Gardens by the Bay

This week being my last week of maternity leave, I was keen to do something with my mama before I head back to work. Coincidentally, she was ‘on leave’ from her full-time job as caregiver to my nephew since the sista and her family are currently holidaying in Melbourne. My mom loves all things flora and requested to check out the newly opened Bay South Garden of the Gardens by the Bay so off we went on Tuesday afternoon.

It being a weekday, the garden was thankfully free from crowds. This meant that we could stroll at leisure and take our own sweet time in taking pictures (and plenty of parking lots for me!). Since I was carting the little man around with me, we decided to skip the paid conservatories and just focus on the exterior gardens.

The rain in the morning made the weather blissfully perfect for strolling outdoors. It wasn’t humid but was cool and sunny. Which was fabulous because towards the end, Mr A needed to nap and he would not do so in the stroller, which meant he had to go into the Boba baby wrap.

As a new mother, I very much appreciated the availability of nursing rooms littered around the grounds. Plus, the architects had incorporated lifts and wide, gentle slopes into the design, which meant that it was very wheelchair- and stroller-friendly. I could pop Aidan into our monster of a stroller – the UppaBaby Vista – and still have an easy time maneuvering it.

I loved, loved, loved the open space and it was like a piece of serenity in the middle of our bustling city-state. The gardens is a gorgeous, carefully designed piece of art and the view was, of course, spectacular. We enjoyed exploring the grounds and finding different angles to the same sight. And when we were tired, there were benches thoughtfully placed on the grounds for us to rest our aching feet.

After dinner, we were treated to a delightful light show at the Supertree Grove. Unfortunately, because it was way past the little man’s bedtime, we left before it concluded.

All in all, it was a wonderful day spent with my mama. The only thing that marred the experience was a terrible tea break at the Hill Street Coffee Shop. We got there slightly after 4:30pm hoping to get a cup of tea and some toast to fill our tummies but was told that the kitchen had stopped serving bread at 4:30pm since the bread menu was only meant for breakfast. HUH. The only food available were heavy (and overpriced) items like rice and noodles. Worse, my iced teh-si was watered down and bland and cost me a princely $2.20. What kind of lousy coffee shop is this? AVOID.

(More photos here.)