5 hours in Singapore

When I was planning our trip to Legoland Malaysia, I noticed many people would travel into Singapore and then just cross the border into Malaysia.  Legoland is really close to the border. I ended up finding super cheap flights into Singapore and I figured we may as well cross another country off our list and spend a few hours there before heading over to Malaysia.

First thing I noticed was how amazing the Changi Airport in Singapore is.  We dropped off all of our luggage at the locker room.  Small bags cost $3.21 per piece and larges bags cost $4.28 per piece to store for 24 hours.  You could spend your whole time at the airport if you had a long layover there.  They make it very comfortable for you.  If you have at least a 5 hour layover, you can get a free 2 hour sight seeing tour!  I wish I would have known that ahead of time.  They also have plenty of places to eat, a movie theater, pool on the roof, and lots of fun for kids.  Such a great airport.

We left the airport to go check out Gardens by the Bay.  We headed to the taxi stand and noticed the taxis were way different than the taxis in Thailand.  We were taken to the gardens in a Mercedes!  Nothing like the green & yellow taxis here.  On our drive, we kept commenting on how clean and manicured everything was.  Singapore is a beautiful city.  I would have loved to explored even longer!

I heard about the gardens on a page that was listing places you need to see.  I thought it looked like such a unique place and knew that if we headed to Singapore we would have to visit.  The gardens are only about 15-20 minutes from the airport by taxi.  Admission to the gardens are free, but if you want to visit the Conservatories ( $8-$28) or the supertree skyway ($3-$5) you will have to pay admission to those.  Pulling into the gardens was like stepping on to the set of the movie Avatar.  The shapes of the buildings and the supertrees were all very futuristic.  My boys LOVED it!  We walked around for a bit and looked at the cactus garden before heading to the best feature, the free children's garden.

Yes, that building looks like  ship.

After making my decision to visit Gardens by the Bay, I was searching for other things to do in Singapore with kids and found the Far East Organization Children's Garden.  My whole visit came together when I realized the Children's Garden and the Gardens by the Bay were in the same location!  And it is FREE!  They have an amazing play area to play at and when you get too hot, you can run through the splash pad/fountains.  My boys had so much fun.  We could have stayed there all night, but decided to leave when we noticed the dark clouds rolling in.

 Such a unique playground

 Lincoln relaxing on the swing

Grey in the "cocoon"

I wanted to make sure we had the chance to walk around the skyway.  You need to know that I am terribly afraid of heights.  Pretty much a total mess when I am a few feet off the ground.  The OCBC Skyway is 22 meters  (72 feet) off the ground and is a 128 meter (419 feet)  walk through the top of the super grove trees,  I was terrified, but really wanted to see the views from the top.  Now, picture this...the sky is getting dark due to storm, the wind is picking up and we are at the top of a skyway!  Talk about facing my fears.  I was afraid we were going to blow right off the walkway.  My middle son, who is also scared of heights, was holding my hand and kept saying, "Mom, you're hurting me. Ow!! " because I was squeezing his hand so tight.  But we made it all the way across and I must say I was pretty proud of all of us.  And the views were pretty spectacular.  The cost for the sky way is $5 for adults and $3 for children.  You can buy the tickets right outside of the skyway.

Views of the Skyway from the ground

 The boys at the top of the Skywalk

Loved all the supertrees sticking up above the real trees

That was our 5 hours spent in Singapore.  It was jammed packed, but so much fun.  I would recommend spending some time at the gardens if you have some spare time in Singapore.  There was so much more to do there that we did not have time for.  But, it was getting dark and we still needed to cross the border into Malaysia.  More on that in the next post...I still can't quite believe we actually made it over the border!

Dark clouds rolling in