July 24 - Giant glowing trees

Giant waterfall in the rainforest dome.

The walking platforms in the rainforest dome.

The trees and crowd just before the show.

July 24 Day 160

                We got up in the rain and decided to try our breakfast coupons at the second place.  This spot was right in the metro station, a 2 minute walk from us.  This place had minimal food for their coupons, the boiled egg was just that, no toast or anything.  It was so unsatisfactory that we took our remaining coupons and had a second, and superior, breakfast at the place we went the day before.

                Meg wanted the morning off and I was planning on going to the botanical gardens but it rained heavily for most of the a.m. so we both had some down time.  We talked to the woman who had to clean the rooms and found that she was aware of some of the problems with the Vietnamese women but didn’t know about the durian.  She checked a bag of produce that they had left on the shoe rack ,pronounced it liquefied and tossed it.

                Before heading out to the Gardens By The Bay, we decided to try some proper hawker food and one of the best places was supposed to be close to us.  We expected to see stands on crowded squares of streets, but these hawkers had been organized into a big mall with a plaque explaining its existence.  It was essentially a very large food hall and each stall had a fairly large menu rather than the “one thing done to excellence” that you associate with hawker stalls (like in Thailand).  Meg and I each picked a place that had a line and a “Best of Singapore” award but we were both unimpressed with our selections.  The food hall by the museum remained superior.

                We got onto the subway and were soon at the correct station.  It was a longish walk to the Gardens but it took us through some parkland, including a lake with giant dragonfly sculptures.  Along the way we went by a Chinese and Indian garden and stopped to have our pictures taken with the supertrees.  These are huge, treelike frames with plants growing up them.  Later we found out that they were vents for the subway but their shape and scale make them to be quite surreal.

                The outside gardens were impressive and free, but the two domes were the real draw.  Considering how much effort must have gone into them, they weren't particularly expensive.  As a bonus, we had a “free prize” coupon from one of our tourist pamphlets that was a pack of postcards.

                The first structure we went into was the flower one.  It was huge and very crowded.  We went to the desert area because it was full of succulents and less full of people.  They had Alice in Wonderland statues throughout the display, titled using a pun that I forget.  All the plants were healthy, many of them were odd and there were tidbits of information here and there.

                We went through an olive grove, a Mediterranean garden, a Winnie-the pooh themed sculpture area and a few other groves.  The centre area was packed and that’s where the orchids were.  They had them growing individually, in shapes, in clusters shaped like fireworks and in all colours.  People were posing for pictures and expecting the people in the crowded path not to walk in front of them.  It was busy and too crowded but the orchids were nice.

                We took a break at an overpriced coffee shop and sat outside for a bit.  A popular jogging trail ran by the gardens for people were always dashing by.

                We saved the rainforest  xx fr last and made the right decision.  The main entry hall has a high waterfall spilling over a gigantically tall frame covered with plants and with wild wooden statues of monkeys spread throughout the foliage.  Both of  the domes had these elaborate and fun statues spread throughout them, sometimes obvious and sometimes tucked in amongst the plants.

                We showed up just at the watering time, which meant that we walked through a fine mist as we went up the ramp around the huge plant mountain.  The path took us into a huge open area with ramps overhead and a line to wait in.  This was the elevator line, which took you up about 8 stories to the northern rainforest area that you could work your way down from.  It moved fairly quickly and in less than 10 minutes we found ourselves at the top.

                This area had high altitude or cold climate rainforest plants including a nice assortment of insect eaters.  We noticed that many negligent parents were present as there was a boy handing plants clearly marked “do not touch” and his parents were doing the blind eye thing.

                As you headed down you walked out over three ramps at differing heights that gave amazing views of both below and the incredible plant mountain in the enclosure.  As you came down, you had opportunities to poke your head out behind the waterfall or go through a display of stalactites and cut stones.  The scale and setup of the place was truly impressive.

                As you got lower you were funneled into an environmental display area which had funky multimedia presentations but really simplistic messages.  The same for the gigantic theatre, which had a huge screen but an earnest, corporate feeling environmental message.

                More interesting was that on the way out you went through the large secret garden.  This included very primitive plants, endangered ones and others that were hard to find.  Scattered along the path were tiny orchids with magnifying glasses attached to the railing to let you fully see them.  There were descriptions all along the path and several large sculptures at the end perfect fr the selfie crowd.

                Emerging from the secret garden we walked around the pavilion for a bit, taking in its hugeness and looking at some of the plants we missed.  In both places, we got re-entry stamps that we ended up not using, but it was nice to have them. 

                Leaving the are, we took about a 10 minute walk down the waterside jogging path to Satay by the Bay, a pricier hawker area pretty much solely serving park patrons.  The selection was large ,but not nearly so much as our lunch place.  The food, however, was excellent and my stay and baked chicken/ vegetable bowl were both really good.  Beer was on offer, but it was overpriced even for Singapore so we stuck to juice.  Behind us were a table of business people and Meg noticed how the women in the group fed the men and wondered how sexist the culture was if you lived here.

                We walked back through the free area of the park, waiting for the sun to set and the sound and light show to begin.  We went by a lake, some smaller (but still huge) giant trees, a mushroom garden, a trimmed garden, a primitive garden and a statue of a giant floating baby.  We then followed the hordes down to a patch of grass close to the giant trees to grab a spot for the show.  As it got dark we watched the people climb on the ramps up in the trees and wondered why they’d want to come down from their perch (which they paid extra for) just before the show.

                The show was quite something.  It happens twice a night and we got the impression that they had a wide series of shows from the way they presented the one we were at.  We saw the waltz program which started with ominous Carmina Burana pieces and ended with a Cancan.  Throughout, the trees were flashing with light and projections in time to the music, which was edited seamlessly from piece to piece.  You got the impression that whoever programmed it had a lot of fun doing so.  Other than a sobbing baby who was taken away soon into the program, everyone seemed to enjoy it and seeing something of that scale outdoors on a warm night was excellent.

                The walk back was crowded with people and not well signed, so we toured around the gardens a bit before heading back towards the subway.  Most people crossed a pedestrian bridge to try and catch a nearby show which  had just started but from where we were you could only see bits flash through as we were on the wrong side of the buildings.  We had to get packed and ready for tomorrow, so back we went to the station.

                The line for tickets was long and we seemed to be the only ones who saw a sign indicating that there were more machines 100m away at the other end of the station.  We walked to these and encountered no line up at all.

                Getting back to our place was a snap by now and we didn’t have any loud neighbours, which was a bonus.  We packed our stuff in a foreign country for the last time and slept well in preparation for the longest travel day of our trip.