With its 150 meters in length, the size of the Infinity pool of Marina Bay Sands was far from impressive, but its location on the 57th floor and its curved shape along the edge of the roof made it unique, world-famous and undoubtedly the culmination of our journey. Relaxed in the slightly cool water on the edge of the pool, I could enjoy for hours the magnificent panorama over Singapore. From here you can see not only the whole city, but also have a view of the future. Singapore, like Monaco, Vatican City is a city-state, but for me it was a place of the future – so I imagined it to be – clean, tidy, modern, preserving history and tradition.

With so many densely elevated sights, we decided to start our tour from the highest place in the city – the Singapore Flyer. It is huge Ferris wheel with a diameter of 150 meters and a height of 165 meters or this equates to a 42-story building, making it the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. It consists of 28 cubicles in capsule form, each measuring 4 by 7 meters or the size of a city bus. The speed is 0.76 km/h and takes 30 minutes for one full lap. From the top there is an incredible view: you can see not only the whole Singapore, but also part of Malaysia and Indonesia. A three-country panorama stretching 45 km away – no wonder our cameras overheated by photos. Singapore managed to impress me, and I was increasingly impressed.

Descending from the heaven, we found ourselves in paradise again, heading to the lovely Gardens by the Bay and Cloud Forrest. To reach the opposite shore, we passed through a very picturesque metal bridge, the construction of which allowed the formation of several panoramic platforms, and the photos from them only increased and multiplied our photos from Singapore.

Whatever I say about the Gardens by the Bay, there will be no enough superlatives and adjectives to compliment their beauty. We started the tour of the 250-acre gardens from the largest greenhouse without columns in the world – the Flower Dome. It is a huge glazed egg-shaped dome under which are separated gardens with flowers from all over the world – there is a corner with flowers from California, from Australia, from South America, Africa, etc. The constant temperature is 23-25 degrees, and the variety of colors and types is impressive. We took pictures with the many baobab trees, with a 1000-year-old olive tree, numerous cacti, and countless flowers beautifully shaped and well cared for. To mark the Chinese New Year, which had passed a few days ago, a corner was formed with the Chinese zodiac signs, and among them many monkeys made of flowers – after all, it was the year of the monkey.  The total area of this colorful paradise was 1.2 hectares or this is equivalent to 2.2 football fields. However, 90 minutes (as long as a football match usually lasts) is not enough to see and photograph all the colourful inhabitants. And if we weren’t in a hurry for the next dome, we’d probably be watching “one more half” here.

The second dome we entered was called Cloud Forest and unlike the Flower Dome it showed the plants that live at high altitudes. In the center of the dome is formed a 35-meter mountain, which we “conquered” with walks and numerous photos, starting from the top, bearing the name Lost world. We literally lost our minds and words as soon as we entered the dome. We were standing in front of the highest indoor waterfall in the world. The welcome was spectacular – the water descended from the high mountain and its roar echoed loudly. As we walked through the beautifully shaped with flowers and plants alleys, the path below us began to smoke and clouds formed, creating the effect that we are at high altitudes, and that only the clouds are below us. It didn’t take long, and the cool air spread out and it became clear, revealing a wonderful view from all sides. We also went through an interesting hall with stalactites and stalagmites. Inside, however, it got quite cool, and although we were enchanted by this man-made nature, we looked at cloud forests relatively faster than the flower dome.

Coming out of the domes with the gardens of paradise, we found ourselves among the brightly lit supertrees, representing tall columns in the form of trees between 25 and 50 meters in size decorated with plants such as lianas. During the day they provide a pleasant shade, and at night they are a pageant of lights. We caught the beginning of a fabulous show of sound and light. It was wonderful – the effects were some mixture of colorful fireflies and a firework show. We never counted how many trees there were, but later I learned that there are 18, 12 of which are located in the gardens of the bay and the highest of them are with size of a 16-storey building. In the days that followed, we had the opportunity to climb and walk on them, but the first night from the ground we watched their changing lights fascinated to the sound of music. Later we watched this show from our hotel room on the 42nd floor of Marina Bay Sand, and each time the same fascinated me again and again.

Singapore consists of one main island and 63 other smaller islands, most of which are not inhabited. Although it is among the 20 smallest countries in the world, with a total area of 682.7 square kilometers, it was difficult to tour the whole city and we decided to take advantage of the double-decker tourist buses that pass and stop through the main attractions, starting from its first stop, which is at the huge Ferris wheel. The second stop was at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay – a huge arts centre located in Marina Bay at the mouth of the Singapore River. The center has a concert hall with 1800 seats and a theater with 2000 seats. However, we headed to the third stop, Merlion Park, located on the promenade. Merlion comes from the words mer/sea and lion and represents a mystical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. It is perceived as a symbol of Singapore and actually unites the old city names Temasek (meaning seaside city) and Singapura (lion city).

We continued our walk with the double-decker buses, and at the Clarke quay stop we transferred to a boat and had a wonderful one-hour boat tour admiring the city from the water. The wooden boat on which we rode contrasted strongly with the metal glazed skyscrapers that bragged on the shore.  Singapore is a wonderful blend of tradition and modernism, and for me it remains a fairy tale from the future.

The nickname that Singapore actually carries is “city in the garden” and indeed everywhere you turn there is greenery and wonderful flowers. This is most strongly felt in the 82-hectare botanical garden. It is the third UNESCO-listed botanical garden after Kew Gardens in England and Orto Botanico in Padua, Italy, making it the first Asian tropical botanical garden on this list. It is also the only botanical garden in the world that is open from 5 a.m. to 12 a.m. until 00:00 a.m., all year round, and there’s not even an entry fee (aside from $5 for the orchid garden). The Orchid Garden is really worth visiting, and here is the largest collection in the world of orchids including 60,000 plants, over 1,200 species of orchids and 2,000 hybrids. There is also a separate area called VIP orchids, which are named after celebrities who visited the park, and there is an orchid named after Jackie Chak, Elton John, Princess Diana, Nelson Mandela, there is even an orchid named after Prince William and Kate, who visited the park in 2014. This is really an ideal place for walks and relaxation, showing the best side of green nature.

In the evening, we had a night safari at the world’s first night zoo. There are two zoos in Singapore one is the “daily one”, which is the best tropical zoo in the world, and you can see koalas, pandas and other rare species, and a river safari can be made. However, we chose the “night one” located in the immediate vicinity, which also has won numerous prizes. Our walk began with an open tourist bus passing through the cages of the various animals that were eating and had come out into the open at that moment.  We had a wonderful opportunity to see them, but not to photograph them, as the use of flashes was forbidden, and without it, it was difficult to get pictures in the dark. We were able to see lions, tigers, giraffes, elephants and other less common Himalayan representatives and those from the Southeast Asian jungle. The night zoo covers 40 hectares and is home to 1,000 animals of 110 species. At the end of the walk we had the opportunity to walk along a separate path, from where you can see some species of cats, bats, flying squirrels and even leopards. It turned out that nocturnal animals are not so scary, especially since they have just eaten.

Other night attraction we managed to see the next day was the unique laser show of Marina Bay. The show was only 15 minutes, but in a very interesting way they mixed lights, fountains and music, and with lasors projected screens with images and films. A unique end to the day in a unique city.

When you’re staying in a wonderful hotel and your room has a great view from the 42nd floor, and the 15-story above is an endless pool you don’t want to leave the hotel and yet the many sights and attractions in Singapore made us do just that. The next day we walked to the island of entertainment – Sentosa.

The melodic name Sentosa means “peace and tranquility”, to me it looks more like the “island of pleasures” described in the adventures of Pinocchio and even Peter Pan’s Neverland. It is an island with hundreds of attractions for every age and taste. There are laid-back white beaches with palm trees and hammocks, numerous restaurants, amusement parks such as Universal Studio, museums such as Madame Tussauds and many more, that you can’t visit in one day. We chose the 37-meter statue of Merlion, which we entered and climbed into its mouth, as well as visited the world’s largest aquarium and water museum.

The island of Sentosa can be reached on foot by a picturesque bridge, by bus or the most attractive way we chose – by lift. The cable cars depart from the 15th floor of a skyscraper, and although the journey took only 10 minutes, the views from the air were completely worth it. Like Singapore, this island is one large garden with many plants, flowers and fountains, the walks along the picturesque alleys really bring “peace and tranquility”. We never had time to see the butterfly park, but the aquarium really impressed us. In addition to its diverse (over 800 different species) marine life, including over 200 sharks, and the huge glass aquarium that we had the opportunity to see from all sides, and in which, along with the fish, we caught a performance from two divers in costumes celebrating the Chinese New Year, which occurred a few days ago.

Singapore once again managed to impress us. In this city-state, everything seems to have been thought of and everything is perfected. Human creations intertwine with the surrounding world and show that the latest technologies and constructions can be in complete harmony with nature. Singapore is like a city of the future, a future that I wish all cities and countries to reach.

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT SINGAPORE:

Location: The Republic of Singapore is an island city-state in Southeast Asia, located in the southern part of the Malay Peninsula.
Area:  719.1 sq. km
Capital: Singapore
Population:  5 535 000 people
Official language:  English, Chinese (Mandarin), Malay and Tamil
Altitude:  The highest point of the island is Bukit Timah at 163.63 m

TRIP TIPS FOR SINGAPORE:

The best time to visit: all year round, with November to February being the rainy period. However, much of Singapore’s sidewalks are covered, so you may not even notice the rain.