Beautiful Chinese Garden(09/02/2013)

First of all, i would say better late than never. Because this post supposed to be posted 4months back. It was there in the draft for a long time. Anyway, it's published today. We had a long weekend for four days starting from 9th to 12th of February, because of the Chinese New Year on 11th of February.

So the first day, we visited to Chinese garden(will be referred as CG in my post). 

~ Chinese Garden, also commonly known as Jurong Gardens, is a park in Jurong East, Singapore. The garden was built in 1975 and designed by Prof. Yuen-chen Yu, a well-known architect from Taiwan, the Chinese Garden’s concept is based on Chinese gardening art. The main characteristic is the integration of splendid architectural features with the natural environment. The Chinese Garden is modeled along the northern Chinese imperial style of architecture and landscaping. It is located next to Chinese Garden MRT Station and connected to the adjacent Japanese Garden by a bridge.

In ancient times, the pagoda, originally a simple tower located beside a temple, was used for the keeping of human bones by Buddhists. Later, with improvements in architectural skills, incorporated with the traditional art of building, the pagoda was developed into a structure of striking architectural beauty.

The ‘Ru Yun T’a) (7-storey pagoda) is situated on a small hill in the Chinese Garden. Its typical pagoda design follows the style of Ling Ku Temple Pagoda at Nanjing. ~

It's indeed a beautiful garden and made in Chinese art style. So parked our vehicle near CG MRT station and walked to CG.

Train leaves Chinese Garden MRT station

While we were walking towards CG, we could see the pagoda twins at a far distance. 

So after taking a snap of twin pagodas, we continued walking towards CG. Upon approaching the garden, there is a Red Bridge that will lead you in. This Red Bridge symbolizes good luck and is an auspicious color for the Chinese.  This entrance was specially constructed in conjunction with the Chinese Garden MRT station, to ensure easy access for pedestrians visiting the gardens.

It is a Chinese belief that the lion is the animal representing authority and fealty. Thus, the cloudy-grained marble stone lions at the gates of the Chinese Garden – typically Chinese in style – guarding the main gates of the Garden.

So as we entered into CG, we saw the 7-storey pagoda. You can climb to the top and enjoy the view around CG.To go up, there was a beautiful spiral staircase inside the 7-storey pagoda.

7-storey pagoda

Spiral staircase

So, after climbed and had a look around we just came down to see other places. There were lots of snake designs along the pathway to welcome the Chinese Lunar New Year 2013, the Year of the Snake. Few pictures of them are here:

So the next thing we saw was the beautiful twin pagodas. We took many photos of the twin pagodas in different views. It's really beautiful!

Twin Pagoda

And another beautiful thing is the stone-boat: 

Stone Boat

Lots of bonsai trees are planted in CG. And there are chairs of each zodiac sign and collection of statues dedicated to each of the 12 Chinese Zodiac Signs. Here are some of the pictures:

And the gate of CG is so beautiful and a Thirteen Span Bridge is just opposite to the gate.

The Gate

Thirteen Span Bridge

The highlight of CG is the 'Rainbow bridge'. It follows the style of the 17-Arch Bridge at the Summer Palace in Peking. Although the bridge at the Chinese Garden is shorter than the famous 17-Arch Bridge, it still maintains the magnificence and brilliance in architectural design, representing a typical beautiful Chinese bridge.

The Rainbow Bridge

The last picture but not the least - 'The Bridge of Romance'

So, CG is a best place to relax and great place for photography and half a day is enough for the visit!

First Visit To Sentosa (26/05/2013)

So, we visited Sentosa last Sunday. It was first time for me. I always wanted to go there, but as you know, something comes up every Sunday. So we miss our outings. Anyway, finally i made it. Yes, visited Sentosa!

Sentosa is not a place you can finish looking at in one day. You will need few weeks i suppose. So obviously, we wouldn't have finished looking at in one day. We could able to cover up few attractions in Imbiah Lookout zone.

Actually we didn't have any plans about what are we going to cover up that day. Because it was an unplanned visit. So we thought we'll go there and decide what we can do depending on the time and weather. Singapore weather is always unpredictable. Even that day morning it was a bright/sunny day, but just after an hour or so it was almost raining. Okay so I'll come to the point.

We entered Sentosa, parked the vehicle. Just started walking. The first thing i noticed was the gigantic merlion replica in Sentosa. The merlion is a mythical creature with the body of a fish and the head of a lion, used as a mascot and national personification of Singapore. There is a fountain underneath the merlion. It's a beautiful place to take pictures. And you can climb to the top of merlion and see around through merlion's mouth or through merlion's eyes.

Gigantic Merlion at Sentosa Island

There are buses painted with same design and trains in different colors on service to allow the visitors to go around Sentosa comfortably.

Sentosa buses on service

Sentosa Express trains on service

After looking at merlion, we moved to a side from where we can have a look at cable cars running between Sentosa and Vivo city. It's just beautiful. Cable cars are another way to enter into Sentosa from Singapore.

Cable cars running between Sentosa and Vivo City Shopping Mall

So after had a treat to eyes and with some photos we moved to Tiger sky tower, is the highest observation tower in Singapore. At ground level, we will enter a large disc-shaped air-conditioned cabin fitted with glass windows all round. The cabin revolves slowly for views as it ascends the tower.

Tiger Sky Tower

Sky ride seen from sky tower

Merlion seen from sky tower

From the top, we had an amazing view of entire length of Singapore's skyline and a panoramic view of the island. It's been said that 'On a clear day, one may even be able to see part of Johor Bahru and Indonesia's skyline'. But we were not lucky enough since the weather was bad. And you will get few minutes to enjoy the view. If you wanna stay for long, you should get a multiple ride ticket. We just got single ride, and then we moved to Skyline Luge.

Luge is a thing to be ticked in my bucket list. It was my dream. I loved it really. It's giving you full control, navigate down 650 meters of the Jungle Trail as thrillingly fast or cruising slow as you like. After Luge, we boarded the Sky ride . It was relaxing aerial ride that carried us above the tree tops. And we had a look at the fantastic panoramic scenery of the city skyline and beautiful coastline. Truly an experience not to be missed. And 'one is never enough' :)

 
So, we started walking back to the car park. We reached resorts world Sentosa. Inside that you will see lots of things. These is a fully sheltered festive-walk to allow visitors to rest or even watch some performances of there are any.

 

And there is Lake of Dreams which has lost of art pieces.People having fun taking pictures. It's full of man made fountains. And some metals floating on top the water. All gives the beauty. Picture on right is one of the art piece at resorts world Sentosa.

 





After an awesome day full of fun, we came home with lots of pictures for memories!!! :)

Walk around Merlion(26/01/2013)

It was a Saturday evening; just wanted go out. So we decided to walk around Merlion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlion).

An excerpt from wiki:

.The Merlion is a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish, used as a mascot and national personification of Singapore. Its name combines "mer" meaning the sea and "lion". The fish body represents Singapore's origin as a fishing village when it was called Temasek, which means "sea town" in Javanese. The lion head represents Singapore's original name — Singapura — meaning "lion city" or "kota singa"

The Mer-Lion

 It's actually surrounded by many beautiful buildings and you get a nice view of Singapore skyline from merlion. I'm not gonna wirte much about it. but i'm sure there are lots of treat for eyes if you visit.

Few icons of Singapore in one frame

An outdoor theater by the bay

Visit to Marina Bay Sands SkyPark(13/01/2013)

First visit in Singapore was to Marina Bay Sands SkyPark (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Bay_Sands). It's such a beautiful building i have ever seen(yet to see many more places!). It's designed in a special way.

View during day time

You'll never get bored seeing this building; It's such a treat to eyes when it is having some lighting from the top floor at nights :

At nights with some lighting

The building like lotus flower you see in the foreground is the Art Science Museum of Singapore. And it's the world's first Art Science Museum. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArtScience_Museum)

View of the Art Science Museum from level 56 of Sands SkyPark 

Another view

Helix Bridge is a pedestrian bridge; but again it's unique by it's design. So here goes the picture of all three :

And finally, this is the sample building construction structure of sands skypark :

Some views of some of the interesting places of Singapore from level 56 of Marina Bay Sands SkyPark:

Singapore Flyer

Super Trees

Gardens By The Bay

So, That was all about the visit to Marina Bay Sands SkyPark!!!