2b because sketchy software or wifi made me lose the first, much more elegant and insightful version of this post...
Still not time-zone optimized, we woke early on our second day and after grabbing a Hawker breakfast, we hopped on the MTS and rode out to the Southern Ridges parks. These are a series of low forested ridges just north of the mother of all container ports built on reclaimed land west of the main City Centre.
The ridges are connected by surface trails, minor roads, and elevated walkways up in the jungle canopy. We managed to stretch a 4.5km walk to probably twice that length, moving along the ridges through thick jungle and the cacophony of jungle critter noises, all the time catching views of massive residential developments, close and far, beside, above and below us.
On the way to the high point, 105m Mount Faber, we crossed a couple of interesting pedestrian bridges spanning deep cuts in the ridge lines with ubiquitous race-track multi-lane freeways. The Alexandra Arch was pretty:
...but held nothing to a bridge called Henderson Waves, which is simply one of the nicest public spaces I have ever visited. It is a swoopy, curvy bridge, clad in some sort of exotic weather-defying hardwood, built to change grades through subtle slope shifts that are almost imperceptible while walking along, but create a "wavy" surface expression. Along the couple-of-hundred meter span, there are a couple of enveloping sitting areas with views of the southern islands and central business district below.
The result is comfortable, a little whimsical, and inviting. Absolutely perfect execution of a public space, where a boring overpass would have sufficed. A real highlight.
We also visited another remarkable public space. At the Marina district, far below the boat-on-a-cricket-wicket hotel tower we visited yesterday, is a large public garden and green space, the Gardens by the Bay:
Here there are to conservatory domes (flower dome and cloud forest dome) and a dozen or so large themed outdoor garden exploring different aspects of ecology and horticulture. However the are is probably more noted for several groves of what they call Supertrees. These large mushroom-shaped steel and glass latticework towers were being encroached by climbing plants, blurring the line where organic ends and mechanical begins. They are part of the mechanical heating/cooling system for the conservatory domes, and at night they are lit up in various ways to create a unique light show.
Unfortunately, the day we were there, the grove was dominated by some sort of "Christmas wonderland" attraction with its own much more garish lighting, and the light show was synced to Mariah Carey Christmas songs. Bah humbug.
Overall, we were impressed by the quality and quantity of public spaces in Singapore. Aside from the malls (ugh), it seemed you were never far from a nice public space, some large, some small, but all very open and inviting. There is a ton of public are, again some very small and subtle, others space-dominating. Clearly, this is a City that values and invests in public spaces.
Q
The only thing we never really focused out was the timing of Singapore. IT seemed the place was empty at noon (Englishmen and Mad Dogs?), it was hard to find an open restaurant before 6, but at midnight the streets were packed.
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