The Gardens by the Bay consist of two large buildings and fairly small outdoor gardens. The flower dome includes a wide variety of flowers from regions around the globe. Both buildings are glass bubbles providing a view of downtown Singapore.
Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands is visible in the background.
An audio tour is available which plays short clips of information on numerous plants found in the gardens. I thought it was worthwhile.
The Science Center in Singapore is focused on providing kids interactive exhibits with science content. It is worth a visit if you like such museums, it is a bit above average for such museums, in my experience. They have the expected IMAX theatre (which has assigned seats – I didn’t notice this until someone made us move).
As is the case with many exhibits at these types of museums sometimes it seems like they just make something interactive without making it very educational. The skeleton was that way (also people had trouble making it work, making the movements necessary to get it to respond).
The Asian Civilizations Museum in Singapore is packed with great artworks. See a few photos in this post.
Illustration of Rustam defeating Afrasiyab, 1560, Iran
This museum is definitely worth a visit for those who enjoy museums. The Asian Civilisations Museum’s flagship at Empress Place opened in 2003. Occupying over 14,000 square metres at the newly-restored Empress Place Building, it houses 11 galleries which showcase over 1300 artefacts from the Museum’s growing collections on the civilisations of China, Southeast Asia, South Asia and West Asia/ Islamic. These collections include recent acquisitions as well as artefacts inherited from the historic Southeast Asian ethnographic collection of the former Raffles Museum.
The Buddha Tooth Temple is one of the more popular tourist destinations in Singapore. I enjoyed visiting. If you like temples, history and art it is definitely worth a visit. The site includes a museum as well as an operating temple.
The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum is a Buddhist temple and museum complex located in the Chinatown district of Singapore.
As I wrote previously the Dreams and Reality exhibit from the Museum D’Orsay at the National Museum of Singapore is excellent. Here are some more photos of a few of the paintings included in the exhibit.
The Bay of Marseille seen from L'Estaque by Paul Cézanne, 1879
Les Alyscamps by Paul Gauguin, 1888
There is an interesting story behind this painting by Guaguin. Following months of correspondence, Paul Gauguin joined Van Gogh in Arles, France in October 1888. Both were intent on depicting a non-naturalist landscape. The two artists painted some identical subjects to compare their work with each other and chose the site of the Alyscamps to paint and compare.
The painting portrays an ancient Roman cemetery, “Les Alyscamps” or “Elysian Fields” which were located south east of the Roman city walls. It appears that the two men worked together at Les Alyscamps between October 28 and 31, 1888. Van Gogh painted four views, the Les Alyscamps pair and the pair of Falling Autumn Leaves paintings. Gauguin produced two paintings.
Related: Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia in Kuala Lumpor – Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City – Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Room in the Singapore Art Museum D'Orsay exhibit. All photos are by John Hunter.
The Dreams and Reality exhibit at the National Museum of Singapore (now until 5 February 2012, it opened a few weeks ago) is excellent. Musee D’Orsay is one of my favorite museums; it is located in Paris, with many other great museums including the Louvre.
Dancers Climbing a Staircase (1886-1890) by Edgar Degas, one of my favorites.
The exhibit includes many exceptional paintings by artists including Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Degas, Rousseau, Pissarro, Mondrian, Cézanne, Gauguin and Renior (multiple paintings by many of them). I must say I don’t think the Monet and Manet paintings are their best work, but really who am I to judge them. This exhibit is definitely worth a visit for any art lovers in Singapore. If you are traveling to Singapore before February 2012, plan on stoping by to enjoy the paintings.
Related: Curious Cat Travel Photos: museums – Curious Cat Travel Photos: Paintings – Take Action to Your Dreams Come True – The Met Museum in NYC