More from S'pore

The locals refer to this place as Spore. You see this in articles in the, "The Straits Times" which is the daily newspaper and you also see this abbreviation used on signs throughout the city. We are only going to be able to have scratched the surface here in Spore because we only had 2.5 days to explore the city. As always we needed more time.

Yesterday, Mrs. Gym and I went to the Gardens by the Bay which is a brand new attraction here in Singapore. It was just opened in June, 2012 and was within walking distance of the hotel. We were drawn here when we saw it from the Singapore Flyer the previous day. We spotted the conservatories and I said to Mrs. Gym, "We are going to go check those out tomorrow", and we did. Here are the conservatories again from the Flyer.

This is what we saw from the Flyer

As it turns out the conservatories are only a small part of a very large park. Here is a description of the park from a reliable source:

Gardens by the Bay is a park spanning 101 hectares (250 acres) of reclaimed land^[1] in central Singapore, adjacent to the Marina Reservoir. The park consists of three waterfront gardens: Bay South Garden, Bay East Garden and Bay Central Garden.

Gardens by the Bay is an integral part of a strategy by the Singapore government to transform Singapore from a "Garden City" to a "City in a Garden". The stated aim is to raise the quality of life by enhancing greenery and flora in the city.

We had to pay $25.20 each (with a Singapore Airlines discount) to enter the conservatories. It was worth the price of admission. Here is description of the conservatories from a reliable source:

The Flower Dome

The Flower Dome is the larger of the two, at 1.2 hectares (3.0 acres). It replicates cool dry conditions and will feature permanent displays of plants found in the Mediterranean and semi-arid tropical regions. A changing display field has also been incorporated to enable flower shows and displays to be held within the conservatory. 

Bottle Tree in the Flower Dome 

Ancient Olive Trees

Palm

Part of Thanksgiving Display

Some guy with a hat that looks like he bought it in Fujairah

Nice but they are fake chickens

Horn of Plenty

One of the Mrs. Gym's 100s of flower pictures

The second conservatory:

The Cloud Forest

The Cloud Forest is slightly smaller at 0.8 hectares (2.0 acres). It replicates the cool moist conditions found in tropical mountain regions between 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) and 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) above sea level. It features a "Cloud Mountain", accessible by an elevator, and visitors will be able to descend the mountain via a circular path where a 35-metre (115 ft) waterfall provides visitors with refreshing cool air.

When you walk in you are confronted with a giant man-made mountain which is covered in Tropical Rainforest and a giant waterfall

Looking up from the back is the "Walk in the Clouds"

Flowers grow all the way up the mountain

You take an elevator to the top of the mountain

another view of the summit

looking down to the front door

The Walk in the Clouds - don't look down!

on the mountainside

looking down to the walk at treetop level

waterfall viewing point halfway down

real stalagmites inside the mountain

looking up from the Walk in the Treetops to the Walk in the Clouds

Outside we toured the outer gardens a little bit but it was raining and we were hungry so we didn't get to fully explore the park but we did check out these manmade trees called the Supertrees. These trees not only look cool they provide a base for numerous vines, ferns and creeping plants that are growing up the steel forms. The Supertrees also provide an important function for the park acting as air intake and exhaust machines for the park's cooling system. These Supertrees are lit up at night and the whole park looks like something out of the movie Avatar.

After we got back to the hotel we went for lunch at the Long Bar. This is where the Singapore Sling was introduced to the world. This storied bar has made rated as one of the top ten bars in the world.

The Long Bar

The bartender mixing a sling

note the ceiling fans

O.K. Now I think I’ve told y'all that this is our second Southeast Asian Sojourn. We have experienced a wonderful city and have shown you some images to prove to you what a beautiful place that they have here in Spore.  Now, what are Mr. and Mrs. Gym doing next? They don't travel 24 hours to only experience one modern civic marvel and why would Gym call it a Southeast Asian Sojourn if he was only visiting one country? No, we need to have more. We have to experience at least one other country before we head back to join the majority of our readers for some more of the Calgary winter. So, we are going to Bali this morning. Yes, I know, only 2.5 days and we are pulling the plug on Singapore? Don't worry, Bali will be fun and I promise to give you as full a coverage of Bali as you would expect. I will post my next blog from the Four Seasons at Sayan on the sacred Ayung River.