Singapore's Newest Attraction is a Gem

Looking up at the 40-metre tall waterfall, the world's largest one indoors

Apart from the marvelous shopping and eating options (the pandan chiffon cake at Bengawan Solo) at Singapore's Changi Airport, there's another new attraction called Jewel.

There's lots of greenery and water inside the giant dome

It opens on Wednesday and locals got a a sneak peak the other day. What was previously an open air car park has been transformed into a massive 10-storey complex with the focal point being the world's tallest indoor waterfall at 40 metres high. Oh and there are 300 shops and dining outlets in there too.

The complex, encased in a dome-shaped glass structure, was designed by Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie, who also was the creative brains behind Marina Bay Sands.

So if you only have a few hours to kill, and not enough time to venture out in the city, perhaps Jewel will be the solution to hang out. There's even a Shake Shack for those hankering for a New York burger fix, A&W Root Beer, and Pokemon Centre, where fans of the video game can buy all the merchandise they want.

It's not hard to see why the complex is called Jewel

Changi Airport is the seventh busiest in the world, hosting more than 65 million travelers in 2018.

Garden Mania in Singapore

The Supertree Grove in Gardens by the Bay and you can walk the walkway

Just a few more posts on Singapore before we catch up on Hong Kong and China...

The Lion City is very lush and green, even more so with a relatively new additional garden -- Gardens by the Bay near Marina Bay Sands.

Gorgeous orchids in the Cloud Forest garden

It's a massive 101 hectares (250 acres) that offers a respite from the humidity and heat with an amazing array of flowers, plants, trees and sculptures. There are various sections and a lot of ground to cover.

While most of the park is free, there are areas where you need to get tickets and it's definitely worth it.

We first ventured to the Supertree Grove, and my first reaction on seeing these tall verdant columns was feeling like we were in Pandora, the setting for the movie Avatar.

A levitating baby, a sculpture by Marc Quinn called "Planet"

Visitors can buy tickets to go up to the vertical garden columns via an elevator and walk along the elevated walkway to get a panoramic view of the city, and in the evening the Supertree Grove lights up with a colourful display.

One garden had a massive sculpture of a baby -- floating. UK sculptor Marc Quinn's Planet features a baby boy -- his son -- who seems to be levitating, if it weren't for its right hand on the ground. It was quite bizarre, but the sculpture is made of heavy metal, making it seem like more of an engineering feat than an artistic statement.

Wonder what his son thinks of himself immortalized in a park in Singapore!

Plants found in semi-arid conditions are in the Flower Dome

The themed gardens like Chinese and Indian were stereotypical, and seemed like token gestures that weren't impressive in their execution.

Nevertheless, we were completely wowed by the Flower Dome, one of the conservatories we had tickets for.

It's a massive dome covering an area of 1.2 hectares, or 3 acres, and it's the perfect place to spend the afternoon because of the cool temperatures in there. Inside is a massive collection of all kinds of plants, trees and flowers found in semi-arid tropical regions, like Australia, South America and South Africa.

There were so many kinds of succulents and cacti, and there were even very old olive trees, and aloe vera plants.

Beautiful tulips in bloom in the seasonal floral display

As you wind your way down, there's roses, more olive trees, and shrubs. But interestingly there were no bees or insects that we could see. At the bottom is a seasonal floral display and when we were there, it was tulips. There were all different kinds and colours, some seemed wilted, others had yet to bloom.

When we asked about this, we were told the flowers were replaced almost on a daily basis. Imagine how much money was spent to do this. My Singaporean friend told me before tulips it was sakura, or cherry blossoms. Did they import the trees over? And did they survive? What did they do with them after they finished blooming?

The 35-metre high waterfall at Cloud Forest

Then we headed next door to Cloud Forest, which is more vertical. Right at the entrance you're greeted by a massive waterfall that has a 35-metre drop, immediately creating a naturally cool (and wet) start to the visit here. People can slowly wind their way up and just marvel at how cool (temperature and hip factor) it is.

We took the elevator to the top and walked along an elevated walkway before going down again, and marveled again at the waterfall and soaked in the lushness and cool temperatures.

There were a few exhibits of stalactites and stalagmites that seemed incongruous with these gardens, and there were also videos about what the world would look like if the earth was five or six degrees hotter (flooding, drought, water refugees).

One small exhibit showed flowers and pitcher plants that catch insects made from Lego -- while it was cute, nut why not see the real living thing? It was quite amusing to see these colourful bricks integrated with real plants, but seemed out of place.

Nevertheless we still enjoyed these gardens and have already recommended others check them out too. If anything they're a wonderful place to beat the heat and take in some nature too.

More beautiful floral and verdant displays at Cloud Forest

Gardens by the Bay

18 Marina Gardens Drive

Singapore 018953

www.gardensbythebay.com.sg

Singapore's Newest Landmark

The two buildings are joined together with a canopy

I spent about three days in Singapore this past week having been there about five years ago and the Lion City is quite impressive in its infrastructure and soft skills, though it is h not even close to the edginess of Hong Kong.

Nevertheless there were some new landmarks we checked out and old favourites.

Wu's dynamic painting of the Great Wall

First up was the National Gallery of Singapore, which opened a few months ago. Located walking distance from the Fullerton Hotel, the gallery is housed in two national monuments, the former Supreme Court and City Hall.

We went during a weekday and it was quite quiet, so staff were very helpful and friendly with any inquiries we had. We went through practically the entire thing, which is quite a lot to cover, but when it's hot outside, it's a nice respite.

One of the special exhibitions is the late artist Wu Guanzhong, who donated a number of works to the National Collection, similar to him gifting several pieces to Hong Kong. Here, the show, entitled "Wu Guanzhong: Beauty Beyond Form", shows his early works, small realism paintings in oil, then his move to ink painting that soon became more abstract in nature.

Another show is "Chua Ek Kay: After the Rain", where the Singaporean artist was born in Guangdong but settled in Singapore. He did some fantastic large ink paintings that are so evocative and contemporary. As he traveled extensively, he realized he needed to create new art forms to express what he saw in places like Australia.

Beautiful wood ceiling detail in the former Supreme Court

His work evolved from big brush ink works to intricate paintings that focused more on texture of dry versus wet to create effects that he wanted to convey.

I don't know many Singaporean artists, and so it was interesting to see a few, such as Georgette Chen who migrated there, capturing everyday life in the city. An interesting piece of trivia is that on the back of the 50 dollar bill is the work of artist Cheong Soo Pieng called Drying Salted Fish, and the original work can be seen in the gallery.

A special exhibition on until July 17 is "Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond". Co-organized by the National Gallery and the Centre Pompidou, it's an interesting exploration of 20th century art, seeing the similarities of what was going on with Pablo Picasso, Vassily Kandinsky as well as Vietnamese and Brazilian artists at the same time.

Our attempt to sketch works in the Modernism exhibition

One gallery staff member was very keen to get us to participate and gave us a work sheet and pencil to copy some of the works on the walls... Admittedly none of them were really inspiring, but we copied one or two (very badly) for fun.

The space in the Supreme Court was a bit odd to house works of art, and seemed more like it should be a museum dedicated to the judiciary than a gallery. That's because the chairs for judges and the dock for the accused were still in their original places, while art was added on the walls. Some of the rooms were quite small too, making it hard to put the works together in a logical fashion.

Xu Beihong's Put Down Your Whip

But one of the highlights of this landmark is the rooftop (of the City Hall), where you can get a panoramic view of the downtown area, Marina Bay Sands and the five-star hotels in the vicinity.

The gallery is smart to have a bar up there called Aura Sky Lounge, where visitors can take in the view and enjoy a drink and snack.

National Gallery of Singapore

1 St. Andrew's Road

Singapore 178957

Tel: +65 6690 9400

Picture of the Day: Panoramic Singapore

Our panoramic view of Singapore from the National Gallery of Singapore

I'm in Singapore for a few days and today we checked out the latest attraction in the Lion City, the National Gallery of Singapore.

A friend had suggested we first go to the top floor to check out the view and we were not disappointed. Next to a bar area is where you can look out on Marina Bay Sands in the distance, Fullerton Hotel on the right, the financial district, and also the Esplanade -- Theatres on the Bay that look like the outside of durians, and on the left numerous top hotels like the Mandarin Oriental and Swissotel The Stamford.

Just below us were several pitches for rugby and football, not being used. Talk about prime land in such a fantastic location.

Looking out onto this view kind of encapsulates most of Singapore in one picture. Pretty neat!