Paris in April? Nope.
Wow, Singapore, I can’t wait to go back. The food, the people, the incredibly clean and well manicured street level, topped by greenery and plants growing all the way up to and onto the roof levels EVERYWHERE. It’s a city state, about the size of Phoenix, and I would happily go back and spend a year there.
There are parts of town (tourist areas mostly) that are crazy expensive, and then there are the ‘regular’ people parts of town – the residential areas, Chinatown, that kind of thing. The SMRT train is cheap, fast, and they usually don’t take more than 5 or 6 minutes to arrive even in the off hours. Everyone rides the train, I think – except for the people with their Land Rovers and Barbie pink Ferraris, and those kinds of rides.
I was completely awed by the size and scale of the Gardens by the Bay. The Flower Dome is the largest greenhouse under glass in the world, and while we were there they not only had all the usual areas – it’s funny to see California defined as an area (chard, lemons, olive trees, herbs) when you’re outside of the US – and they were prepping for a Tulipmania exhibit, which was oddly sponsored by Turkish Airlines, so that’s the reason for the Levant buildings seemingly plopped down in the middle of the psuedo-Dutch decor. I’ll put up another post with general pics from some other parts of the trip, this one is just the Gardens.
One of the most fascinating parts of the Cloud Forest came near the end of the path – a section just before the Secret Garden that had miniature, miniscule orchids, tucked away safely behind glass. There were about a dozen mounted magnifying glasses that you could peer through to see the teensy little flowers. Just stunning.
