Don & Kully's World Cruise on Viking Neptune

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day from sunny Singapore! Today was our final day in Singapore. We had to be back on the ship by 1:00 PM so we only had half a day to explore. We decided to make the most of the time we had by visiting the Gardens by the Bay.

The gardens are a must see if you visit Singapore. The park is 250 acres in the central part of Singapore adjacent to the Marina Reserve. The park consists of three waterfront gardens containing various plants from around the world.

The garden is most famous for its conservatory complex consisting of the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forests. both are very large glass enclosures each covering approximately 2.5 acres.

The Cloud Forest is a man-made rainforest and contains a series of elevated ramps allowing visitors to experience all vertical layers of the forest.

The Flower Dome is the largest greenhouse in the world at 3 acres and replicates a cool-dry mediterranean climate. It features a changing display and currently features a dragon theme in the main flower field in celebration of the 2024 Chinese New Year…year of the dragon.

Additionally, there is a Super Tree Grove consisting of 18 tree like structures that dominate the garden’s landscape with heights ranging from 82 feet to 160 feet. These super trees are vertical gardens home to enclaves of exotic ferns, vines, orchids and other plants. There is an elevated walkway between two of the Supertrees providing a panoramic aerial view of the Gardens.

Some final thoughts regarding Singapore. The city state is an interesting place to visit. It is a very wealthy and diverse city. Malays, Indonesians, Indians, Sri Lankans and Chinese have all contributed to the city’s rise as one of the world’s most technologically advanced cities. Buddhist, Hindu and Taoist temples rub elbows with Muslim mosques and Christian churches, and you are likely to see street signs in English, Chinese, Tamil and Malay. The city is extremely safe due to very strict law enforcement, mass transportation is extremely efficient and reliable. If visiting by cruise ship strongly recommend independent travel. It only takes a little bit of research to figure out the places you’re interested in seeing to tailor a wonderful visit to this beautiful city. Our approach was to pick the top 12 or so sights listed on Trip Advisor, Conde Nast and other websites to come up with our list. We also made extensive use of Google Maps to figure out how to get from point A to point B and the “Visit A City” App to finalize our lists of places to visit.