Nparks cyclist park at East Coast

Nparks cyclist park is the latest park in Singapore. This would be a welcome attraction for families during the school holidays.

Located at East Coast Park, cyclists can try out the tracks and even humps. We heard this green node will be part of Singapore’s Round Island Route (150km).

Carpark D3 is nearest to Nparks cyclist park, which is built over the old Goldkist chalets.

There are two circuits in the 5.4 hectare Nparks Cyclist Park.

L-Plate (Learners Circuit) landscaping and slopes, for kids and cycling newbies.

Kids hone their bike skills and awareness. Once they are confident, they can upgrade to Advanced circuit.

Basic road safety and courtesy etiquette. Take note these “workshops” are only available during the “opening” day.

There are new F&B options for families too. Aircon comfort, meals and cold drinks for tired legs πŸ™‚

There is a Nature Playgarden for the little ones. Practice balancing on the logs and admire the butterflies.

East Coast Parks attractions

Boon Xin prefers the Advanced circuit.

These humps would be major attraction for little daredevils. Do be careful as the humps can be challenging for first timers.

Momentum and Balance is key

Nparks cyclist park
Nparks cyclist park

Ok, Nparks call them Pump track, but it would be challenging for our bikes to lift off. We are not skillful or agile yet πŸ™‚

Checkout our Fun cycling video on YouTube (link).

Nparks Cyclist Park offer unblock coastal view. You can enjoy sea breeze while navigating the bike course.

Cycling East Coast Park
Cycling East Coast Park

New sculptures along East Coast Park.

For today only, complimentary ice cream for visitors πŸ™‚

A father and girl moment

Bliss moment as we enjoyed our beverage and a quiet moment. She indulged in her mobile game but I was just contented to have her company.

Do visit Cheekiemonkies’ review too. Their whole family had a fun cycling day too πŸ™‚

More park features can be found on Nparks Facebook.
Do visit our cycling posts at this link, and our latest adventure was 4D3N Taiwan cycle.

Cycling Hualien to Taitung
Cycling Hualien to Taitung

Flowers Galore SGF 2018

Singapore Garden Festival SGF 2018 is running till 03 Aug. Gardens By The Bay have been transformed into a magical wonderland.

(Do read our 2016 SGF experience here)

Video: Let us share our favourite features from SGF 2018. This blog post is photos intensive.

1st tip : Families with young kids,Β  you must visit “Learning garden and Secret Garden (edibles) ” .

Flower Field

SGF 2018
SGF 2018

The sunflowers are a huge magnet for families, get ready your wefies. The grasshopper, bees and ladybird are out in force to share their stories again.

Look closer at the meadow and you will see real bees buzzing around too, they are as excited as the humans πŸ™‚

Meadows are not complete without mouse and some strawman. Look around, there are many gnomes hiding and playing around the meadow.

(Photo below) These stretch of corridor is for new house owners, you will get plenty of ideas to decorate your Balcony. Some designs are ingenious but would require a green finger to nurture and maintain.

From every corner of SGF 2018, look up and you will see some high rise buildings, enveloped by greens and rich flora.Β  Truly, Singapore is a City in a Garden.

The green lawn was inviting and we saw some folks sitting and resting on the greens πŸ™‚

Floral Designing Competition

Award winning art decorations and landscaping are featured here. Mind boggling details and intricacies.

Although some are very abstract, one need not an artist to appreciate the artwork and decorations, many stuffs triggered our curiosity.

Bottom right plant looks like Durian! Thorny too.

So many test tubes, each tube is different, each one holding a life. When they start to sway due to wind draft, quite a picturesque and calming sight.

 

Kids trying to be abstract :p

Photo below conjures image of “motion and strength” to me, the flowers are blooming through the parquet floor!

 

Love The rotating Eye. I thought it was static until I saw petals dropping inside the slow-rotating cylinder.

So mesmerising and intriguing! Go closer and we realised sclera is made of 滿倩星 Man Tian Xing! The Eye feature literally pulled us closer to inspect.

The mini buttons flowers look like Emoticons to me, each one with a different expression.

In general, everyone has different opinions and viewpoints, and the beautiful plants really stretch our imagination.

Besides the main designated exhibition areas, creative displays are dotted across Gardens by the Bay.

WeΒ would not mind getting lost in the forest garden.

This passageway near to the SuperTree Grove makes my heart flutters,Β  over-arching branches have form a green “corridor”.

Some SGF 2018 events and exhibitions are under the Grove.

.. flowers everywhere,Β  from orchids to hibiscus to “trumpets” . Kids know Orchids are Singapore’s National Flower, and they learned that Hibiscus is Malaysia’s.

Landscape Design Challenge

If you have a garden, would you be inspired to craft a Green identity?

Community Gardening

Community “farmers and gardeners” proudly showcase their produce and efforts πŸ™‚

And we saw some huge plants and melons around Community corner, I am impressed that Singapore can grow so much crops (in view of our land constraint). Kids understood that future padi, vegetables might all be housed in vertical farms, where climate, nutrients and water will all be AI automatically controlled.

Kids: Imagine a farmer who does not work under the sun πŸ™‚

Singapore needs to self sustain in producing some greens for our own consumption, majority of our vegetables and fruits are all imported.

Β Β  Learning Garden

First tip, grab the booklet for some challenges. Let the kids solve the clues hidden around the “Learning Garden”.

Learn about the birds and bees, pollination and even seed dispersal in the natural world.

Interesting to know that Nparks are able to pair birds and insects to plants πŸ™‚ Quite a fruitful relationship between flora and fauna.

Flowers need fertilisation and they have ovaries too (thank you bees and butterflies for helping to spread flowers’ DNA)

Kids know about different birds nests. Some nests can be quite elaborate. Do visit our own HDB sunbird story (blog post)

(picture below) These bamboos samples can actually house a bee too.Β  Cute animation to illustrate how insects live.

 

Secret Gardens (Edibles)

Smell, touch, and ask more questions.

Seriously, strawberries and grapes in the tropics! This was a first for many parents too. Innovation means Tropical Singapore can grow all sorts of fruits.

Beyond the exhibition ares, visitors were admiring beautifully curated plant species. You can spot concentration of flowers, just like SGF’s ambassadors, welcoming us along the walkways.

Vanda Valley

Just behind Meadow entrance, lies Vanda Valley. All kinds of colourful Orchids ready to greet visitors. Violet, purple, pink, orange and many more colours.

We spent 3 hours exploring Singapore Gardens Festival SGF 2018 searching for our favourite exhibition and flowers, and we could only cover 60% of the exhibition grounds (SGF 2018 is on 10 hectares of land!)

Kids enjoying their buggy ride. Ride is FOC if you have a SGF 2018 ticket.

Fantasy Garden

We left the best for last. We knew from experience that “Fantasy Garden” is always bewildering, just like walking into a fairy tale setting. Ok, another excuse is we wanted to enjoy the aircon after a long walk.

Spotted a sunset and reflection too, but it is extremely difficult to capture the contrast in our camera.

African Thunder must be the most spectacular, the lightings and visual special effects.

Do take note that your ticket entitles you to one or two domes (Flower Dome and Cloud Forest). You might be interested to know that Flower Dome is running “Orchid Extravaganza” concurrently till 22 Aug. More details here.

We would like to thanks Nparks and Gardens by the Bay for the interesting invite. We had a fun family afternoon together, appreciating the green culture and landscape. It is an eye opening trip for parents too.

We did not shop at Marketplace, but we believed it will attract many families too.

Additional Details :

-SGF 2018 runs from 21Jul to 03Aug, from 10am to 10pm
-We would recommend minimum 2 to 4 hours stay
-SGF 2018 tickets start from $12 + and $6 + for adult and child respectfully
-Buy your tickets online to avoid the queues
-SuperTree Glove (GPS 1.281590, 103.863710)
-Ticket categories would bundle one or two Domes inclusive, if you are going to Cloud Forest, do visit during the “mist release
-Car park will always be crowded (main events are near to Meadows)
*SGF 2018 website https://www.singaporegardenfestival.com

Our photos cannot do justice to the creative landscaping, you must view the exhibits upfront to appreciate the awesome Flowers displays.

More photos uploaded to our Facebook album (link)
Our Gardens by the Bays posts are all documented here.