I remember that day when we were headed to the Singapore Flyer and upon alighting at the Promenade MRT Station, we realized that it was raining hard. There was nothing we could do but stay warm and dry at the PARCO Marina Bay which is just above the Promenade MRT Station. While there, we decided to have a leisurely chat about love, life, and travels, at a pretty corner cafe.
We spent a good hour and a half waiting for the rain to stop at The Gourmet Bakery Cafe in PARCO Marina Bay. It’s a bakery, cafe, and deli in one. It serves coffee and tea, breads, pastries, sandwiches, as well as salads, soups, pasta, and hot meals.
We got cafe latte and warm apple pie. I’m no coffee connoisseur but having been born in the Kapeng Barako (varietal of liberica) capital of the Philippines (Batangas, that’s right), I can tell that there was nothing spectacular with the coffee. In fact, the foam art was not even perfect and looked haphazardly done.
The warm apple pie was also so-so. I figured it was too sweet for me.
I did like the design of the dessert fork though
Food may not be exceptionally good and the price wasn’t cheap either, but we did not have any right to complain because the cafe gave us shelter as we waited for the rain to stop. That plus the wait staff were friendly and service was good. While I would not include it as a must-visit on our next trip to Singapore, I’m still glad we stopped by The Gourmet Bakery Cafe. At the end of the day, a cup of coffee is always good when it’s raining outside. And more especially so if the moment is shared with the one you love
I’ve always loved Ferris wheels and it’s the reason why the Singapore Flyer is in my list of things to try on our recent visit to Singapore. It’s a gigantic Ferris wheel built in 2005-2007 and stands as high as a 42-storey building. It currently holds the record of being the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, and that means it is 5 meters taller than the Star of Nanchang in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province of China, and 30 meters taller than the London Eye.
The Singapore Flyer has 28 air-conditioned capsules with each capsule being capable to hold around 25-28 passengers at a time. A full flight or one complete rotation of the wheel takes approximately 30 minutes. It initially rotated in a counter-clockwise direction but this was changed in August 2008 for Feng Shui reasons.
The Singapore Flyer is near Marina Bay in an area known as the Marina Promenade. If you’re going to ride the Singapore Flyer, just take Singapore MRT and alight at the Promenade station.
It was raining when we went to the Singapore Flyer but it’s a good thing that the MRT exit is in Millenia Walk. We had time to go around Parco mall where I found cute thingies, a great cafe, and a store that sells ugg-looking Fitflop boots
As soon as the rain stopped, we hurriedly made our way to the flyer and got our tickets at the ticket counter.
As soon after as we paid for our tickets, we were told that the flyer was to be temporarily closed due to the weather but the staff couldn’t tell with certainty as to when the flyer will resume its operations. We had faith that it will re-open in a few minutes and so did the other visitors who patiently formed a line despite the unfavorable announcement.
Soon enough, the flyer was re-opened and we were ready to rock! Upon entering the turnstiles, we were greeted by an area that looks like a check-in station in an airport. After clearance, we went inside a museum called the Journey of Dreams.
It’s a pre-flight gallery that showcases the flyer’s history and other interesting facts.
At the end of the museum is an escalator heading up to the entrance ramp.
It’s a like a dark hippie place in there but cute After exiting the dark room, we were directed to join our group and assigned to our capsule.
As I said, the flight took about 30 minutes. During the flight, we had a good view of the Marina Bay Street Circuit of the Singapore Grand Prix, the Esplanade, the Float @ Marina Bay, and the Marina Bay Sands. Here are some of our photos during the flight.
I loved our flight at the Singapore Flyer. I can’t get over how beautiful Marina Bay Sands is. It’s a sexy structure!
The view must have been more spectacular at night. Too bad we only had four days to spend and our nights are covered with other plans
As I was up there in the flyer, I was hoping that the Philippines could be developed as fast as how Singapore was brought into its current state. However, as I gazed through buildings and bridges and highways and high-class structures, I felt like there’s something missing. I can’t feel the soul. This is not to say though that our flyer experience was bad because it was indeed awesome! It’s the perfect way to relax your tired feet from all the walking. We definitely enjoyed aimlessly looking through the beautiful cityscape of Singapore from up there.
And to close this post, I made a short video of our Singapore Flyer experience. I hope I’m able to capture a good view of the city. Just promise me that apart from the video quality, you’ll also forgive the background music I can’t get enough of Leessang’s Turned Off The TV so I thought of maybe passing a small amount of my addiction to you. Enjoy and until my next post about our trip to Singapore!
I can’t get enough of Leessang’s Turned Off The TV so I thought of maybe passing a small amount of my addiction to you. Enjoy and until my next post about our trip to Singapore!
