The moment I saw Gardens by the Bay’s impressive structure and colorful lights while onboard the Singapore Flyer, I knew I just had to see it up close.

Gardens by the Bay is a 101-hectare park that brings to life Singapore’s desire of creating a City in a Garden.  It is adjacent to the Marina Reservoir and consists of three waterfront gardens: Bay South Garden, Bay East Garden and Bay Central Garden.

Dragonfly and Kingfisher Lakes
These sculptural and planted islands show the aquatic life of fish and plants and their ecosystem’s fragility.

I thought they named it as such because of the dragonfly sculptures, but I overheard someone say that in the morning, dragonflies can actually be seen here.

Gardens by the Bay’s website shared that the 440-meter boardwalk along the Dragonfly Lake is one of their many secret gems and a fantastic photographic shot, which I found to be true.

Planet
This is what its signage says: Beautifully balanced on a languid arm of a sleeping boy child, this seven ton, 383 cm by 353 cm by 926 cm bronze cast sculpture floats like a heavenly body above a verdant earth and explored nature under human influence and the dual meanings of human life, between spiritual and physical, surface and depth, cerebral and sexual.

Isn’t it amazing to see this “float” especially after knowing that it weighs seven tons?

Trivia: British sculpture Marc Quinn created this masterpiece in a depiction of his infant son, Lucas.

Supertree Grove
Now these were what made me decide to see Gardens by the Bay.  I’ve seen them in magazines and on the web and thought they looked so beautiful, especially at night because of their colorful lights thus, I opted to visit at night time.  

Supertree Grove are uniquely designed vertical gardens of 25 to 50-meer trees with large canopies that provide shade in the day and come alive with an amazing display of light and sound at night.

Supertrees are made of four parts: reinforcement concrete core, trunk, planting panels of the living skin, and canopy.  I was amazed to find out that 62,900 plants comprising more than 200 species and varieties of bromeliads, orchids, ferns and tropical flowering climbers are planted on these trees.  Wow.

They looked so beautiful, almost otherworldly.

And they change colors too.

Their website shared that there’s a Garden Rhapsody Show here, which features 48 independent audio speakers to simulate ‘live’ musicians performing at various spots, but in my almost 2 hours here, I did not hear anything.

OCBC Skyway
This offers a spectacular  view of the skyline 22 meters above the ground.  While Supertree Grove does not charge entrance fees, I had to pay S$5 to get here.

Here’s a photo of my view of the supertrees and the gardens below from the OCBC Skyway.

While I find the entire experience exhilarating, I don’t recommend this to people who are afraid of heights because the 128-meter long aerial walkway has narrow parts and it wobbles!

During my visit, we actually got stuck because someone got so scared to continue and opted out.  The walkway is one-way so we had to wait for her to retrace her steps to the entrance.  So if you have any of the conditions on their Safety and Health Advisory below, do yourself a favor and skip climbing up here.

And just to be on the safe side, when here, do follow their list of don’ts e.g. no running or jumping (someone actually run, much to our annoyance).

From the top, I was afforded a panoramic view of the Gardens against the Marina Bay skyline.

Here’s a zoomed-in shot, just to emphasize the Singapore Flyer.

As I walked along, I was also given a good view of the iconic Marina Bay Sands.

I even got lucky to see it emit lights that changed colors.

The OCBC Skyway also gave me this view of more buildings that make up Singapore’s cityscape.

Aside from what  covered here, Gardens by the Bay also has other attractions like Children’s Garden, Flower Dome, Heritage Gardens, Sun Pavilion, and World of Plants.  I was not able to check them out since most of these were close when I left the OCBC Skyway at past 10 PM.

If you ever find yourself in Singapore, do visit Gardens by the Bay.  I loved it here so much that I made a promise to myself to re-visit this when I’m back in Singapore.  I’ll be doing it at daytime though, just to see the difference.

For more information about Gardens by the Bay, visit their official website.