A family reunion in Singapore.

My flight to Singapore is delayed in the air due to traffic. We make circles near the airport until we’re cleared to land.

I’m nonplussed. I’d planned to meet my nephew and his girlfriend at the airport, and had seen they would be delayed. My delay closes the gap in our arrival times.

On deplaning I check Flighty to see when my nephew and his girlfriend are. They’re not far out and I text them to let them know I’ve arrived. Checking their arrival terminal I tell them I’ll meet them outside arrivals.

It’s their first time in Singapore and we stop by the Jewel to see the waterfall before catching a Grab to the city center. We’re all eager to eat. My nephew’s main motivation for visiting Singapore is to sample all of the food; his girlfriend slept through meal service on the flight. And so we walk over to Lau Pa Sat for their first meal in Singapore.

Soon we find ourselves at a table laden with char kway teow and laksa from Lao Fu Zi, chicken rice, and dumplings. Not content with what we’ve ordered we finish up with butter chicken and naan from one of my favorite stalls.

When it’s time for dessert we walk over to Creme and Cone to find it’s closed. It’s just past ten and we missed it.

My neice was supposed to have joined us for dinner but her flight back from Sri Lanka was canceled. She’s flying in the next morning. She’s planning on meeting us at the hotel before a packed day of sightseeing.

We wake up to overcast skies. I’d asked the hotel receptionist for a room with a view and from our balcony we can see the pool and the Singapore River. The hotel itself is designed in such a way that the decor reminds me of New England beach hotels and when we walk the halls I can almost imagine that I’m back where I grew up.

My neice isn’t set to land until later in the morning and we decide to get up and wander over to Chinatown for some pre-breakfast. My neice is planning on taking us to her favorite kaya toast place and so we don’t want to eat too much, just something to tie us over until she arrives.

My nephew finds a bakery on Google Maps and we head in that direction, finding it on a pedestrian mall filled with food stalls and shops. We pick up red bean cakes and find a table at which to enjoy our first repast.

We make our way slowly back to the hotel, marking a zig zagging path as we go where our curiosity leads. Inside a mall we pop into a bakery and pick up banana bread and a few other sundries to enjoy back in the room.

At the hotel my neice is excited to dig into our spoils. We’ve gone to her favorite bakery and she treats herself to a slice of banana bread before she leads us to her favorite kaya toast place. I grab a table outside while they place our order. My neice comes back annoyed with the cashier. She had given them our coffee order in perfect Singlish only to be challenged and corrected. She hasn’t spent the pst few months in Singapore ordering coffee for that to happen!

We take the MRT to Gardens by the Bay, taking the opportunity to head up to the Marina Bay Sands Observation Deck for the views. It’s a lot cheaper to walk around the deck compared to table service at C’est La Vie, but it’s a totally different vibe. A small kiosk sells drinks and snacks but there’s no real place to sit and enjoy them.

The day is clear and the views are spectacular. Looking down it looks almost like an EPCOT Center illustration of what a future city could look like with the supertrees and Flower Dome spread out next to the river.

The infinity pool is on the other side of the rooftop, only visible from a corner of the viewing deck. People pose by the railing to get the pool in view, but it’s a tiny speck in the distance relative to the people in the foreground.

The pool is only accessible to those staying in the hotel and we look up prices. My nephew’s girlfriend sets that as a goal for themselves, a stay in a suite at the Marina Bay Sands.

We take the lift back down to the ground floor and follow signs for the Gardens by the Bay. There’s a sign pointing out the front and then up another lift that takes us to an elevated walkway to the Gardens. It’s a clever way to access the Gardens, and a much nicer path than I had imagined when looking at the map. My neice is surprised as well, having taken a more circuitous route when she visited with my cousin, her parents.

From the raised walkway there’s great views back towards the Marina Bay Sands behind us and the Supertree forest before us. Again, I can’t help but imagine this having been planned out as an EPICOT pavilion that’s managed to make it into the real world.

Approaching the grove we decide against paying for access to the skywalk, content to keep our feet on the ground and gaze up at the metal canopies. There’s something surreal about walking through the manicured natural garden before reaching the manufactured trees, their crowns carefully designed to appear natural.

We take a cab to the Maxwell Hawker Center for a light lunch. We have dinner reservations at Jumbo Seafood and don’t want to spoil our appetites for chili crab.

My neice wants to see the Merlion; she hasn’t had the opportunity since moving to Singapore and so we walk over, finding an underground passage to avoid crossing the street (something I hadn’t noticed on my last trip to Singapore).

There, my nephew poses for a photo of the Merlion spitting water into his mouth. It takes a few tries; in one it looks like the water is going right through him. Finally we get one that he’s satisified with.

With a few hours to kill we snag a table at Palm Beach Seafood, overlooking the bay out to Marina Bay Sands. It’s surprisingly unoccupied, but as we sip our drinks and the afternoon wanes the tables begin to fill.

We take a cab to Jumbo Seafood ordering a large chili crab and a pepper crab to taste. Everyone agrees the chili crab is far superior. We go through multiple baskets of buns to sop up the sauce.

My neice wants to take us to an ice cream shop by the bay and so we catch a Grab to the Esplanade to Akrtos Gelato. I go to sit, but my neice says we have to go. We’re trying to catch the Supertree light show.

It’s a little unclear how to get to the Gardens by the Bay from where we are, and I’m a little skeptical we’ll arrive on time. Google takes us on a circuitous route to the Helix Bridge, but it’s clear from there, and I’m glad we're getting to walk the bridge at night. Singapore looks beautiful lit up.

We arrive at the Supertree Grove just as the show is about to begin. My neice had told me that she saw a classical music show, but this month it’s a celebration of disco. It’s the pefect match for the light show and it’s actually surprisingly cool. We lay out on the warm pavement looking up at the trees, synchronized lights flashing around us like fireworks. It’s an amazing end to an almost perfect day of sightseeing. 🇸🇬