Singapore Fact of the Day: The Gardens by the Bay is one of the biggest tourist spots in all of Singapore. The Supergrove trees are manmade tree-like structures that tower over a beautiful garden walk right next to the Marina Sand Bay district of Singapore. There are 18 Supergrove trees in total, and they all are mini ecosystems in their own right. Over 158,000 plants comprising more than 700 species and varieties of bromeliads, orchids, ferns and tropical flowering climbers have been planted on the 18 Supertrees. There is also a 400+ foot walkway in the canopies of a few of the largest trees in which tourists can walk across to get good views of the Gardens by the Bay and beyond. The more you know!
We woke up early today to go back to our favorite Japanese-style pancake spot. This time I got mango pancakes, which were incredible and delicious.
But we got up quickly to revisit the Cocoon space in the fashion district of Singapore. While we went to check out their space and company the first time, we took advantage of one of our connections to get a talk from one of the head Special Effects directors from ILM (Industrial Light and Magic), which is a large animation company owned by LucasFilms. His name was Thibault Gauriau, and he was one of the most real and honest industry workers I ever got to hear. His whole speech took us through what it was like to work as a large industry animator, and what it takes to get a job. Believe me when I tell you I took a lot of notes. I really hope we can convince him to come down to CU Denver to talk to the rest of the student body in the future - it would be well worth it for everybody!
After this, we went back to the ArtScience museum to see a new exhibit. While it wasn't as cool as the Alice in Wonderland and Futureworld exhibits, it still had a lot of really cool information about balloons and inflatable objects in both the art and science world over the last 100-150 years. It was unfortunate that (in my opinion) the museum was set up fairly poorly, as far as the design of the space went. The mood and lighting was very creepy and surreal, which really didn't match the fun and inquisitive nature of the subjects they displayed.
After the museum visit, we got to do one of the biggest tourist-y things you could possibly do in Singapore - the Supergrove treetop walk! Getting to visit the trees was one of the things I was most looking forward to seeing (besides otters..which, Spoilers, I never got to see here ): ...). Taking a stroll below the manmade trees was neat, but getting to go in the canopies as the lights slowly came up was really neat. We also got to see the light and music show at the bottom shortly after, which was a bit kitschy.
We finished off the night with most of the Study Abroad crew going to a nearby pub and getting some dinner and cocktails. While it was a long day, it was definitely another memorable one in the books!
