Despite transiting many times and visiting for work purposes, we had never really allocated time for leisure in Singapore and given that our Finnair flight from Helsinki didn’t exactly align with our Malaysian flight home, we decided two nights would break the journey nicely.

I had booked the Changi Airport Hotel and at check in we were upgraded to a spacious room overlooking the pool where we basically vegged out for the evening and ordered room service (cheap by Norwegian standards!) 🤣

After a leisurely breakfast the next morning – great breakfasts at this hotel just quietly – we walked next door to the massive Jewel complex.

“Jewel Changi Airport (also known as Jewel) is a nature-themed entertainment and retail complex surrounded by and linked to one of the passenger terminals of Changi Airport in Singapore. Its centrepiece is the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, the Rain Vortex, which is surrounded by a terraced forest setting.”

By now you know I have a bit of a thing for waterfalls and so we checked this one out from all angles.

 

We paid our money to visit the Canopy Park and its attractions… the rope net (me), mirror maze, bridge and spectacular garden displays.

 

I highly recommend if you find yourself with spare time in Singapore 👌

After lunch in one of the 112 food outlets (!) we caught a taxi to our next attraction, Gardens by The Bay.

Gardens by the Bay was part of the nation’s plans to transform its “Garden City” to a “City in a Garden”, with the aim of raising the quality of life by enhancing greenery and flora in the city. It spans 260 acres and features Supertree Grove and two cooled conservatories, home to Floral Fantasy and the Cloud Forest. 

Recorded visitors topped 50 million people by 2018 and in 2024, TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Awards Best Of The Best ranked it the eighth-best attraction in the world and the best in Asia.

You can read more here.

I had my eye on visiting the Cloud Forest with its Jurassic display but as luck would have it it was scheduled for maintenance and closed. We went instead to the Flower Dome which was awe inspiring. There was even an Australian garden display.

 

Next we made our way to the queue for the Supertree Skyway, twenty two metres above the ground and connecting two of the Supertrees. More by good luck than management we ascended the lift about fifteen minutes before sunset.

 

It was amazing! I was tempted to stay for the repeat performance at 9.45 (for the ‘big kids’) but instead we temporarily got lost in the park in the dark but eventually made our way to Satay by the Bay for some sustenance…

 

… then got temporarily stranded at a non existent taxi stand but that’s another story. We made it back to the hotel to in time to have a glass of wine and watch the last of the World Aquatic Championships – being held in Singapore and of course featuring the Aussies.

 

After nearly 8 weeks in northern climes we arrived back in Adelaide to the coldest temperatures we had experienced the whole time away.

This trip was huge in the making, lots of moving parts and and involving relatively isolated parts of the world with limited accommodations and tourist resources requiring careful planning. I’m happy to say with the exception of our missed lagoon tour (more due to fatigue and inattention) it went off without a hitch and we got to see and experience some truly unique regions of the world.