More Gardens by the Bay; Raffles

I don’t want to disappoint you right off the bat, but I feel I should tell you that this post will probably be short. I blame jet lag. In my morning post, I mentioned that because I got a fair amount of sleep on the 16-hour flight to Singapore, I wasn’t particularly tired then. I also inserted a spoiler to let you know that it hit me this afternoon. “Hit me” is a bit of an understatement. Walluped me and damned near knocked me out is more like it.

As a result, I didn’t have as much stamina to keep going this afternoon as I normally have, even after taking into consideration my advancing age, and I’m quickly fading as I write this. So let’s get this thing over with.

Cloud Forest at Gardens by the Bay

The Cloud Forest in the Gardens by the Bay is an attractively shaped, large glassed-in conservatory. The climate inside is controlled to mimic high-altitude tropical forests. It’s beautifully air-conditioned to a bit onto the cool side. A large waterfall and misters keep it quite moist. But it’s a cool humidity, so it’s quite comfortable compared to the natural steambath that Singapore’s climate creates outside.

I would not complain if Singapore built a large dome over itself and air-conditioned it to that level. It’s probably too expensive and energy-inefficient, but please see what you can do.

Ramps and stairs lead visitors to the higher levels of the Cloud Forest, where they can view the plants. There is also a large orchid section, a couple of small carnivorous plant sections, and a “secret garden.” (There are also elevators for those who need them and some down-escalators to the exit from the top level.)

In addition to the vegetation and waterfalls, there are some exhibits, including a small theatre playing a couple of short videos, one on the interrelationships of nature, and the other on climate change. They play one after the other in a continuous loop.

The Flower Dome at Gardens by the Bay

The Flower Dome in the Gardens by the Bay building is somewhat similar in size, style and shape to the Cloud Forest building. The difference is the climate. It is supposed to mimic a more Mediterranean environment. It too is nicely air-conditioned, although not to quite as cool a temperature as the Cloud Forest.

The air in the Flower Dome is also much drier than the Cloud Forest’s.

The plants in the Flower Dome are generally arranged geographically, but they’re not all or even mostly Mediterranean. For example, there are Australian and Californian sections. Geography isn’t my forte, but I’m pretty sure that neither Australia nor California is on the Mediterranean or even near it.

The atmosphere is dry enough in the Flower Dome that there is a cactus section in there.

One thing among many that I don’t understand is why they call it the Flower Dome. There are some flowers in there, but most of the vegetation I saw was non-flowering trees and other plants. It’s possible that some of them just weren’t in bloom at this time of year, but I’m pretty sure that most never show anything that a normal human being would identify as a flower. (Botanists might have a different definition of “flower” than I do. I don’t know.)

I think there were more flowers in the Cloud Forest than in the Flower Dome. Why not just call the latter the Vegetation Dome? “Flower Dome”. Hah. False advertising, I’d say.

The “Flower Dome” (harrumph) has an opaque walled building wholly within it. When I was there it had a temporary exhibit called “Impressions of Monet.” It’s an exhibit on the expressionist painter, Claude Monet. (“Impressions of Monet” pun intended, I imagine.)

The first room contained some panels with scant information on Monet and many of his impressionist contemporaries, along with some textual vignettes about what was going on at the time. There was a room with a few Monet paintings. Another room had fake flowers arranged in the style of a Monet painting. On one wall in that room, there was also a blown-up copy of a painting that looked like it could have been a Monet, but I’m an art ignoramus, so I’m not sure.

Another room had videos and photographs that weren’t Monets, but which I think were intentionally derivative of Monet and the other impressionists.

A final room had several white screens of different sizes forming a curvy wall around the room. There were also some screens in the center of the room. Video projectors, one for each screen, displayed a coordinated show on the screens with Monet paintings interspersed with videos of real-life Monet-type scenes, quotes from Monet and other impressionists, and altered Monet images, such as to render them into a 3D appearance, along with other creative images to enhance the show.

Several small orb-shaped lightbulbs hung in a sweeping pattern from the ceiling. At a few points in the show, they came on and changed colour in sync with the show.

Seating in the theatre was primarily on low cushions on the floor and a couple of very low beanbags that weren’t much more than low cushions. One elderly couple had simple chairs and watched it while sitting on them. I stood. I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to get up from the cushions or beanbags, and that my back wouldn’t be broken from the experience. After watching for a while, an attendant said to me, “You look frightfully old and decrepit, I doubt your legs would support you for much longer, and you might even be having a near-death experience, would you like a chair to sit on?”

That first part might have just been in my head. It’s possible she only asked me if I wanted a chair. I said yes, please. She brought me a chair of the same type the elderly couple had. I thanked her profusely. Young whippersnapper!

Raffles Hotel

The guidebook I’m using said that riffraff isn’t allowed in the beautiful lobby of the historic Singapore Raffles Hotel. In truth, it didn’t say “riffraff.” It just said that only people staying at the hotel are allowed in.

(I assume staff are allowed in too. If you pay all that money, you probably don’t want to have to clean your room and perform for yourself all of the other services that one expects in a hotel.)

When I planned this trip, I did consider staying at Raffles. It’s a brand in the hotel group where I have loyalty status that gets me perks and a little money off my rooms. However, I forget how much the rooms were, but it was way more than my budget.

This is why I want to get millions of people a day to visit this journal. I want to slap advertising on it and earn enough money that I could afford to stay at Raffles without having a nervous breakdown over the price. Unfortunately, rather than millions a day, I don’t think I’ve ever had more than 50 pageviews on this blog in a day. And when I’m not travelling, five pageviews is a really big day. So, I have a wee bit of a way to go before I can make that sort of money, or any money for that matter, off this blog.

Despite not being able to go inside, the guidebook said that the exterior was worth a look. So I went. I got close enough to the entrance such that I could read the sign saying that entry was, indeed, restricted to guests. (It said nothing about letting staff in, but maybe they’re supposed to take that as a given.)

The building is stately and brutally white. How often do they paint it to keep it such a pure white?

Well, that’s it. That’s all he wrote. I need to get to sleep. I’ll have more from Singapore tomorrow, and for a few more days to come.