Beautiful, Beautiful Night

It was the end of May, the first place we headed to right after Coco's exam was the Barrage, again. I've been there 3 times within a span of less than two months. But it was a beautiful place. We just love it. Nothing adventurous to do there (which suits me to a tee!), but very beautiful and serene, yet with lots of activities bustling.

It was about 7pm when we reached there.
I like the dusky sky behind the new Marina Sands

I thought my prospective brother-in-law's facial and bodily expressions were priceless, wrestling with a kite! I haven't seen someone that serious just flying a kite.

Our huge kite, this time round. I promised to buy a BIG one the next time we fly a kite again.

I actually brought a tripod there because of my previous failed attempts to take pictures handheld. What a difference it made!

The most enjoyable sky of the day

Turning dark

Totally dark

The beautiful dancing fountain with streams of coloured water

The bridge I haven't ventured upon despite my 3rd time there

I cannot stress enough how beautiful I think the place is. The expanse of the grass patch and the unlimited sky makes you feel really free and the fresh new air is just so ... er ... refreshing (no pun intended). They always say the environment maketh the person, and I can see why whenever I am here. The calculating self just dissipates, naturally, in the face of nature. Everybody becomes pleasant and nice over here. Either that or everybody is a Mr or Miss Nice.

This is definitely not my last visit.

A Beautiful Day

It was a beautiful day in April. So I took my baby out to the huge luscious grasspatch-on-a-rooftop.

Beautiful, dainty little white flowers greeted us at the entrance

Dancing water at the fountain

A squinty, sunny day

with awesome clouds

Looking at people flying kites

One kite

Two kites

Many many kites - 'Must have been at least $1000 worth of kites up there,'my sister quipped.

Love this pic of a kite at its emerging flight

'Baby, smile! Where's your mouth?'

'Touch the water, Baby.'

Dancing water at the play area


Beautiful balls of water lights


Sun-setting Marina Barrage

I will come again!

First time Kite-flying experience

We made use of the previous post's directions to get to the bus-stop. To be exact, we didn't get to that bus-stop. We walked what seemed to be more than 5 minutes to reach a bus-stop full of Mainland Chinese and Bangladeshi foreign workers. We missed the shuttle bus and bus no. 400 and waited for at least 15 minutes before a cab came along. There was alot of dust as lots of constructions were going on around Marina Bay MRT station.

As we discovered when we were on the cab, the bus-stop shown in the directions provided in pictorial form was one stop down the one we waited at, which means we would have to walk a further distance to get to the supposedly designated bus-stop.

By the time we reached Marina Barrage, it was about 7.30pm.

Many kites were in the dusky sky. A beautiful sight

She bought an $11 'mini kite' and $2 string 'for mini kites'

We bought the smallest (and cheapest) kite possible at this shop (in case we couldn't get it up into the sky, I wouldn't feel the pinch).

The cashier helped to tie the string to the kite. We tried for what seemed like an hour to get the kite up the sky

Unfortunately, our thrill and happiness was short-lived as our kite became entangled with two other kites and had to be brought down to disentangle the strings. Our string had to be cut short to free other kites from ours.

We tried for another what seemed like an eternity to get the kite up again.

Coco feeling easy-peasy flying the kite

An expanse of grass for a baby stroll

We left at about 9.30pm. We were racking our brains on how to get home, as the place was quite remote, when we bumped into my youngest sister and her fiance!

This was probably the 2nd or 3rd time we ran into them and getting a lift home. What a coincidence!

The trip left me thinking perhaps we might have fared better with a larger kite. From what we saw, it seemed to us that larger kites take to the wind easier than smaller kites. We also needed to release the string quickly the moment the kite rode on the wind.

It was very dark on the grass rooftop as there was no lights. Only soft, dim lights were available along the sidewalk around the huge grasspatch. You wouldn't be able to identify your friends even if they were right in front of you. Sometimes, the kite strings were across the grasspatch, just above it at your face, body or calf level. It can be a hazard for people walking on the grass. It might have been perfect for a kite-flying night against a backdrop of city skyscrapers if there were lights around.

It was a frustrating experience to take photographs even with a D90. Coupled with only a kit lens, I was not able to capture any decent pictures with it. It was all black when I tried capturing images of the abundance of kites in the sky. And if I ever managed to get any picture, it would be blurred due to the low light.

I'll leave photography to the next Barrage trip - in the daytime definitely!

Thoughtful directions

Found this while searching on directions to Marina Barrage.

I thought it very thoughtful for the person to take pictures of the various directions leading to Marina Barrage.

In case the link is lost, like some of the links I attached in other posts due to its age or the need to clear them for more cyber space, I copied the thoughtful how-to-get-there below:

'It starts with a step-by-step pictorial guide to Marina Barrage by public transport, followed by a map and driving directions to the island.

Take a train to Marina Bay MRT Station. Leave the station by Exit B.

Walk towards the main road – Marina Way.

Turn left upon reaching the main road.

Walk along Marina Way until you reach this bus stop – B02 MARINA ST.
You can either board the above free Marina Barrage shuttle bus at the bus stop (view bus schedule) or take Bus service 400.

After 5-10 mins bus ride, you shall reach Marina Barrage'