Hey Hive!
Sorry it's been such a long gap between posts but I was actually overseas for a while on vacation! I unfortunately didn't have posts scheduled since we were rushing to do a lot of things, but we had a lot of fun! It was our first big trip post-covid too, so lots to see and do.
But now we're back it's time to share more of our adventures! If you missed the previous post, I shared about our experience visiting the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre! This was in 2020 when covid was restricting travel so we took the opportunity to visit places we've never been right here in the homeland!
15 March 2020. Sunday.
Another place we visited during covid was the famous Gardens by the Bay! If you've read up about Singapore or you've been here before you're probably familiar with this tourist attraction.
Gardens by the Bay is a nature park spanning 101 hectares (250 acres) and consists of three waterfront gardens. The largest of the gardens is the Bay South Garden at 54 hectares (130 acres). Gardens by the Bay was part of Singapore's plans to transform its "Garden City" to a "City in a Garden", with the aim of raising the quality of life by enhancing greenery and flora in the city.
Source: planetofhotels
It is well known for its Supertree Grove that are vertical gardens that are home to enclaves of unique and exotic plants and are fitted with environmental technologies that mimic the ecological function of trees. There are also two conservatories, of which the Flower Dome is the largest glass greenhouse in the world.
It had been a long time since I visited Gardens by the Bay, and I think even then I only saw the Supertrees (since that's the only part of the park that was free entry). But Sean insisted we go visit the conservatories too, since they're really nice and more importantly, are air-conditioned. Which is crucial since it's really hot here and I was sweating profusely when walking around the Supertrees.
So we took the train to Bayfront Station and starting walking to the Gardens. As usual it was really hot that day and I was already perspiring. But there were some nice fountains on the way which was nice.
Guess what we saw when we arrived at the entrance to the Gardens - a beautiful corgi!!
He was so cute and fluffy getting admired by everyone! I absolutely love corgis and they're probably my favourite dog breed so I always get really excited when I see one outside!
Anyway, it was really warm so we started making our way to the first observatory - the Cloud Forest! It was sometime post quarantine but there were still some covid restrictions in place, so thankfully that meant that the place wouldn't be so crowded.
The first thing we saw when we entered was this huuuuge waterfall! I'd seen this in pictures but it was absolutely astounding to see it in person! And the inside was indeed air-conditioned, which was nice after the heat outside.
Here's a closeup of the map:
It was already so pretty and we had just started! It was cool that you could actually walk in the waterfall and view it from the inside too! It felt like a secret getting behind the waterfall.
There were still some other people around since it was a Sunday, but definitely much less of a crowd compared to pre-covid especially on a weekend.
This conservatory was so huge that it made me feel even smaller than usual but it was definitely impressive. I like that they included some statues like this dragon among the plants as well.
The architecture of the place was also really impressive, with the bridges overhead also covered in plants.
The air inside the conservatory felt really fresh too, maybe because of all the plants.
There were also some cool photo spots as well. This flower wasn't real but I like that they interspersed some fake ones among the many real plants.
I was still so floored by the huge structure in the middle. The bridges made it look really cool from the bottom too!
The whole place was just covered in plants. But it was cool that you could see the city outside still. It really felt like we were in a super high-tech greenhouse!
Even though covid and quarantine was rough, I was definitely pleased with the smaller crowds. Typically this place would be packed on a Sunday for sure.
There were even interesting statues placed among the plants!
Everywhere just looked so pretty!
There was a special section with a showcase of different Orchids from the Amazon Rainforest!
The orchid is Singapore's national flower, so this makes sense and it was interesting to see some unique species!
They had really interesting patterns and colours too!
I'm not a big fan of pink normally but this orchid looked so amazing!
There was also this white one which looked like Singapore's orchid but I'm not entirely sure.
Among the orchids was also this cute little pond with statues of animals from the Amazon!
Already this dome seemed pretty huge and we hadn't even gone up yet!
So we started making our way up to the Lost World!
There were plenty of different plants here as well, as far as the eye could see!
In the middle of the upper level was this pond with some curiously fake Pitcher Plants!
We were wondering why they didn't put real ones, but I guess maybe it's too dangerous or since there are no bugs here they wouldn't survive?
But then we saw they did have some actual carnivorous plants here. I guess they just wanted to build the LEGO ones to make it more obvious since they are pretty small irl.
Here's a closeup of the Pitcher Plant:
We were now walking on the highest bridge and there were of course plenty of pretty plants and flowers here as well!
Some closeups of the flowers:
I loved the colour of this one!
The sun was pretty bright and there was even a couple taking some wedding photos on the bridge!
It did feel like a romantic place to be with your partner here surrounded by all the pretty flowers and the city skyline just outside the dome.
I think Gardens is definitely a popular place for wedding photos and this couple made a good decision to photograph here since it's indoors.
We walked down to the lower bridge and got a better angle with the waterfall!
There are also some informational plaques along the path so visitors get to understand the plants and technology employed here better! Like the fact that this waterfall is part of its own water cycle within the dome!
We took a couple more pics before heading down the bridge.
Downstairs was an area showcasing different types of rocks like stalactites in caves!
There were quite a few different types of rock here:
And they even had giant geodes! Some people thought to throw coins in there for some reason.
There were mirrored surfaces hanging from the ceiling I guess so you could view the rocks from different angles to see how they would look like in caves? But we used it to take a very far mirror selfie xD
We were now on the middle level of the waterfall
I kinda had the perfect outfit for this place on that day, not sure if I planned it but it worked out.
I think this was a good vantage point to take photos since you could see the middle structure and the trees below too.
There's still a ton of pictures to share but I think I'll end it off here for now! I hope you enjoyed this look into the Cloud Forest but there's still more exciting stuff to come I promise, so stay tuned!
Here's another pic of the cute corgi, and a sneak peek at the main reason why we wanted to visit the Gardens!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #184 (SG): Exploring Chinese Culture in Singapore! 👲
