Singapore's Flowers Galore and More - Part 1 (SINGAPORE)

I used a tour bus today so I could Hop-On/Hop-Off at locations I wanted to visit.  We started in Little India, which is where the residents of this part of the city have historically been Indian.  From Little India, I "hopped on" the tour bus again and went to Chinatown.  At the end of my tour, I went to Raffles Hotel for High Tea.  More of today's activities and photos in my next posting.  This posting will have the photos I took yesterday, primarily at Marina Bay.

An exhibition hall, which is connected to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

This store, part of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, actually is located in the harbor and is connected to the shopping arcade of the hotel via the walkway you see in the photo.

A section of the skyline of Singapore.  The buildings are mostly banks and other financial institutions.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Take note of the large Ferris wheel, The Flyer, in the background.  It is the tallest Ferris wheel in the world!

The orb-like feature is actually part of the ceiling of the shopping mall of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.  Water continuously swirls inside the orb and then empties, creating a water fall effect in the middle of the mall.  Note the row boat coming through the bridge.  You can actually take a boat ride inside the mall.

A rink inside the mall - not ice, but silicone; not ice skates, but a variation of roller blades.

Not exactly an amusement park, but a botanical garden, with a grove of decorative tree sculptures.  Note the walkway which is at the level of (real) tree tops.

For those of you who did not Google "Cloud Forest," after my mentioning of it in the last posting.  Cloud Forest is one of 2 geodesic domes which are botanical gardens.  Cloud Forest is a masterpiece of design, is eco-friendly (obviously), and is an interactive museum.  Cloud Forest is an indoor rain forest.  It really was incredible to go through this dome, then the "Flower Dome" which is filled with every variety of flowers, cacti, and scrubs.  What was of particular note were the thousand year old olive trees!  The entire complex is called "Gardens by the Bay" because they are right at the water's edge.  The domes themselves are works of art and every bit as beautiful as what was inside them.  

Waterfalls inside the Cloud Forest

I hope you like flowers!  I could not resist taking many photos of them since they were so close to the foot paths.

Everyone was taking photos!

Either via elevator or stairs, you go up the equivalent of 5 stories, then use the ramps, which you see at the top of this photo, to walk down and "through" the rain forest.

This is what those who were afraid of heights turned into, once the got to the top!

My favorite photo of the day!

No, it is not Disney's Space Mountain!

A working set of model trains for the kids to watch, as their parents looked at tropical flowers.

My second favorite photo of the day.

The girls were so cute posing that I thought I would take their photo as well.

View from the mid point of the down ramp.

Taken from the down ramp, looking out through the glass of the dome.

We have arrived at the bottom of the ramp.

My next posting will be from inside the Flower Dome, but with far fewer photos of flowers. I rushed through this dome, so I could catch the last shuttle bus back to the hotel.  Also, more fascinating photos of Chinese and Indian temples from today's sightseeing to come, but I may save those for a posting of just the temples.  Stay tuned, they only get better!