Out and about in Singapore

Shopping in Singapore is a wonder, with so many enormous shopping centres.    Every top name shop is here, multiples of them in fact.    There never appears to be anyone buying anything but I guess goods must be sold, otherwise the shops would not survive.    There are certainly lots of people out window shopping, us included.

The first port of call last night was CHIJMES, once the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus Middle Education School, which now contains upmarket restaurants and bars.    The church is now used for wedding receptions.    The description outside the church said that the convent was also an orphanage until 1984.   

Then we went on to the Raffles City Shopping Centre, bypassing Raffles Hotel where on one trip we spent $50 (£25) on a glass of wine, one beer and a bowl of peanuts, the shells of which we were meant to throw on the floor.    

 I loved the glass roof structure, you could see a tower block looming as a shadow above the roof line.

Today we caught a bus, and travelled to the Botanical Gardens.    We found visiting the gardens a real joy, strolling around and looking at all the lovely plants.    A different experience from previous visits when we lived here in the early 1970's.    Then we always got really hot and bothered, through having to push a buggy and keep two little children under control.    

 The gardens are beautifully landscaped, very lush and contained all the plants and trees that you can only see in hothouses at Kew Gardens.

 There was a large area devoted to ginger plants.   We learnt that tumeric, bananas, 'bird of paradise' and canna lillies are all relatives of the ginger plant.    The picture below shows a particular beautiful 'bird of paradise' flower.

 There is a huge orchid garden, which holds an amazing variety of orchids.    A very important plant here and the flower is the symbol of Singapore.

 Walter standing under arches planted with startling yellow orchids.

An area reserved for rare orchids.

 There was an area laid out as a tropical rainforest.   We were fascinated by the roots of many of the trees, such as the ficus in the picture below.    Some of the very large trees had conductors on them so that the trees would not be destroyed by lightening.    There were also signs to warn people about not entering the rainforest during electrical storms.    Electrical storms are often violent here.    I can remember feeling very frightened during some of those storms.

Now is time to show off my orchid, which grows on the windowsill of my kitchen in London.    It is now flowering for the second time, and is producing such an abundance of blooms.    I am very amazed, especially as previous orchids have died after producing a few sickly flowers.    I hope my 'flower sitter' is taking good care of my plant while I am away.  

Time to go out for another curry!