Merlion Park: one of the must-visit places in Singapore

[Introduction]

I visited Singapore for the first time in three and a half years. Actually, I used to live in Singapore for one and a half year to attend a business school. A reunion was held in Singapore, so that’s why I came back there. This times, I spent about a week going around Singapore to take as many photos as possible. In this article, I will write about Merlion Park as part of Day 1.

[Visit Places (series of articles)]
* Day 1 (1) Fly to Singapore with Singapore Airlines
* Day 1 (2) Merlion Park [This article]
* Day 1 (3) Merlion Park (night view)
* Day 2 (1) National Gallery Singapore and Raffles Hotel
* Day 2 (2) ArtScience Museum and Singapore Flyer
* Day 2 (3) Marina Bay Sands
* Day 2 (4) Marina Bay Sands (night view)
* Day 3 (1) Singapore Botanic Garden
* Day 3 (2) Orchard Road
* Day 3 (3) Gardens by the Bay
* Day 3 (4) Gardens by the Bay (night view)
* Day 4 (1) Little India
* Day 4 (2) Chinatown
* Day 4 (3) Arab Street
* Day 5 (1) Singapore Zoo
* Day 5 (2) River Safari
* Day 5 (3) Clarke Quay (night view)
* Day 6 (1) National Museum of Singapore and Peranakan Museum etc.
* Day 6 (2) The Fullerton Hotel Singapore (night view)
* Day 7 (1) Sentosa Island: S.E.A. Aquarium etc.
* Day 7 (2) Sentosa Island: Merlion and Siloso Beach etc.
* Day 7 (3) Orchard Road (night view)
* Day 8 (1) Fly back home with Singapore Airlines

[Travel Date]
2016.08.23-30

[Main Part]

Following the previous post, I will go out for a sightseeing after checking in the hotel. I moved from Bugis to Raffles Place by MRT.

The Fullerton Hotel Singapore

To begin with, I started to take photos of the Fullerton Hotel Singapore.

It was originally used as the central post office and re-developed as a luxury hotel in 2001. I planed to revisit it on the 6th day evening, so I cut my visit this time.

In front of the hotel, I saw a river cruise ship that ran on the Singapore River.

I left the Fullerton Hotel Singapore and moved to Merlion Park.

Merlion Park

Merlion Park is a park where Merlion is located, as the name suggests. Along with Manneken Pis in Brussels, Belgium and the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, Denmark, Merlion is sometimes referred to as “one of the most disappointing tourist spots in the world”. However, I believed I could not return to Japan without seeing Merlion, I visited Merlion Park on the 1st day. By the way, as you may know, there are five Merlions in Singapore. There are the original Merlion and a mini Merlion at Merlion Park while the rest of the three Merlions are at Sentosa Island, Mount Faber and Tourism Court.

I arrived at Merlion Park and found there were lots of tourists even though it was a weekday.

A photo of Merlion with Marina Bay Sands, which is a popular composition.

Another popular composition, Merlion with the Fullerton Hotel and surrounding buildings.

Shot from a little bit far from Merlion.

I left Merlion Park for the time being and moved to Esplanade, which was north side of Merlion Park.

Around Esplanade

This building, which resembles durian, is Esplanade.

Esplanade (officially “Esplanade Theatres on the Bay”) is a performing arts center, which was opened in 2002. A variety kinds of shows such as opera, ballet and musical are played.

When I looked around from Esplanade, I saw Marina Bay Sands on the left side and the Fullerton Hotel on the right side.

Even from a distance, I found there were so many tourists around Merlion.

Now I will have a dinner, though it was before the evening. I visited Makansutra Gluttons Bay which was adjacent to Esplanade.

Makansutra Gluttons Bay is a Hawker with 12 stalls. Compared with other hawkers in Singapore, the number of stalls is less, but it seemed each of them were at high level, since they were selected by “Makansutra”, a famous local gourmet magazine in Singapore.

Among them, I chose a stall that served carrot cake.

Carrot cake is one of the famous local foods in Singapore.

This was an outside arena, one of the facilities of Esplanade and the sun started to go down.

I returned to Merlion Park. There were still lots of people.

I would like to take photos of Merlion in the evening and it will take some time before the sunset, so I decided to go around the area.

Around the Fullerton Bay Hotel Singapore

While I move north earlier to go around Esplanade, I wnet south this time. Sino Group, one of the leading property companies in Hong Kong, which runs the Fullerton Hotel Singapore, has been re-developing this area as “The Fullerton Heritage” and there are several facilities including the Fullerton Bay Hotel Singapore, which was opened in 2010, and dining establishments.

In front of “One Fullerton”, which constitutes one of the Fullerton Heritage.

The Fullerton Pavilion, another part of the Fullerton Heritage.

Small boats.

Promenade.

While staying in Singapore, I often saw groups who did exercise outside.

Now it would be dark soon, I returned to Merlion Park to take photos of Merlion during the sunset.

Merlion at sunset

I took photos of Merlion from left side earlier, so I started to take photos from right side this time.

From the bottom side.

I didn’t take Merlion itself, but took water expelled from Merlion.

Shot from straight behind Merlion.

A popular shot of Merlion with Marina Bay Sands.

Another cut.

Marina Bay Sands and Ferris wheel (Singapore Flyer) with river cruise ship.

Another cut.

Again, I took a photo of Merlion while dramatically changing the background color to blue.

Then, I continued to take photos around Merlion Park after sunset and I will write about it in the next article.

[Closing]

That’s it for the article about Merlion Park as part of Day 1. As I mentioned earlier, Merlion is sometimes referred to as “one of the most disappointing tourist spots in the world”, but I think there is a certain reason for it. Originally, Merlion was placed at the mouth of Singapore River near Esplanade in 1972. However, after the Esplanade bridge was built later, you were not able to see Merlion from the front side. To make matters worse, Merlion stopped spitting out water from its mouth due to pump failure. Then, tourists often claimed “Merlion was one of the disappointing spots in the world”. It can not be contradicted 🙁

Then, Merlion was moved to Merlion Park in May 2002 and the pump failure was fixed. Now that Merlion is surrounded by several landmarks in Singapore such as the Fullerton Hotel Singapore, Esplanade and Marina Bay Sands, Merlion has become one of the most famous tourist spots in Singapore. You can not say “Merlion is one of the disappointing spots in the world” anymore 🙂

In the next article, I will write about Merlion Park at night, which includes “Wonder Full”, light and water show at Marina Bay Sands.

[Map]