Friday, 21 March 2014

Singapore - Morning

Singapore (Morning)
18th March 2014

This morning we woke up excited as we were meeting Valetia (Nicola’s friend and bridesmaid).  As arranged we jumped into a cab and took the short drive to The Gardens by the Bay, where we met Daniel who Valetia had arranged to show us around the garden.

The garden, which is only two years old, was modeled on the Eden project in Cornwall and contained two enormous bio-domes, many times bigger than those in Cornwall.  The first housed plants from a vast area, including Europe, Australasia and South America, where the dome was cooled from the 34 degree temperature outside by underground cold water pipes.  The current theme of the dome was the War of the Roses and needless to say there were hundreds of roses here, just like home from home.


The second dome was themed on a tropical rainforest with an enormous waterfall as its centerpiece.  Here were beautiful plants such  as orchids, many tropical ferns, Begonia Rex and many of our houseplants in flower all growing together.  We took the lift to the top level where there were many carnivorous plants including a beautiful display of Saracenas.  It was 11.00am, the time that they switch on the mist sprays, which made this area quite mystical, as we walked round the elevated walkway admiring the plants.


As we walked around we spotted The Marine Bay Hotel, where we were due to have lunch on the roof.


As you can imagine it is tough work being a gardener here.


We then left the dome and met up with Valetia’s friend Cheng Yee, who walked us around some of the gardens outside, whilst we waited for Valetia to arrive.

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