At the Clarke Quay Riverside:
The Clarke Quay alley opened on the other side over a bridge on to the Clark Quay Riverside. The harbor is home to several small and medium sized cruise boats waiting to take tourists around for a tour to Singapore along the Singapore River.
Boating and Sight Seeing:
The boat ride services are generally hop-on hop-off services with pit stops close to the sightseeing spots. The tour operator will have two or more boats which will be moving at intervals along the same route, so one need not worry about being left behind. If you feel you want to take more time at a particular sight, you can hop-off at that stop and come back after some time. The trick is to just ask at the stop about the timings of the next ferry.
Our Boarding Experience:
As we approached the cruise line, my family and I were escorted inside by the tour guide who would tell us about all the sightseeing places during the course of the tour. It was a weekday, so probably the passengers were limited and the boat had about 20 passengers to take the tour. With the gentle honk and the staccato of the engines, the cruise started its course along the channel. There was excitement in the air.
On the cruise line:
The small cruise line had passengers seated inside as well as on the open area outside at the rear end of the boat. As the tour started, the tour guide addressed us and started to explain the sights on the either side of the river. We adopted the idea of listening to the guide first and then started exploring the sights one by one by getting down at the last stop in the onward trip and moving backwards. This allowed us to first learn and understand the spots and then decide the time to be spent on each sight. Cameras clicked as the passengers witnessed the sights while the cruise took its course.
- Coleman Bridge: The first structure that we approached was an arch bridge decorated on its edges with flowers and connects the Hill Street with the New Bridge Road at the Clarke Quay. As we moved below the bridge, the pedestrians could be seen crossing over to the bridge to the Central Business District.
- Esplanade: Esplanade is the arts and cultural entertainment of the city. From far off, the roof of the structure appears to be akin to a golf ball dipped half into the waters, but essentially, is a wire frame structure. What gives the structure its appeal is the spiked honeycomb design. This complex has been designed to meet the needs of a full scale musical and entertainment event.
- Central Business District, South Bank: The gigantic towers on the landscape as we moved ahead was that of the Central Business District Corporate buildings indicating the City centre. The shining glass panels and massive skyscrapers appear to be rising out from below the waters and is the business hub of the country. Every day, travellers more than 1.5 times the population of Singapore move into and out of the country. This is the place which manages this large volume of business of the country.
- The Merlion: The crown of the country, Merlion is the national symbol of Singapore. The Merlion statue has the head of a lion and the tail of fish resting on the crest of waves. The name Singapore has been derived from the name ‘Singapura’ (Singa-Lion, Pura- City) and hence the symbol of lion.
- Marina Bay Sands View: Far off at the horizon was the isolated view of the Marina Bay Sands resorts. Three 55 storey towers rest upon itself an aerodynamic structure akin to a The most phenomenal attraction of this resort is the Infinity Edge Swimming Pool in the Skypark. As the name suggests, the pool extends itself until the edge of the topmost summit of the building and extends into the skyline, almost getting mingled with it into infinity, thus barely distinguishable from a distance.
- ArtScience Museum is in the form of reminiscent of the lotus and has been called “The Welcoming Hand of Singapore”. It features an adjustable roof waterfall which uses rainwater collected when the roof is sealed in the day. The flower shaped structure at the bottom of the Marina Bay Sands adds a definitive edge to the spectacular architecture of the resort.
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