Picnic and Deepavali Celebrations at Gardens by the Bay

The first Saturday in November was a holiday in Singapore for Deepavali.  Unfortunately as the holiday fell on a Saturday there was no official day off in lieu for it and it was up to companies to approve this individually.  I work Saturdays and originally thought I might get an unexpected day off as we are normally closed on public holidays but as Saturday tends to be one of our busier days we were open so I ended up having to work.  I don't work Fridays though and my husband's company also gave all of their staff the Friday off work in lieu of the holiday.  Happily this therefore meant that we were both free on the Friday and could make some plans for the day and enjoy the holiday a day early.



We decided it would be fun to have a picnic, something we haven't done a great deal since moving to Singapore, I guess mainly because of the climate.  It was decided we would go to Gardens by the Bay and keep our fingers crossed that it wouldn't rain or get too hot! As we also have a yearly Friends of the Garden pass, which allows us entry into the domes and on the Skyway walk through the Supertree Grove, we thought we could enjoy those again too afterwards.

Friday arrived and although it did rain a little in the morning, other than making it incredibly humid for a little while it wasn't a wash out and didn't affect our plans.  We enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch of bread, meats, cheese and wine, whilst watching lizards and other visitors to the gardens enjoying themselves - perfect!


As I mentioned it was Deepavali weekend and Gardens by the Bay had a themed display, as they do for many of the various holidays and for other events throughout the year.  They are always well worth checking out.  We went into the Flower Dome first and were greeted by a beautiful display of flowers and model elephants.  The elephants really looked at home nestled in amongst the carpets of flowers.  There were lots of interesting facts about the festival of Deepavali to read too as we walked in amongst the flowers that are always on show in the dome and those specially chosen for the themed display.





After a relaxing afternoon in the Flower Dome and walking on the Skyway enjoying the views we finished our day with some much needed liquid refreshment at a bar we seem to go to quite a lot.  It's called South Coast and is in the Shoppes mall at Marina Bay Sands overlooking the bay area.  It has an outside and inside seating area and is perfect for a little Sunday afternoon people watching.  It has unintentionally become a favourite haunt of ours, we've also eaten there and the food is good too with the usual choices of bar snacks, pizzas, a range of main meals, desserts and brunch items (which we sampled) all served daily.  We ended up spending a little longer there than anticipated that day as an afternoon storm took hold leaving us stranded in the bar!  However it's not a bad place to get stuck and was a lovely end to a lovely day.

Drinks with a view (from a different visit to South Coast)

Comments

  1. It looks so beautiful, I wish I had seen that. I love the idea of buying a pass so we can visit lots. Sheila

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    Replies
    1. It was, they have regular features like the Deepavali one in the domes so hopefully you'll get to see another before long. The pass is great if you enjoy going regularly as you can view the pay parts of the garden and get lots of other discounts and offers etc.

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