Inside the Flower Dome

-
Our morning tour of Singapore just provided us a flavour of what was in store as we explored the city on foot. In the afternoon, it was time to really do some sight-seeing. We went to the Gardens by the Bay and entered the Flower Dome, which was really one giant glasshouse that enabled plants from the temperature regions to flourish.

... and because it's spring time, we came just in time for hanami. Mommy and Daddy were just getting a glimpse of the abundance of flowering trees I've seen in Japan two years ago (because we're inside the glasshouse).


It wasn't surprising that there was a whole row of displays paying tribute to the sakura in Japan. What took me by surprise, though, was that the display included the anime-like dolls in various Japanese-themed scenes.


I just have to admit that I missed seeing cherry blossoms. But the Flower Dome didn't disappoint because it was full of pink flowers blooming on the floor. I don't know what these flowers are but they were so pretty.


That was just a teaser of what we were about to see, I found out. This garden was so full of plants that we didn't know where to start looking and taking pictures!


Just like in the other places we visited, there were sculptures. This one happens to be my favourite in the Flower Dome: a statue of a family sculpted in a style reminiscent of African statues. I just wasn't able to pick up the artist's name.


Not far off, we found ourselves in a cactus garden. I've never been this close to this many cacti in my life, so I felt like I was in a cold desert. 



And then, as we were walking out, I spotted the Cheshire cat!


That made our visit into the Flower Dome turn from a botanical garden exploration into a trip down the rabbit hole pretty quick. I wondered if I missed seeing the statue of the Mad Hatter or of the other characters in Alice in Wonderland. Unfortunately, I couldn't go back and explore more because there was still a lot to see at Gardens by the Bay.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in Bagu
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma
Read more