On our first day it had to be China Town. Still the same feeling as our visit in 2012, but the prices are higher.
In 2012, AUD $0.80 bought one Singapore dollar, today AUD $1.03 buys one Singapore dollar, a huge difference in buying power.
We found the same corner bar that we used last time and I parked myself with a book and a 650 ml bottle of Tiger (SGD $7.95, + 10% service charge, + VAT). A few cents short of AUD$10.00, but for me it was worth it, because Maureen loves shops and I hate them, so we are both happy.
Lunch in a local Chinese restaurant, which was full of Chinese customer -we were the only westerners, so we figured if the locals filled the place the food must be OK.
Next day it was the new Gardens by the Bay – a must for any visitor. It wasn’t open during our last visit – SGD $25 each, but the visit can be all day, or what ever you wish – we stayed just short of three hours.
Is that our cruise ship?
The main hotel at the mariner – all on reclaimed land.
Mariner Bay Sands Hotel ahead with our cruise ship on the top!
Two domes – the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome. The mushroom ‘things’ are man made structures for plants to climb.
Just walking around the gardens is free – the $25 is to enter the two domes.
Dragon flies.
Waterfalls inside the Cloud Forest.
Skywalk inside the dome – use the lifts . . .
Not until I got close did I realise that some of the ‘plants’ were made of Lego.
These two were a bit more obvious.
All the plants, not just the flowering plants held our attention.
Carnivorous plants.
Just because I liked it . . .
Man made ‘mushrooms’ to allow the plants to grow up and around. Perhaps the future of city farming . . .
Waterfalls of green plants
Drift wood with carved fish using the drift wood.
From the Cloud Forrest we moved on to the Flower Dome, which consists of plants from various areas of the world such as Mediterranean, South America, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia etc but during our visit there was a huge display of tulips. The mass of colour was just begging for a camera.
The above is a view as we entered the Dome.
Closer view of the tulips.
Black tulips
More close up of tulips.
and I couldn’t go past a beautiful rose.
Farming in the future ??
silverfox175 