Three years ago, I visited Singapore with my family. We stayed at the architectural wonder Marina Bay Sands (which was AMAZING but hella expensive). We visited Universal Studios at Sentosa, wandered through Little India, ate famous Singaporean dishes, went to the infinity pool at Sands SkyPark, became ~cultured~ (hehe like yogurt) in Chinatown…basically checked off touristy Singapore things, you know?
However, one thing we DIDN’T do was visit Gardens by the Bay. Which is a travesty, because Gardens by the Bay is literally right next to Marina Bay Sands.
Since Shar and I got out of lab early today (lol 4pm as opposed to 5pm), I went on a solo mini-adventure to Gardens by the Bay, because I’ve heard so much about the eternally spring Flower Dome and the breath-taking Cloud Forest. Even one of the research assistants in my lab, Benjanmin, told me to go visit. Benjamin’s a native Singaporean, so I’d better listen to him.
Flower Dome
The Singapore Tourism Board should actually rename this the Mostly-Lilies Dome, because I’m pretty sure the 60% of the plants in the dome were some kind of lily (or fake lily, since the calla lily isn’t actually a type of lily).
Nevertheless, this dome was absolutely gorgeous. There were so many kinds of flowers and plants from all over the world, and I truly felt like I was in Australia at one point, then Southern California at another. Each area of the dome had a different country/region associated with it, so it wasn’t all Singaporean plants, because that would be boring.
This dome is kept at a cool 23 to 25 °C year round, so it is eternally spring here (it would be very nice if Baltimore was like that). Flowers are always in bloom, and the view is breathtaking.
I even took advantage of my selfie stick! I would say that this selfie stick was a very worthy investment (even though Tyler, aka “Hugh Janus” might disagree).
Cloud Forest
The other, taller dome I visted was Cloud Forest. This dome was modeled after its namesake- a cloud forest, according to its Wikipedia, “is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level.”
Basically, it’s a rainforest with ~mist~.
I got to take an elevator up to the top of the mountain thing in the middle of the dome and walk along a pathway down.
There was vegetation and flowers growing even at the very top of the mountain! According to one of the information signs, plants grow smaller as elevation goes up.
Supertree Grove
On the way back from the domes to the Bayfront MRT, I walked through the Supertree Grove. Supertrees are basically huge purple metal trees with plants growing up them. There’s nothing else like it in the world.
I just happened to be at the grove when the nightly Supertree light show started. In this show, the trees change colors and the lights on them turn on and off as music plays, giving the illusion that the trees are dancing. It’s something out of a Disney movie, and it’s pretty much magical.
Overall rating of Gardens by the Bay: 10/10 gold stars
Café and Kopi 
Love the flowers too .. Wish to go bk there someday
Love u,
Mom
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