Singapore – Gardens by the Bay

September 29th


We flew with Singapore Airlines from Heathrow, great flight with no turbulence on a Boeing 777,was hoping to go on one of the A380’s but suspect that will happen at a later stage of our month long holiday. The flight was 12 hours 50 minutes, Singapore Airlines were excellent and we both enjoyed the meals.

This was our 1st visit Singapore and we love the place, the friendly and sincere people, the culture and the high rise city is quite a spectacle and very pleasing to the eye, it’s also clean and tidy, no litter anywhere. Being a relatively small country, to reduce the pressure on the environment, they have gone up and headed for the clouds, the skyscrapers here are enormous and some of the designs quite spectacular.

As we were on a 2 day stopover we decided to try and make the most of it and try and see some of the sights, Gardens by the Bay and the Botanical Gardens being top of the list and the 2 must see places. 

Neither site was undertaken as full on birding, just a wander round through the grounds for a couple of hours taking in the stunning landscape and scenery, however this still produced quite a good number of ‘exotic’ birds and obviously all firsts for me. 

Gardens by the Bay is quite famous for its eco giant towers, they are quite a sight and well worth a look see, like something out of Avatar and very futuristic. 

We arrived late morning, very very hot (36 degrees) we were told, so suspect many species were already in the shade, I had myself an old Collins field guide Birds of South East Asia, back at school again identifying species, however it’s not ideal as many of the plates are black and white and not enough info.

One of the highlights of the visit was coming across 3 Smooth Coated Otters, these were on the target list for both of us after info kindly provided by local birder Evan, his info was spot on and we came across 3 at Satay by the Bay, thanks.

Obviously chilling out and staying cool in the shade, they attracted a lot of interest from passersby not surprisingly, from what I understand from locals they are seen pretty regular but its pot luck if you are in the right place as it’s a big area. 

A great visit and a place I would love to come back to one day, stunning, a cold beer was calling, next stop the Botanical Gardens.