Nothing says celebrating our troops like Singapore

(I started writing this way back in May, but got a bit sidetracked. Oops! But, I'm back at it now, so let's get to it!)

Memorial Day weekend. It's a time to reflect and give thanks for the sacrifices the men & women of the military have made, and gather with friends & family for classic American traditions like backyard BBQ, fishing with Dad, road trips, and in our case, a trip to Singapore. Yep, nothing says America and saluting the troops like a trip to tightly controlled, regimented SE Asian island country where chewing gum can get you thrown in jail (seriously). In honor of our American holiday, we decided to be as touristy as possible and hit up a couple of the main sights in Singapore: The Gardens by the Bay and of course, the most American spot we could find: Universal Studios. First up, the gardens.

The Gardens by the Bay are a set of ridiculous parks and gardens right in Singapore. There are indoor and outdoor portions of it. The outdoor parks feature several wide open spaces and art sculptures.

It's not a real garden without a giant floating baby sculpture

One of main attractions here are the Supertrees. What are the Supertrees? Glad you asked. Per Wikipedia, "Supertrees are tree-like structures that dominate the Gardens' landscape with heights that range between 25 metres (82 ft) and 50 metres (160 ft). They are vertical gardens that perform a multitude of functions, which include planting, shading and working as environmental engines for the gardens."

Supertrees: Faster than a speeding bullet! Able to leap...wait, no. That's not quite right.

As I said, the trees are impressive. Initially we planned to climb the trees and walk the skywalk that connects them, but then we realized we were in Singapore and it was sweltering hot. So we chose to focus our efforts on the indoor parts (yep, we're wimps). So we snapped a few pics and headed for the indoor conservatories. 

Conservatory: Latin for air-conditioned glass dome

In my opinion, the two conservatories (the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest) are the real stars of the gardens. Per Wikipedia, both were designed to be "an energy efficient showcase of sustainable building technologies and to provide an all-weather edutainment space within the Gardens." The two structures are unique because neither has internal support columns, while still covering an area of about 2.5 acres each. From an architectural standpoint, this is really quite amazing. In fact, the structures won an award as the World Architecture Building of the Year in 2012. 

Check out that sweet, sweet lack of internal support columns. It's science.

Also, as part of the efforts to reduce the environmental impact of the buildings: "Rainwater is collected from the surface and circulated in the cooling system which is connected to the Supertrees. The Supertrees are used both to vent hot air and to cool circulated water." So the buildings look amazing, win awards, and are environmentally friendly? Well played Singapore. Well played.

We started our visit with the Flower Dome. It has flowers, succulents, and other growing things (that's a technical term) from various regions (Mediterranean, SE Asia, California, etc). It's basically a huge greenhouse tucked away right in the middle of Singapore. A very nice break from the hot, muggy city.

Desert plants

Funky furry cacti 

Even full sized trees!

Gloria loves her succulents

As we were walking around, we kept seeing signs for a rather odd warning/request.

Apparently gravel shenanigans are quite an issue in the Flower Dome. Damn tourists flinging the gravel everywhere!

In all seriousness, the Flower Dome is pretty spectacular. Tons of beautiful plants, flowers, and it is amazingly well kept. Much like the rest of Singapore, it is in perfect working order.

No garden is complete without a metal rooster sculpture thingy

I'm not sure why, but I think these bikes in the flowers looked cool.

Honey Possum don't give a shit

Baobab. Hehehe baobab. 

Just like being home...

After the Flower Dome, we headed over to the Cloud Forest. Epic names right? Anyway, we had heard that there was some kind of waterfall inside the Cloud Forest. And possibly a forest of clouds? Only one way to find out!

WATERFALL!!!!

Yep, that's a waterfall all right. It's the first thing you see and it pretty much dominates the entire space. After standing in front of the waterfall and getting blasted by water mist for a minute, we made our way around. The rest of the path through the cloud forest encircles the waterfall, with various exhibits and things to see.

The backside of the waterfall. Notice the little girl playing in the foreground.

Alligator boat flower pot at the top of the waterfall. Naturally.

The view from the top of the waterfall

That pretty much finished up our day at the Gardens. So we headed back to hotel to rest up for a bit, because we had evening plans. Oh, did I forget to mention? In addition to the touristy stuff, we also went to a fancy dinner and a show. This was not just any old dinner and a show. Oh no. This was a ridonkulous dinner at Cut, which is Wolfgang Puck's steakhouse at the Marina Bay Sands. Everything about the place is top notch. From the drinks,

I don't know what they are, but they look delicious!

to the ambiance, to the food. Oh the food! After not having a good steak in almost a year, I was in heaven.

Mmmm plate o' beef

Just after taking my first bite. That is the face of a happy man.

Even the bread was outstanding. Always the mark of a good restaurant in by book.

Everything about the meal was amazing. Definitely a special occasion type place, and it was worth it.

Then it was on to the show. Much like dinner, this was not just any show. This one was a dream come true for Gloria.

Yep, Dirty Dancing. For me, it was a decent show. For Gloria, well, lets just say that she was singing along to every song. She knows this story inside and out. She loved it and we both had a great time.

The following day it was time for UNIVERSAL STUDIOS!!

As many of you already know, theme parks are kind of a big deal for us. Gloria has always loved them (especially Disneyland), and I grew up taking family trips to Florida to visit Disneyworld. Also, Gloria and I have been to Disneyland together as well.

Mmmm turkey leg...

As you can see, given our history, a trip to Universal was a no brainer. Off we go!

Walking into the park, it looks a whole lot like Universal Studios in CA, except everyone is Asian. Well, maybe that's the same too :)

Now, as I said, we're theme park veterans, and we didn't just walk in all willy-nilly. Oh no, we had a plan. We researched (and by researched, I mean spent 10 minutes googling) which rides are the most popular, and our plan was to hit those first before the lines got too long, then spend the rest of our day on the less popular rides. That way we'd minimize our time spent waiting in lines. Genius right? Right.

We knew that Transformers was the most popular ride in the park, so let's hit that one first. We confidently stroll up to the ride, and are greeted by a sign saying 45 minute wait. What? That can't be. We have a strategy! And just like that, our strategy went out the window. Epic fail. We bit the bullet and waited in the line, which lasted more like an hour. But the wait did spawn a fun new game: guess what the warning signs mean. Ready? Here goes!

No puking off the boat? (always detailed, Singapore even shows chunks)

Smoking skulls not allowed

No dancing in your seat. Holding hands with children is ok though.

This one is kind of easy. No pregnant women, heart patients, or people getting struck by lightning. Duh.

Ok let's see...No running man while laying down? You will not float amongst the clouds?

No miming? Doctors not allowed.

See how easy that was? It's all so self explanatory.

In addition to the oh-so-clear warning signs, there were also a bunch of other Transformers related props and things around to get you in the Tranformery mood.

After the long wait, we finally made it!

Our noble steed to carry us thru the Transformers ride.

The ride was pretty good, except for the girl next to us screaming her damn head off. Seriously. I think she needed therapy after the ride.

After transformers, we tried to ride the Battlestar Galactica roller coaster. There are actually 2 coasters, one for each "side" in the story (sorry, never watched it). Anyway, we picked one and hit the line. After waiting for almost an hour, the ride was halted due to lightning. Son of a ...! So, we decided to hit up hit up The Mummy while we waited, which was awesome. Very similar to the one at Universal in CA, and a lot of fun. The skies were still looking a bit dark after the ride, so we headed over to Far Far Away for a bite to eat.

Two things to note in this picture. 1. This time Gloria has the turkey leg. Mmm turkey leg.... And 2. the sky. Look at how dark the sky is. No joke, lightning struck the castle just after I took this picture. It was crazy loud and you could feel it in your entire body. Kinda freaky.

Anyway, we watched the Shrek movie, and by then the weather seemed to have cleared, so we went back to Battlestar. This time we made it a little further the last time, and then (you guessed it), more lightning and the ride is closed again. Balls! So we headed off to a few more indoor rides (Madagascar), found Gloria's snack shack,

and checked out a few more rides. Eventually we did get to ride the Battlestar coasters (they are awesome!), and we closed out our day with Jurassic Park (that ride got canceled due to weather earlier in the day as well). Keeping with the theme of fun warning signs while waiting in line, here's the one from Jurassic Park.

Note that it says "possibly" soaked. Well, I was that possibly. Entirely, completely, soaked. I happened to be in the one seat that took the brunt of the big splash at the end. Good times!

Those used to be tan, not dark brown

Ultimately, the day at Universal was a lot of fun, and our weekend in Singapore was a blast.

TEASER: Coming up in our next post, we have our most epic trip yet. We'll tell you all about it. Stay tuned...