Why go there? It's fun and it's free, good for exercise and gourmets, solos and couples, and families, dog lovers, and people who want to park the car.
It's the world's most visited Botanic Garden, beating Kew Gardens in London and others in the USA and Canada. Most of it is free and open from 5 am until midnight. A couple of great shops sell souvenirs, whether you are into fashion such as orchid brooches, silk scarves and sundresses, tee-shirts and sunhats, or books about plants and plants.
It's a Unesco World Heritage site, attracting four million visits a year.
Problem
Where can we take a foreign visitor to visit? In Singapore the Gardens by the Bay are expensive and we leave that to the last day when we have time to spend all day there. For a mere afternoon jaunt which can be cut short with no financial loss if our visitor grows tired, we follow her own request to visit the Botanical Gardens.
Symphony Lake. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
You can approach the Botanical gardens from various directions. On the MRT you arrive underneath and enter a gateway with many plaques and pictures to read.
This time we took a taxi. Our entry point was at the entrance with a souvenir shop and map. We walked from the cacti garden and the orchid garden past the bandstand and out to the roadway.
Highlights:
the souvenir shops
the waterfall you can walk behind
the bandstand in the water
the two white swans
Symphony Lake. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
Swans mate for life, but woe betide you if you get between them and their young. The strength of a swan's wings is famous. Those graceful necks are strong as a forearm and can strike you hard. Admire from afar. to take pictures you might like to invest in a telephone lens for a camera or even a mobile phone.
Who goes to the Botanical Gardens?Shopaholics looking for fashionable, colourful hats and scarves and jewellery.
Plant lovers, looking for kits to grow.
Dog walkers with dogs on leads following the paths.
Energetic joggers running along amidst pleasant scenery far away from the car fumes of the streets, out in the fresh air. Some are singles. Others in groups. I joked:'They look like they are running for a bus!'
Relaxation-lovers sit on the many rustic chairs, rocks, walls and lawns.
Romantic couples stroll hand in hand.
Families with toddlers.
Grannies and people pushing grannies and grandads in wheelchairs.
Photographers after scenery and wildlife.
Photographers after romantic settings for girlfriends, or models.
Couples looking for either wide open spaces or privacy.
Best of all, it's free. So you can spend as much or as little as you like, in terms of money and time.
GETTING THERE AND GETTING AWAY
By car or cab.
1 We arrived via Cluny Road. Confusingly you have to turn the map sideways to get north at the top.
My favourite entrance is Botanic Gardens MRT. However, it's quite walk from one end to the other.
If short of time, take a taxi to Cluny Road and walk the half which ends at
2 By car or cab
Tanglin Gate (Napier Road)where you can call a cab.
3 By MRT /train or bus
My favourite entrance is Botanic Gardens MRT. It is on the Circle Line and the Downtown Line. (However this entrance is at the south end and it's quite a walk from one end to the other at Tanglin Gate.)
More details from the Botanic Gardens website.
For me the highlights were:
1 Symphony Lake with Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage. (Roughly in the middle)
2 The walk behind the waterfall near Halia restaurant and the ginger garden. (Halia means ginger.)
USEFUL WEBSITES
www.sbg.org.sg
Singapore Airlines
singaporeair.com
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Please share links to your favourite posts.
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