“What is luge?” I asked my friend.
“you rode down the mountain in a little cart”
Wow, it sounds exotic :). Indeed, according to their website, only Singapore, New Zealand, South Korea and Canada …, a few places have this.

Skyline luge is located in Setaso on top of the mountain, the same place where the cable car ends. Taking escalators among the trees on the mountain feels exotic. You see wild peacocks chill around once you reach the top.

The carts look like this.

The ride only takes a few minutes. But the lines are long. The good thing is that the signs tell you how long you need to wait. We rode a couple of times and mostly waited for about 15 minutes on the top for the cart and 5 minutes on the bottom for the lift.

It is very easy to learn how to steer the cart (kids do it :)). Once you head out, there are a couple of trails. You can select the curving ones; you can experience the speed and try the straight down ones; there are also ones going into a tunnel or among the tall trees.

Then you take lift back to the top. The lift also automatically loads the carts and ship them to the top. It looks quite amusing.

It is a pleasant ride at the time when there is beautiful sunset and warm breeze.

“Once is never enough”, I agree. I wish the trails can be a bit longer. We stopped after a few runs when we still want to play. It’s like a cliffhanger that makes us look forward to the next luge trip. It’s another pleasant evening and great experience!

Here, we arrived at the third part of the Gardens by the Bay. Surprise that many people were siting on the floor around here … “There will be a light show starting at 7:45pm” one of the girls told me. We totally did not plan that, and we were so lucky!!

The light show was about half an hour and played with famous Broadway music, “Little Shop of Horrors” “Les Miserable” “Evita – don’t cry for me Argentina” “Phantom of Opera” … Those songs have accompanied me many years of NYC Broadway show experiences, so it was touching to hear them here and sing along. The lights danced with music, so did the people around the lights. Everyone had a good time. Some moments can genuinely bring you joy like this one. I also felt this when I was in the Shanghai Disney watching fireworks and light shows. Just keep smiling and feel happy.

We then took elevators up to the sky way which allows us to walk around the “light trees” at a certain height. Wow, suddenly, you were emerging in the light sea.

Skyway is several minutes of walk. You can see about 30 trees around here with different colors. It sometimes feels futuristic and alien.

From the skyway, you also see the beautiful night skyline of Singapore.

Some moments in life are like pearls: they are just so pure and beautiful. Hope you can spend those moments with your loved ones; if not, at least share those moments.

My parents used to work in a big factory. So I grew up in the environment where there were big warehouses, the sound of big machinery, and the smell of screws and oil. Visiting the Steelworks Park feels like going back to my little girl era —- I worn two little pony tails and held mom’s hand across the factory to find that public shower. Visiting here is thus almost an emotional experience.

Hangzhou Steelworks Park is built from an old steel factory. In the early years, the factories were all moved out of city, but the warehouses, the train tracks and the big machinery stayed. Nowadays, the park hosts summer concerts, and the warehouses are changing into galleries and art studios.

I went with a group of old friends. We arrived after a big heavy rain, and the garage is almost empty. We talked and laughed loud like old days, and an empty creepy looking garage is a perfect place for it.

From any point of the park, there are scenic views.

My photograph friends especially like the paddles after the rain. They were playing the reflections.

The park is in the middle of remodeling. So we sneaked into the furnace area. They climbed up while I stayed with my son. The machinery, rustic, industrial style is always my taste, and even my current workshop has tables, lockers and shelves that were recycled from the factory.

Steel factory has train tracks. The train is newly painted and we were climbing around for fun and posing for pictures here.

The trees, the grasses, the flowers and the mountains bring the fresh greeness in front of your eyes and the fragrance to your nose. It makes a unique effect where the vivid life is grown mixed with those hard, cold, silent machines.

Following the warm light, we found a coffeeshop in the warehouse and there is even a bookstore.

Writing travel log is almost like traveling a second time. I am feeling the hot humid air that day, and the warmness of the conversations among us.

One surprise may be impressive, but some consecutive surprises just —- can not be surpassed!

Cloud forest is the second astonishing site. It is shaped vertically and the designers used visual clues to make you feel that you are climbing up to a mountain. Hmm, what we often see when hiking in the mountains? The trail map said you can visit “lost world” “tree top walk” “waterfall view” “cloud walk” …

Once you enter the cloud forest, here is the tall ever waterfall that are welcoming you.

Turning around the waterfall, there are less people. Your neck is bent backwards and you breathe inhales the forest mist. It’s peaceful as in the forest.

The hiking trail seems a bit easy :D, but the views are quite unique.

There are real plants: “Please do not touch the Carnivorous plant, or you will be fed to them.” hmm, it must be yummy ;). And there are this man-made artistic lotus. They compete each other for the beauty.

Turning around the corner, you see the city sunset. One side is Marina Bay Sands, and the other side is the light garden! They are layered with the lines of the windows and mist of the waterfall

See the skylines through the geometric shaped windows.

The trails go up. You see different paths like the overpasses in the city highways. I was thinking about the movie “inception” :).

The waterfalls are so close that you almost can touch it.

Here must be the peak! At every step, there is a different but beautiful view.

We happened to be at the best time to visit here. You can see the light of the sky changes from bright white to darker blue. The lights in the forest just came on. It is a completely different feeling of the “forest”.

The visual interaction room is fun too. When you touch a flower bud, the flower opens 🙂

Watching a video about the cloud forest.

Living fossils — cycards–witness the history of the lives on earth. Maybe being still like plants is a possible way to survive history.

You don’t just want to be good. You want to be surprisingly good, again and again, to convince the world.

This place brings me many surprises!

I thought I went there to see a garden. Then wow, it is many gardens! It is a huge space located in the city center, you can just walk and walk … for the entire evening. You see the beauty and feel the magnificence especially when you think about Singapore is a small country and the hotel rooms are often just a small bed :).

On one side, the gardens connect to Marina Bay Sands, and on the other side, there is this 360+ meters ferris wheel. I have been many places in the world, but never have seen anything like this, no wonder that the gardens won many design awards.

Here is the night view of the gardens, consisting of Flower Dome, Cloud forest and Sky way.

When you get off the subway, the exit looks like this. “we can dance here!!” I was so excited and spinned several circles. Indeed, later, when we came back, there were some groups dancing hip hop 🙂

It’s the sunset time. The soft ray peeks through the windows and highlight the entire garden with a layer of gold. The entrance is on the top of the flower dome, so you see the entire garden once you enter.

You walk along the path and it takes you to different parts of the world. Here are many different kinds of cactus from South America?!

The special exhibition was rose. I have never seen so many roses, many different colors. The smiles just automatically climb up your face when your eyes are filled with flowers!

The gardens indeed are a good place to tell the fair tales: remember that Alice in wonderland?

It’s also a great place to take your lovers. Are you smiling now? 😀 🙂

What do animals look like at night? Are you excited to hangout late at night? We are all super excited to visit the night safari, the world first. 2024 is its 30 years’ anniversary.

The vibe looks like this 🙂 😀

The night safari is located at the north west corner of Singapore. It considers the Singapore bio tour corner? There are also Singapore zoo, river wonderness and bird paradise. You can come out a whole day to visit them. It took more than 1 hours to get there via public transportation. If it is not at the traffic hour, you can just take a taxi.

The night safari opens 6:30 pm or 7:30pm in summer and closes at midnight. There are a few “must-do”s, and the first of course includes the shows!! There are light and fire shows (see on the left), and also the animals’ performance, such as the performance of owls and vultures (see on the right).

The food stands here sell Singapore signature dishes. It tastes good but very expensive. This following dish costs about 30 Singapore dollars, and in a normal food court, it only costs a few Singapore dollars.

The second “must-do” is to take the tram and tour around the safari. We waited in line close an hour. There are frequent trams, but there are also a lot of people.

It’s astonishing to see those creatures at night. They are peacefully hanging around. You almost can imagine that’s how they look like in the wild at night. There are birds, beavers, porcupine, and many exotic Asian animals. It is hard to take photos at night on a moving tram, so only big animals can show here. There are also some animals walking right beside the trams. For example, a cute anteater sniffs around near our tram. The driver said he walks down this road every day to see his girl friend on the other side 😀 :).

The tram takes about half an hour. Our driver was a super cute old man. He said to us “give me your camera and let me take a picture for your family. They charge you 50 bucks for taking a picture for you”, he pointed at those picture-service people 🙂 Besides taking the tram, you can also walk the trails. The trail is busy with people and from time to time, you see a staff carrying a flash light. We walked the entire trail system and it took us about 2 hours. We did skip some places on the road.

Slow Loris is my son’s favorite. It is world’s only venomous primate. It looks cute and innocent, but it has venom!!

The athletic devil looks so lazy and pigish. He slepts happily when we were there. Then, there is this recording playing its scary sound when you push the button. err, can’t blame people to name him the “devil”. I have also seen them in Australia.

When we left the zoo, it was already 11:30pm. There are a couple of buses still running outside the zoo. My phone has some issues with the map app that day. It is great that we followed a group of warm-hearted Australian tourists and got off the bus at this train station called Bright Hill. Well, it is called bright hill, but when we arrived, the last train has left :(. Now I was in the middle of nowhere in Singapore with 70-years old parents and 1 sleepy kid and a phone that has a broken map app. so I messaged my friend and he immediately called a taxi and made sure we were onboard. Such an adventure at the bright hill :).

Nothing is more happy for me than taking out my loved ones for fun. It was a great memory for my parents and son.