More Gardens in the Green City

Why a zoo tour was on our itinerary we do not know but we tried (and failed) to make the best of it. We convinced our guide to leave early and we went to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel where we had a Chinese lunch.

Next door to the hotel is the Garden by the Bay. It is comprised of two glass domed buildings filled with gardens and surrounded by a green park with Super Trees. These are artificial trees made with a hollow concrete core and covered with mesh so that plants can be grown all the way up to the umbrella tops, eventually they will look and act like real trees. Some of the trees are vents for the underground buildings and others hold solar panels.

Each of the domes contains different gardens. The first was bigger and holds a 'mountain' of plants and the tallest indoor waterfall in the world. We rode an elevator to the top of the 'mountain' and enjoyed plants, flowers, ferns, trees, and bushes from around the world and from various climates. The artwork added to the visual delights.

The second dome held gardens one might find in the Mediterranean area, Africa or Asia as well as the Dalhia Flower show.

I won't bore you with a lot of info about the city but one thing is very unique. In trying to keep people from using cars for transportation the government has placed a 300% tax on all imported cars and all cars are imported. So if you can afford to own a car, when that car is 10 years old you have to scrap it and buy a new one. There are no used cars in Singapore! And to further limit cars you have to buy a permit to own one & only a few are sold each year.

A Tour of Singapore

A Malaysian king who came here decided to stay after he saw an animal he declared to be a lion (there are no lions in Malaysia) so he named the village Singa for lion and pora for city hence Singapore. In 1899 the East India Company landed on this island thus began a period of British rule. The city grew but during WWII it was bombed and invaded by Japan. The city had to rise up from the ashes and has done a remarkable job of becoming one of the top financial cities in the world, having the busiest sea port and some of the tallest buildings in Asia.

We learned all this and more as we traveled to the Singapore Botanical Gardens where we walked through a world famous Orchid Garden with more than 1000 different species of orchids.

We had a brief stop on the bay to see the national symbol of Singapore, the Lion headed fish. Across the bay (which is man made and filled with fresh water) is the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. The three towers hold 2561 rooms and support the 'ship' on top where you can dine or swim. The lotus shaped building is the Arts and Science Museum.

In China Town we visited the Temple of Heavenly Peace (Takong Thian Hock Keng). Its main diety is the Hindu god, Matu, Goddess of the Sea and the other smaller temples hold the Buddhist god and a Taoist god.

A short walk took us to the neighboring area of Little India. They were celebrating their new year call Thaipusam. It is a time to make wishes come true and to receive blessings. Men carrying metal milk cans on their heads were taking blessing from one temple to another. The oddest site were men carrying torture like decorations on their heads or pulling one behind them but the common theme was arrows or needles piercing the body. How they could do that we do not know! And why they were doing that we do not understand!

Following a restful afternoon, we had dinner in the Swissotel Hotel at the Equinox Restaurant located on the 70th floor. The restaurant was beautiful, the views from the top were stunning and the food was elegant and wonderfully prepared. It was a delightful way to wind down this vacation.

Singapore!

Since we had a late flight to Singapore John and I walked around Saigon for an hour and found a couple of interesting buildings to photograph. One is the Opera House and the other is Ho Chi Minh City Hall. Then off to the airport.

Singapore is a city, a country and an island. It is 31 miles wide and 16 miles long and holds 5.5 million people. We are only 85 miles north of the equator.

We landed here late afternoon but by the time we got settled in the hotel it was after 7 pm. Everybody was cranky with hunger so we ended up going our separate ways for dinner. John and I did stop at the Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel where the Singapore Sling was invented. Back in the early 1900's it was unseemly for a woman to be seen drinking spirits so the bartender created this fruity drink with rum to look like just a fruit drink.