A night for Singapore to show off

And all of a sudden I was back on holidays. Everywhere again. Fortunately for Singapore I used the city as the jump point for my Asian Panda trip. I was in reality on the way to my real holiday destinations. This was but a stopover in a nice city I'm familiar with. On the way home Singapore was to be a flight returning point funnelling me back towards Brisbane making my ticket a return to Singapore with 2 other internal Asian flights. This was a much cheaper flight option than that of taking just 2 single one way flights in and out of Asia.

Unfortunately my plans to catch up with a friend in Singapore fell apart. They were booked out with plans having only returned from their own holiday the week before. Not to worry. It was just an idea of opportunity I thought. So instead I went to the backup plan of seeing Singapore by night. And in particular visiting the main tourist draw card, the Gardens by the Bay, when it is all lit up.

Having seen the Cloud Forest and Flower Dome on a previous trip I was keen to explore more. I was thinking completing the Supertree Grove at night, when it's in its full splendour like a scene out of Avatar. It was though not to be as I was in Singapore on a Saturday night. And as I learnt, not just any Saturday night. This was the Singapore Night Festival so there were no tickets available for the limited time slots, and well I could easily see it was already set to become a busy as sunset approached.


I was though still in the Supertree Grove area for the tree lights. Sure I was not up on the walkways, but I wasn't alone in missing out for a walkway ticket. In addition to the normal exhibits the park was also incorporating upcoming Chinese Mid Autumn festival. So all the creeks in the park were further enhanced by the Chinese lantern floats as visitors walked around. By early evening I was tired, hungry, and reflecting upon an early flight out in the morning. So there was only sensible thoughts of having an early night.

 

When I did make it to the Bencoolen area near my hotel I realised there must of been something more going on nearby. There were thousands around the streets. Sure enough a short stroll found me at the National Museum. Another venue for their night festival. This particular venue was one of the modern video lighting up of a historical building. And well it didn't disappoint. Sure, I lucked into this. But you make your own luck sometimes.