Singapore Botanical Gardens

 

We did more activities today including re-doing the Hop on Hop off bus route that was obscured by Noah's flood on the yesterday. This lead us to the the Singapore Botanical Gardens.

We were greeted at the Gardens by a pair of hornbills (above).

Symphony Lake

Wild Red Junglefowl (chickens) are a common sight around Singapore.

After the Gardens, we caught the Big Bus down the hill to Orchard road for lunch along the seemingly endless shopping strip.

Fort Canning

 

This morning we checked out Fort Canning that is a few minutes walk from our hotel. There is quite a bit of WWII history surrounding the Fort but the park gardens are pretty impressive. It was the gardens that were the focus today. We have a plan to visit the Battle Box later in the week when it is open to the public.

Fort Canning is built on and around a steep hill near the centre of the city. Fortunately, there are a number of escalators that can take you effortlessly to the top avoiding a sweaty alternative stair climb.

This impressive water feature is about half way up the hill.

There are some good spots on the hill to look out over the city including the one above that overlooks Clarke Quay.

Most of the fortifications and building are at the top of the hill.

The gardens are vast & very well kept.

Tree Tunnel.

Singapore Big Bus & Duck Tour

 

Greetings from hot & steamy Singapore! Our intel' for Singapore was hot & steamy. This morning, the clouds hammered the place for about 3 hours which took the edge off the mugginess so the jury is still out.

We are staying in a hotel at Robertson Quay which is close to most of the inner city attractions without being so close to get mixed up in too much craziness.

Our exploration of Singapore started this morning by walking along the Singapore River toward Marina Bay. Our plan for the day was to ride the hop on hop off bus to get a bit of an oversight of the city. It wasn't long before we saw the Marina Bay Sands Hotel (above).

Prior to boarding the bus, we took an opportunity to ride the Duck which is run by the same company of the Big Bus. The Duck was pretty well booked out for the rest of the week. Fortunately, there was a slot open for us today. It leaves from Suntec City (HQ for the Big Bus), drives around to a ramp into Marina Bay.

The Duck tour follows a clockwise circuit of Marina Bay, passing some of the most popular tourist hot spots including Gardens by the Bay (above) and the Marina Bay Sands hotel (below). We have plans to visit the Gardens later in the week.

The Sands over-shadows the Artscience Museum (above).

From the Duck, we got a good look at the Downtown area (above).

This was our first look at the Merlion (above).

We had lunch before transferring to the hop on hop off tour bus. There had been light rain since before the Duck tour and didn't look like letting up. We figured it didn't matter because we were just trying to get some sort of orientation. Unfortunately, a biblical storm broke just as we boarded the bus! That wasn't exactly the best weather for an open topped double decker bus so we sheltered downstairs where the view isn't especially good. Visibility was down to about 10m anyway so it didn't matter that much. 

Every time the bus stopped, the water trapped on the upper level, sloshed forward and cascaded down the steps. 😄

Noah's flood finally abaited and we were able to sit up on the top deck to enjoy the sights like little India (above). The break in the rain gave us the first real taste of Singapore's humidity,

We hopped off the bus at the Parkroyal in Chinatown which was the closest stop to our hotel where we took advantage of the pool to cool off before dinner at one of the restaurants at street level of the hotel complex.

Travel to Singapore

We're off again! Seems like we're making up for lost time from years of not being able to travel too far from home. Today we left Perth under some ominous winter clouds to cross the Equator to Singapore to a different style of clouds.

Looking out the window as we crossed the equator, we saw a storm cloud bank building (above) back lit by the setting sun. Soon after we were touching down at Changi Airport where we collected our bags & very quickly were out of the airport and onto the MRT enroute to Downtown. Our hotel is at Robertson Quay which is along the river and central to everthing.

The Whitehouse & other big buildings

 

We’d reached our limit with Smithsonian Institution museums for the day, so we wandered our way toward the White House. Along the way, we were struck by how many huge, extravagant buildings flank the National Mall, many of them lined with long rows of stone columns across their front façades.

The famous Waldorf Astoria hotel.

We stopped by the White House Visitor Center, which features a full-scale Oval Office replica, exhibits on the history of the White House, and a gift shop.

The view of the White House from Pennsylvania Avenue is definitely less “fencey” than from The Ellipse. The expansive gardens are nice, but they also partially obscure the building, which sits quite a distance from the viewing points. To be brutally honest, it felt a bit overrated.

Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum

The next museum on the agenda was the National Air and Space Museum. Like the National Museum of Natural History, entry was free, but you still needed to book a timed ticket. The line to get in was pretty nuts. It thinned out a bit once inside, but it was still fairly hectic. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, holding the world's largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft, is the institution's most-visited museum.

Unfortunately, about half the floor space was closed off due to upgrades and construction. What was open was well presented, with the original Wright Flyer (above) being the clear highlight.

America by Air has exhibit and aircraft that lay out the history of U.S. commercial aviation. It features iconic aircraft, including a Ford 5-AT Tri-Motor, Boeing 247-D, and a Douglas DC-3.

Also featured is a full Boeing 747 cockpit. 

Some of the floor exhibits in America by Air include turbofan engines such as the Rolls-Royce RB211-22 (above) and the GE CF6 (below), both widely used on commercial airliners, along with the massive C-5M Galaxy.

The Spirit of St. Louis is another of the unique aircraft in the museum. Charles Lindbergh flew it solo across the Atlantic in 1927, a landmark achievement in aviation history.

The Destination Moon exhibit includes a number of key artifacts from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.Above is the command module from the Apollo 11 mission that famously was the first manned mission to land on the moon.

 The rocket motors are also incredibly impressive pieces of engineering; massive, complex, and a real testament to the power required for spaceflight.

Neil Armstrong’s space suit is a unique piece of history, offering a tangible connection to the moment of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.

The full-sized X-Wing T-70 was never part of any real space program, but it’s still an iconic movie prop from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

The Air & Space Museum didn’t quite measure up to the Museum of Flight in Seattle, which left Harry pretty disappointed, though for Kerri, the smaller, more concise layout was perfect.

The Capitol Building

 

The vast lawn stretching between the Washington Monument and the Capitol is lined with numerous buildings, including several Smithsonian museums and the Smithonian Castle (below) which is the administrative headquarters and primary visitor information center for the Smithsonian Institution.

As we walked the expanse of the National Mall towards the US Capitol, we couldn’t help but be distracted by the numerous squirrels. Among them was a white one, which was bossing its neighbours around.

We made it as far as the United States Capitol Reflecting Pool, where we could get a decent view of the seat of the U.S. Parliament. Like the White House, it’s surrounded by multiple layers of tall fencing.