Marina Bay

The pool on the 57th floor is for hotel guests only. What everyone else buys is a ticket to the observation deck beside it, where the water stays out of reach. From the southern rail the ships at anchor outnumber the towers.

Concrete columns of 25m to 50m planted up with climbers and epiphytes: close to, they are walls rather than trees. Twice each evening the lights and music run free of charge, and most people watch flat on their backs on the grass below.

A 35m indoor waterfall stands just inside the door and the mist never lets up. The air is held around 23C, more than 10 degrees below the street, so nobody soaked in sweat lasts long in there. The route runs downward, so take the lift to the top first.

It does not stand where it was built. The 8.6m figure went up in 1972 and crossed the water to this spot in 2002, which is why the spout and the hotel now share a single frame. The thinnest crowd is before sunrise.

A 280m footbridge of steel tube twisted after the double helix, so the coils close over your head the whole way across. The letters c, g, a and t are fixed along the rail, and after dark those letters alone take colour.

Built as a lotus with ten open fingers, hollow at the centre so rain falls through to a pool below. A digital show has run inside for years, taking you through one dark room after another. Tickets carry a time slot and the same-day ones are often gone.

Bring a kite. The whole roof is lawn and the wind comes up off the sea without a break. Downstairs a gallery lays out how the dam shut the sea out and turned the basin into a reservoir; the roof and the gallery are both free.

An octagonal market of cast iron, shipped from Scotland and bolted together in 1894. Its column and arch ornament is still there. After 7pm Boon Tat Street beside it shuts to traffic and charcoal satay stalls fill the middle. Kerbside tables go first.

Aluminium shades spike over the shells like durian husk, which is why the city calls it the Durian. An outdoor stage on the river side runs performances most evenings where nobody takes a ticket, and the library inside collects only music and performing arts.

The loop around the water measures 3.5km. There is next to no shade, and midday tends to end it halfway. Three bridges break it into stages, so ducking indoors and out is easy. After dark the towers opposite light the water, and many walk it back.

A pillarless glass conservatory that made the Guinness records. Mediterranean and dry-climate plants grow in cool air, and the central bed changes its floral theme with the seasons. It sells its own ticket, but many take the combo with the Cloud Forest.

An indoor flower garden opened in 2019, a run of rooms with dried and living blooms hung upside down from the ceiling. The small building by Dragonfly Lake is easily missed. The last room is a 4D ride that flies over the gardens at dragonfly height.

A 165m observation wheel turning since 2008, with one rotation taking about 30 minutes. Each capsule is as big as a bus, so you can walk around inside. Sunset rides are the first to go, and the seaward windows face Marina Bay Sands head on.

A free 15-minute show of water jets, lasers and projection on the event plaza in front of Marina Bay Sands. It runs at 8pm and 9pm, with a 10pm show added on Friday and Saturday. From the Merlion side across the water, the hotel fits in the same frame.

Built in 1928 as the General Post Office, the building of Doric columns is now a hotel. Non-guests can still walk the lobby and the ground-floor gallery on its postal past. The underpass on the river side comes out right at Merlion Park.

A pier of 1933 where immigrants arriving by ship first set foot ashore. The arched concrete roof survives intact over what is now a restaurant. Open to the bay, the space beneath that roof makes a cool place to pause.

A 22m acrylic bowl set in the plaza outside the mall, where water spirals down into the canal on the floor below. It is built to collect rainfall, so wet days put on a better show. To take in the whole column, look up from where the lower canal ends.

Small wooden boats circle an indoor canal dug through the lower level of the Marina Bay Sands mall. A loop lasts only minutes, yet gliding past the luxury storefronts on water has its charm. The route passes under the spot where the Rain Oculus pours in.

A pedestrian bridge from 2015, the 50th year of independence, linking Merlion Park with the Esplanade. It runs alongside the road bridge yet stays clear of the traffic noise. Midspan is the place to photograph the Merlion side on.

The eastern garden of Gardens by the Bay, with no admission charge. A riverside lawn takes in Marina Bay Sands and the Supertrees across the water in one view. By evening it is left to locals flying kites or casting lines.