Orchard Road Singapore – nothing but shops & more shops.
There is a different kind of Singapore, the Botanical Gardens.
A beautiful peaceful park area, which concentrates on orchids.
My knowledge of gardening and plants is very limited, so I’ll just post the pictures . . .
Getting to the Botanical Gardens from the city is very easy, because the gardens are on the metro system. You don’t have to take a taxi.
I couldn’t stop clicking the camera the colours of the plants are fabulous.
The first botanical garden in Singapore was created by Sir Thomas Raffles in 1822. After his death the authorities lost interest in gardens.
The present garden was started in 1859 and many features such as the swan lake, main entrance and the ring road are still in use today.
Lawrence Niven was hired as Superintendent and he oversaw the layout and landscaping. A small hill was reduced to a flat area in the early 1860’s so that regimental bands could play for the public. In 1930 the band stand was created and can still be seen today.
Bandstand Hill
Over the years the garden grew (excuse the pun) in size and is now 82 hectares in size.
In 1928 the gardens started orchid breeding, which is still carried on today.
2015 saw the current Singapore Botanical Gardens being inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the first and only tropical garden on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
Many of the plants in the celebrity area have links to world famous people –
Queen Elizabeth, Andrea Bocelli, Margaret Thatcher, Jackie Chan, etc over one hundred different orchids linked to the same number of famous people.
Peace and quiet where ever you go . . .
The occasional problem if you are an insect.
If you decide to visit the gardens may I suggest that you make it early morning before the heat of the day – we walked all over the gardens and as the morning progressed it became more humid (monsoon season), but it was well worth the effort.
In the evening I took some photographs of Singapore river –
This is how I remember Singapore River in the mid 60’s.
As it is today
The river at night today.
Singapore has changes so much in the last forty odd years.
In an earlier blog I posted this picture of Clifford Pier in the 1960’s.
Clifford Pier today . . .
I think Joseph Conrad would have recognised the early 1960 version, but not today’s.
Joseph Conrad
silverfox175 
Yes, that’s one of my pet peeves about Singapore! Whenever I come home after a few months away it looks completely different! I’m exaggerating, but you know what I mean 😉
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Time moves on, but sometimes we don’t :-o)
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The gardens would be like heaven to me especially the orchids. Not so sure about the shops and high rise buildings – I hate crowds!!
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A huge change from my first visit in 1963! Singapore is now referred to as Switzerland with heat – clean and dull – used to be ‘foreign’ and exciting. Time moves on . . .
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