Playing tourist: An evening by the Marina

As luck (or Murphy) would have it, this first week that AB's parents are here, he was scheduled at the last minute for a week-long business trip. o_O While he had said it's fine to let them self-entertain, it just didn't feel right to leave them alone while I do my own stuff. In any case, I had nothing of huge importance that I needed to do by myself, so was happy (though slightly nervous) to keep them company for a week. 

Luckily as mentioned before, they are very independent, mostly taking their time to relax and explore town and the areas nearby in the day, so I only really needed to meet them in the evening for dinner, after which we usually just went back and retire for the night.

One afternoon, they decided to explore Gardens By the Bay, with the plan to catch the Garden Rhapsody show that was featured at the Supertree Grove area. Since my office was in that area, I trudged over to join them for the 7.45pm show before dinner.

It was quite a spectacle - I had never watched it upclose before, having only caught glimpses of it the previous week while having drinks at one of the rooftop bars in the vicinity. Viewing it upclose, complete with the music that accompanies the show, was an experience. There was obviously some thought on the song selections - this particular one we caught was part of the "Journey Through Asia" theme, which featured recorded songs that are supposedly representative of the region, the likes of Bengawan Solo, Singapura, 夜来香, performed by local artistes. Not entirely certainly that the sound system did their voices justice, and the lights on the Supertrees were choreographed to coincide with the music being played, so there were quite a bit of flashing lights, ombre colour changing, pretty dramatic to watch. It kinda reminded me of the "fancy" electronic lanterns of my childhood years, also with flashing lights and music, except this was on a much grander scale. Not sure how I felt about that, really.

The entire session lasted about half an hour, and AB's parents were utterly charmed by it, and I was glad to hear that. This was quite a unique experience for them, they found the light display really creative, an it was fascinating to hear the songs in various languages.

After the show, I walked with them briefly through the part of the Gardens we were in - we do have a very lovely and well maintained garden full of luscious plants in a gorgeous array of greens, reds, pinks and violets. We then proceeded to Marina Bay Sands for a quick dinner at the food court for them to sample more local food, before heading home on a nice quiet bus ride home, a treat to my ears and eyes after the psychedelic assault earlier on.

All in all, it was a worthwhile evening - I wasn't interested in the show nor how I felt about it - that wasn't my objective in watching it. I was much more interested in making sure that AB's parents are enjoying their time here, so in that aspect, it was time well spent.

A pretty sight before the show.