Cloud Forest Dome

 

The Cloud Forest Dome was one of the highlights from today. There is nothing I've ever seen to compare it to. The complex is completely man made but the plants are very real.

The first thing you notice when you step through the door and into the dome is this huge waterfall & the the immediate relief from the heat as the temperature drops 20 degrees!

The apex of the dome is directly above the waterfall.

There is a huge variety of plants with grouping in different zones. The Orchard zone was pretty popular and had many different varieties.

In a different area, pitcher plants.

Scattered around the dome are these dried vine sculptures.

We were intrigued to see these glass sculptures by Dale Chilhuly. We had visited his gallery in Seattle last year.

This display inside the Chrystal Mountain has a 360 degree motion projection of various forest themes.

The true 'Cloud' Dome appeared once the reticulation sprays came on. What an amazing place!

We stopped for lunch at Satay by the Bay where Harry discovered Satay stickswere good,  despite having butter chicken for lunch.

Supertree Grove

 

Today, we focused on the Gardens on the Bay. The clouds cleared for the first time on the trip, so we were out of the blocks early. We started at the Supertree Grove.

The surrounding gardens are lush as is anywhere in Singapore where plants are allowed to grow freely.

The steel Supertrees perform multiple functions for the forest & adjactent domes. The smaller plants use them as substrate and the adjacent domes use them as air intakes & exhausts.

The man made ecosystem in the Gardens is very interesting and conceptually environmentally friendly.

They also host lights and solar panels.

One of the Supertrees has an observatory at the top, so we decided to check it out.

The unobstructed views from the obsevatory are impressive! To the west (above) is the downtown area, the container port & Sentosa.

To the south (above), the open water and Indonesia on the horizon, not to mention the miriad of bulk carriers.

Looking east (above), the Singapore Flyer Flower Dome (centre) and CLoud Dome (right).

The northern aspect (above) is dominated by the Marina Bay Sands.

Kerri also did the Skywalk while we watch from a cool breezy spot in the shade up in the observatory.

There are plenty of other sights to see in the Gardens. Dragonfly Lake (above) is surrounded by lush vegitation and did in fact have many dragonflies hovering around. There are also two large steel dragonfly sculptures behind the fountain.

It was getting hot so we needed to get out of the sun and find some shade and air conditioning.

Universal Studios, Sentosa

 

Today it was all about rides, rides & more rides!
We caught the MRT (underground train) across to Vivo City, which is the gateway to Sentosa Island.

We then caught the Monorail across to Sentosa Island.

We were there at opening, so after the entry mayhem, it was through the streets and straight to the back of the park....

... and into Jurassic Park. We were hoping to knock a few of the rides off before they got too busy. As it turns out, the Jurassic Park rides are for the less adventurous riders so we did each ride once & moved on. The first ride was a rapids ride & we all managed to get soaked which wasn't the worst thing in the heat.

Next door to Jurassoc Park was the Mummy's Revenge. Not for the little ones because of what Harry calls, "Jump Scares". He wasn't about to go back on that one, so we moved on.

Then we moved on to the castle area which had the Puss In Boots ride. That was probably the lamest roller coaster I've been on for a very long time. This theme park just wasn't holding up against Dreamworld...

We were determined to get into some solid adrenaline rides so we made our way over to the roller coaster complex. There are two roller coasters operating in the Battlestar Gallactica complex, one more hectic than the other.

The easier of the two is the Human. You have conventional seating on top of the ride. It's a pretty thrilling ride no matter.

The Cylon is much more agressive. Your seat hangs under the rail which takes you up down around & upside down. Excellent roller coaster & the lines weren't too bad for most of the day (although it got a bit crazy in the middle of the day).

We eventually decided to brave the lines for the Transformers ride. The line up threads through all sorts of situational move shorts in room with a bunch of movie artifacts. The ride itself was decent, but not worth lining up for again.

We managed to make the afternoon Water World stunt show which was pretty epic with heap of acrobatics, boats wetting the front rows & plenty of pyrotechnics.

We were just about had it by 5pm, so we had the last couple of rides on the Battlestar roller coasters before heading for the exit via the mrch shops.

I'm not sure how the Minions would go if WorkSafe did an inspection...

And, just like that, we were done.

Off to the Monorail enroute to the hotel pool before dinner. Another fun day had by all.