Orchids, orchids everywhere!
This time it's gonna be a bit shorter than the previous post, I think maybe I went a bit too much all in.. but you writers out there might know this, once you get the ball rolling it can be really hard to stop it again.
I've been to a fair share of amazing places, most of them natural wonders like my previous two post found here and here, but this time I want to take you to something man-made - an oasis on steroids in a big city, that completely blew my mind away!
Singapore - The Garden by the Bay
It seems like that pretty much all city states in the world are more or less somehow super wealthy, at least those I've visited. Their wealth comes from all kinds of sources, be it the tax free money-paradise of Monaco, the incredible rich catholic church in the Vatican city or the trade of Singapore, but no matter where they are all booming economies and they love to show it.
Just before Christmas @iwanderela and I went on a trip to Myanmar and had a few days to spend in Singapore before going there. Now, there are a lot, like really a lot alot, of things to write about in Singapore, from the huge nitty gritty industrial harbor to the posh and fancy Marina Bay area to the charming small town atmosphere in little India, just to name a few places that you can't miss if you are in the country/city.
I believe that in due time I'll get through most of these parts of the city, if not all of them if I could stop being such a lazy ass, but for this post I'll just tell you a bit about this botanical madness that leaves you with your jaw wide open in amazement looking like a politician that just sat foot in the real world, totally bewildered.
The whole garden is huge and covers quite an area so make sure you bring proper footgear cause visiting this place will require a fair amount of walking. Inside the garden there are the famous artifical trees that are made of steel and are quite iconic but besides those, there are a wealth of all kinds of tropical plants to be found grouped in smaller themed areas or arranged all over the place, cleverly connected by a small intricate path system with a few big main "roads".
In the one side of the garden you find two huge domes growing out of the ground like colossal living organisms of glass and steel and these two incredible buildings are what I really want to tell you about, cause they are like nothing else I've ever seen anywhere. Entering the "Garden by the Bay", as it's quite aptly named, is free of charge and everyone can visit just by walking in as long as the park is open, but if you want to enter the botanical domes you have to pay. 28 Singapore dollars (SGD) for non residents is what you need to put down to visit both domes and, in my humble opinion, it's totally worth it, even if it's a bit over the budget of most backpackers.
Dome one - Temperate forest
The domes are build to display the flora of the world that can't survive in the Singaporean climate and the first dome I recommend you visit is the cold climate dome. In this dome you'll see flowers, trees and other plants from the temperate climate zones of the world, like Australia, Europe and Northern America (and many other places). It's a massive converse green house that instead of keeping the inside a steady warm temperature as we know from Europe, instead is actually quite chilly, specially when you just come in from the tropics outside. It features everything from European garden flowers to cactus from various deserts to huge trees and mesmerizing displays of all kind of greens, if you are botanically interested this is the place for you to go nuts.
The view over part of the lower floor when you get in
When we visited it was almost christmas time and Singapore being Singapore they had just gotten 40.000 poinsettia in various colors to cover the ground floor in a huge exhibition. Besides that there is all the way around the ground floor center themes areas all the way around the dome. You can walk from Australia to the European Alps, to Greece and further onward to the forests of northern China without breaking a sweat at all, even if you are a bit out of shape like me.
I'll below here show a few of the pics I took in this dome before going on to dome number two - the Cloud Forest.
@iwanderela doing what she does best, taking pictures!
A little display of various plants we stumbled upon
@iwanderela taking a small break in front of one of many hand carved wooden figures
Dome two - Cloud Forest
While the first dome contained a lot of plants and trees familiar to me as I hail myself from a temperate climate zone, this dome was complete new to me as it resembled the rain forests high high up in the mountains of Africa, South America and Asia. I didn't really know what to expect, mostly because I couldn't be bothered to read up on it, and as such I was totally taken away by the sheer magnitude of the enormous indoor mountain that meet you as you step in.
The Singaporeans simply build their own mountain top, complete with waterfall, escalators and walkways, hanging up high over the ground floor.
35 meters tall stand the mountain from top to bottom and it's completely covered in vegetation from tropical highlands, it's amazing, it's completely crazy and it's so what I had come to expect of Singapore. As you walk around the mountain to reach the elevator to bring you to the top you walk in a fog of humidity, so much in fact that it can be hard to see just 10 meters ahead, so make sure you know where your companion(s) are. It's covered in trees, plants and flowers all over the place and you don't need much willpower to dream yourself far far away, if it wasn't for the chill and constant spray of water. Orchids are everywhere and you can't miss their bright colors and distinct appearances - they are beautiful and delicate and I myself am a big fan.
Your first step into the Cloud Forest dome
The mountain is build up with 7 floors each centered around their own theme, from the top mountain lake to the cave floor to the pre-historic underground floor.. it's all there and it is so amazing! The walkways are a chapter in their own right, stretching out through the empty air so that you walk suspended mid air 30 meters over the ground. I myself found it exhilarating and thoroughly joyous but if you suffer a bit from fear of highs then the walkways could be quite daunting (don't worry there are elevators and escalators if it's too much, although, you'd surely miss out on a lot).
The walkways and mountain seen from the foggy ground
walkways, flesheating plants, orchids and colors.. sooooo many colors!
To round it all up I just want to say "You should definitely visit one day!" The -Gardens by the Bay_ in Singapore is a complete and clever display of what you can do with enough resources and the correct visions. From the giant steel trees to the vast amount of native plants to the bio-domes, this place is amazing and I'm sure I'll one day return to see all things we missed the first time, even if it's a bit expensive.
Hope you enjoyed this, hopefully, lighter read and my pictures enough so that you'll leave a comment below, all kind of criticism is very much appreciated, both negative and positive, as long as it's constructive.
Thank you all and have a lovely rest of the week, it is after all, soon weekend yay!
The Wandering Danish
