Alright, let's just start here. At a cool $4.7 billion (that's a "b"), the Marina Bay Sands is the world's most expensive building. It's absolutely insane. We took a bunch of our own pictures, but to start things off with a bang (as seems appropriate for such a place), I'll include this gorgeous one from Wikipedia:

I'm really not sure anything needs to be said.

We took the subway there. On the way to the stop nearest our hotel, I grabbed a picture of a neat building entrance.

Not sure those guys are all about the shopping, but what do I know?

The subway there was one of the newer lines. So clean and well designed. Even had little displays with looping, cutely animated safety and courtesy PSAs. One thing I noticed about Singapore was the common usage of the verb "alight." As in, "Take care when alighting and mind the gap." Definitely not used much in the US, and I don't think used much in the UK, either. Anyway, I had to take a picture of one of the signs in the subway car.

Okay, first I took this picture because "No durians." Only afterwards did I notice that, while durians are not permitted, their possession apparently carries no fine, unlike the other items. Also you can see the clearly denoted reserved seat for the… — Okay, first I took this picture because "No durians." Only afterwards did I notice that, while durians are not permitted, their possession apparently carries no fine, unlike the other items. Also you can see the clearly denoted reserved seat for the elderly, pregnant, injured, or parent of small children. Or, presumably, any combination thereof.

Our ride was only a couple stops. Once we arrived, we realized that, in order to get outside from the subway, you travel through a shopping center that may be so ritzy as to put Orchard Road to shame.

Does your local mall have gondolas?

A single story Gucci is obviously insufficient to keep up with demand. Check back soon!

We grabbed lunch at a pizza restaurant that was painfully expensive but pretty delicious, and then started wandering around, gawking at everything and taking lots of pictures. I also discovered my camera's panorama function and started taking advantage of that, with mixed results. Also, turns out they mess up the size scaling on galleries, so I'll have to include any I take as separate images.

The Singapore ArtScience museum on the right, and a Louis Vuitton store (building?) on the left.

The Louis Vuitton building from another angle, and a portion of the Singapore skyline. I really love the blue color on the cluster of leftmost towers.

More of the Singapore skyline, including the Fullerton Hotel on the right by the water. Also some strange, air control tower-looking buildings on the left.

Yet more of the Singapore skyline, including the Theaters on the Bay in the foreground, whose design was inspired by durian fruit.

A view of the Marina Bay Sands hotel. It's completely surreal.

The ArtScience museum from a bit closer up. A bunch of shots of this follow, as I think it's a really neat building.

The (maybe just a) Singapore Junior Olympics field. More or less floating on the bay. Really neat.

Selfie time! We really should take more pictures that feature at least one of us...

Another view of the Singapore skyline.

Flowering lily pads just outside the ArtScience museum.

The Singapore skyline from the Marina Bay Sands shopping center. Also apparently a boat cutting through my panorama.

I'm actually a little unclear how directly the shopping area is tied into the Marina Bay Sands proper (the giant three towers with what looks like a cruise ship bridging their tops), which is a hotel. Either way, we left the shopping area and crossed through the hotel on our way to the Gardens by the Bay (on Wikipedia).

Looking up at one of the three towers of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

View of the port and some interesting building. No idea what it is.

An interior view of the hotel.

Flowers on balconies.

There was a really interesting metal screen art installation built into the hotel, that reacts to the wind, shimmering and rippling. Pictures don't really do it justice, so here's a video, hopefully with better quality than before.

I was going to include our adventures in Gardens by the Bay in this post, but I think I'll split that off into the next one. Stay tuned!