP and their labs. Their approach to learning is problem based lesions where every day they are given a problem and have to asses, manage, correct, then report back with every day. We then went to their aircraft hanger where they have examples of equipment including a Learjet, a Cessna, and an Ultralight. With facilities to teach students how to work on them. Even having an air traffic control training room which simulates Changi airport. We then rushed back to Utown were we got changed and meet up with a group of international students from all over doing a summer subject at NUS. We all took a charted bus to Sentosa island where we were given a backstage tour of the aquarium. In the aquarium we were able to see the filtration systems they use and how they maintain the aquatic life there.
After the aquarium, I went out for dinner with two of the international students and some of the guys on the study tour with me. It was nice to walk around Sentosa island, also to get to know other students and how they are finding Singapore, and what their home countries are like compared with here.

Morning trains

Its a Jet

Flight control simulation

Changi Airport model

Shark

Watch out Steve Irwin

Colourful fish

Jellyfish or Sea jellies because they are not fish.

Sentosa island including Universal studios.

The Tour begins. Green Alert.

A mid-morning start to a relaxing day of sightseeing. After a Singaporean breakfast of super soft boiled eggs and toast with coconut spread. While we were waiting for people to prepare with passports, thunder started booming around us, with flashes of lighting in the distance. As we were about to leave, a monsoon of rain came down upon us, I was surprised about the sheer volume of watch which came down, however it did show me why there are such large storm drains around the city.

We travelled to Kent ridge by train and walked over to the Merlion. We walked past a few stages of people setting up for a festival and sound checking. Then over the Helix bridge to the Marina bay sands shopping centre. After spending time at the centre, we walked over to Gardens by the bay, which had a massive array of plant life. We went into the flower dome first off which had plants from all over the world, it was very nice to get inside and be out of the very humid atmosphere. The plants inside the dome were very diverse and aesthetically pleasing. The group moved to the Cloud Forest which was a cooler separate dome with a giant mound in the middle with rainforest plants growing off the walls and a waterfall from the top to the bottom. It was an amazing experience to see such a large variety of plants.   

Marina Bay!

So today was a day that I have been looking for since we found out what our schedule was. This is because we were visiting Marina Bay, home of the amazing Marina Bay Sands hotel, Gardens by the Bay, and Merlion. Marina Bay was one of the few things I remember from my last trip to Singapore when I was four, so it was exciting to see how much it had changed. As I thought it would be, the changes were incredible!

Our first stop was Marina Bay where we observed the beautiful surroundings, such as the Merlion, Marina Bay Sands, the Double Helix Bridge, and the Art and Science Museum. Marina Bay was the perfect combination of science, architecture and art.

After crossing the Double Helix Bridge we entered the Marina Bay Sands Shopping Centre for lunch and some quick shopping. It has to be one of the most amazing shopping centres I have ever been to around the world! It was enormous, ultra modern, and basically my idea of what heaven would be like. It had a little river with gondolas running through it as well.

Our second stop after lunch were the Gardens by the Bay where we visited two conservatories, the first one being The Flower Dome. The flower dome was filled with flowers and plants which were sorted into different areas of the world. The main display being the persian garden which had bright, colourful mosaics with water features. The second conservatory we attended was the Cloud Forest. This conservatory was one of my favourite places we visited today. As soon as you enter you are surrounded by beautiful rain forest florae and a 35-metre water fall. There were walkways on many levels throughout the Cloud Forest allowing you to view every angle of the place. It is somewhere I would definitely recommend people to visit who come to Singapore as it’s like no where else.

One Storm, Two Domes, and Three Towers

After spending our first night in our appointed student residence – which is, as a whole, quite comfortable -, it was finally time to begin our long awaited study tour. With a trip to the extravagant Marina Bay Sands and the nearby Gardens by the Bay just on the horizon, we were all keen to get moving.

But as 10 o’clock rolled around and we all gathered at the meeting point, the true nature of the Singaporean climate revealed itself. Within minutes, the previously cloudless skies were filled with dark rain clouds and booming thunder (the photo below hardly captures the majesty of the downpour).

Yet by the time we arrived at the Marina Bay Sands, the weather was once again sunny, and the day was beginning to heat up. The true scale of the Marina Bay Sands hotel is hard to grasp until you are standing at its base. The three towers, along with the multi-story shopping centre located below, can only be described as the epitome of Singapore’s affluence.  Indeed, it truly highlights Singapore’s economic success, while also highlighting the country’s obvious economic disparity.

After a leisurely lunch, we then proceeded towards the Gardens by the Bay: a beautiful garden containing two huge domes with controlled climates, each of which housing a huge array of varying flora. We spent the rest of the trip in the two domes, capturing as many photos as possible of the amazing views (from atop the high walkways) and the exotic plants.

Overall, I felt that the experience was a perfect, relaxed introduction to what I am sure is going to be a very intense study tour.