Singapore 2015 - Christmas Wonderland @ Gardens By The Bay
I have been to Singapore many times and have seen most of the tourist sites. But there was one thing that was not crossed from my bucket list was to see the Christmas decoration. Previously the craze every year was at Orchard Road. But this they decided to do something different with 'Christmas Wonderland' at Gardens by the Bay (GBTB). I was quite excited at this announcement and immediately marked my calendar just to visit this festival.
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| Map of Gardens by the Bay |
On the 18th of December I drove down to JB from Muar. After picking up my friend who told me she was interested to join along, I then headed towards JBCC (also known as Komtar) and parked my car there. To my surprise the parking rate was cheaper than City Square as I only had to pay RM15 for the whole day. Another big surprise was there was almost no queue at the Singapore immigration and it only took us about 15 minutes to cross the border. This was probably the first time I got into Singapore within such a short time (entered at around 12.30pm). Since my friend had not visited Singapore before, I brought her around to Fullerton Bay, passing by the Esplanade before finally heading towards Marina Bay Sands.
We chilled at MBS until about 5pm before finally walking towards GBTB. Since it rained in the morning, the weather was perfect for strolling outdoors but it also made it hard to take photos since everything was so dull looking. The entrance into the 'Christmas Wonderland' begins after the Dragon Fly bridge. Visitors can opt to pay for the shuttle bus to move around the Bay but since this was an extremely low budget trip, we just used our feet.
In the middle of the park where all the booths and main decorations were located, the Christmas feel wasn't just there with all the lights still off. Hence we just tried to visit every corner that was free of charge and restrained ourselves from buying anything because the currency exchange rate was just too bad haha. I must say the event company really did a great job trying to replicate a Christmas theme in the park with all the booths decorated really nicely.
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| Christmas themed booths |
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| Christmas carolling area |
Apart from the tiny booths and set up restaurants selling food, drinks, souvenirs and other stuff, there are also plenty of things for tourists to do if you are willing to spend. This is a fun fair after all. Notably there's the Ice Palace, which I presume to be a skating rink. And there's also the merry-go-round, slides and some other kiddy games which costs quite a bomb.
Since there wasn't anything left to do anymore we decided to head over to the open grass area and chilled while watching kids running around with their parents firing their cameras away, and slowly counting down to 7pm when the sky will finally turn dark and all the lights will be turned on.
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| I am bored |
Once the skies turned dark and the lights went on, the scenery and the atmosphere of the place changed immediately! All the lights were soooo pretty! And as more and more visitors start to throng in, you could really feel the excitement in the air.
All the attractions were having absurdly long queues, especially the lift to go up to the Skyway. At around 7.15pm some students from the university were doing their Christmas carolling at the main stage area. It was definitely worth it to come all the way here just to catch a glimpse of the lights.
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| Amazing lights |
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| Huge crowd getting in post 7.30pm |
'Christmas Wonderland' is still available until 3rd January 2016 so if you still want to pay a visit, you still can! Everything here is free of charge you are just planning to walk around. No entrance fees whatsoever.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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