Wednesday 5 April 2017

Singapore - day 2

We planned to go our own separate ways today but we found that many of us went to the Gardens by the Bay,  and others went to the Botanic Gardens. We approached Gardens by the Bay from the spectacular Marina Bay Sands.



Words cannot explain Gardens by the Bay adequately! It has more than one million plants and over 5,000 species. That in itself would be amazing, but add the cooled conservatories  with their architectural designs, sustainability, horticulture and artistic presentation and all you can say is WOW!

We went to the Flower Dome which replicates the cool and dry Mediterranean climates with nine different gardens from five continents. There are many art works interspersed with the plants, many of them native to the area the garden represents or made  from roots and plant matter. 

Photos don't do justice but here are a few.














We thought the Flower Dome was amazing but the Cloud Forest was even more spectacular. A huge waterfall greets you as you enter this dome which replicates the cool moist Tropical Montane region. This is an intense planting of moist climate plants and the higher you climb the more the plantings change to represent the highland regions.A regular misting cloud cover keeps these plants happy.




This display of Venus  fly traps was made from Lego












We then took an audio tour ride around the area surrounding the domes. There are gardens representing the ethnic groups that make up the Singapore  population, art works, an open space for picnics or events and more, but the stand-out feature is the Super Tree collection.These man made trees are not just works of art but have many scientific skills and properties which aid the maintenance of the domes.








Most of the group gathered for drinks in the late afternoon as two more of our group are heading home tomorrow.



Then we went to the Sidewalk food court near our hotel and again enjoyed real Singaporean food with the locals.




















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