Another day in paradise...

Entrance of Botanic Gardens

Walking trough my list of things to see in Singapore, I decided that today would be the perfect day to visit the Botanic Gardens. So off I went, taking the bus as it was too far to walk. Arrived at the gardens, first an impressive entrance gate welcomed me. You can see a photo of this gate at the left site. The site is about 64 hectares so it is quite big. It contains different themed gardens such as the Ginger Garden, National Orchid Garden, Evolution Garden and a part of the old rain forest. I have tried to visit everything but I was not possible as it was such a vast area. The thing I was most excited about was the part of the garden with real rain forest, as I have not been in a real rain forest before.
Just read on and I will tell about all the gardens I have visited!

Me, surrounded by orchids

After the gate I followed the path in the direction of the Ginger Garden were a dozen sorts of ginger were placed. I did not even know there were so many different kinds of ginger, but apparently there are. The whole area was swamp like a a bit damp it contrast to the rest of the gardens but I was nice to see and smell all the kind of gingers.
After the Ginger Garden is entered the National Orchid Garden, which was a non-free garden, but definitely worth visiting. This time I have seen hundred kinds of flowers of the same family, again not knowing there were so many orchid kinds. The garden was quite big and had different kind of areas such as a mist and cool room to house the different kind of orchids which needed special treatment. After about an half or an hour I completed my journey through the National Orchid Garden to continue my "quest" in the rest of the Botanic Gardens. First some pictures of the orchid garden, which are situated below this piece of text. And a movie of a strange self watering plant I found in the orchid garden, do not know whether the self watering was real or not. The plant itself was real, by the way.

Statue in the National Orchid Garden

Nice little waterfall

Orchids

Orchid closeup

After the orchid garden I continued my way along Symphony Lake and a lot of palm trees in the direction of the Evolution Garden. The Evolution Garden is a garden which houses ancient tree and flowers and tells the tale of the the evolution of the earth (in terms of plant life) from a time long ago until present. After the Evolution Garden I took my stroll trough the rain forest which was quite amazing. Not exactly what I had imagined but it will do! The tree I encountered (see photo) made up for it big time! After this I spend some time walking by a lot of different bonsai trees and desert habitants, like cacti (I have looked it up to be sure, but this is the plural of cactus). About three hours later I returned to the real world, after being away from the chaos of Singapore. Three hours in a real paradise! Again an experience to never forget.

After the Botanic Gardens I took of in the direction of Orchard Road, THE shopping district of Singapore, but I will tell about my adventure on Orchard Road in another post!

Again, waterfall

Replica of ancient trees in the Evolution Garden

Big, big, big tree in the rain forest