At Marina Barrage on a Good Friday!!

10 April 2009
Its both exciting as well as tiring to be pregnant. So, decision was unanimous that we will go out on this Good Friday to a place where we need not walk around. Sajeev suggested Marina Barrage and we decided to go there. Its one of Singapore's newest tourist attraction!!




Since it was a national holiday, highway showed signs of heavy jam. So we took alternate roots and managed to reach around 12:30 pm. It was a very sunny day, but we could clearly see some rain clouds forming.

The Marina Barrage is a dam in Singapore built across the Marina Channel between the reclaimed lands of Marina East and Marina South. It is a result of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s vision nearly two decades ago. What a great visionary he is!!
During heavy rain, a series of nine crest gates at the dam will be activated to release excess of water into the sea when the tide is low. As it rained in the afternoon, we were fortunate enough to see a live demonstration of this. The view of fresh water flowing into sea water could be distinctly seen by their colour difference.


We had packed Idli, Sambar and some snacks and water. Thanks to our wonderful maid Sumedi. Its always fun to have food outside and having it in a place between fresh water and sea water was a unique experience. From the dam we had a great view of the new resort- Marina sands, the Esplanade and the great Singapore Flyer along with lots of high rise buildings in the city. Even though its open to public since 1 November 2008, work is still in progress. We could see lot of activities going on around it without disturbing the visitors. Achu had nice time doing fashion show in the resting place along the dam and later we had a satisfying lunch after which I wanted to have ice cream. :) Let me blame the sunny weather ;)

After having ice cream at a cafe in the second storey, we went to the top most level. And as there were lightning warnings, we were not allowed to stand in open air. We could see rain approaching from the main land. The heavy drops making impressions in the sea as it moves closer to us.

We came down and had a visit to the 'Sustainable Singapore gallery' which tells us the whole story of Marina barrage from the great vision of Minister Mentor to the current architectural excellence. There is a mini display of how the whole system works. It suddenly felt to us that we could see a live demonstration. We ran to the second storey again and yes, the gates were open, water was flowing from fresh water reservoir to the sea.




Since it was raining heavily we decided to take rest for a while. Lots of people were sitting along the corridors , some were playing monopoly, some were enjoying their lunch, kids were playing around. We found a nice cosy place where we could get a nice glimpse of the rain. Rain always bring nostalgic feelings...something very close to heart.




Sky was clear after almost half and hour and we walked back to our car. It was a lovely day, we would definitely come back and have a great time here again.




For more information on Marina Barrage-




http://www.pub.gov.sg/marina/Pages/default.aspx