Singapore Botanic Gardens
I spent the entire morning, and then some, at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. It’s huge and beautiful.
In addition to the general lushness of tropical trees and other vegetation, there are also specialty areas that include the Ethnobotany Garden, National Orchid Garden, Ginger Garden, and Learning Forest.
Most of the Singapore Botanic Gardens is free. The one exception is a separate entry fee for the National Orchid Garden.
I was excited to visit the botanic garden not just because it was free, but also because I knew it had to be fantastic. It’s one of only 10.42 bazillion or so UNESCO-listed World Heritage Sites.
And it was indeed fantastic. Myriad paths wend lazily through the beautiful forests, lawns, flowers and shrubs, and beside and around a few small lakes and a couple of lily ponds.
Before going much further, because it will probably come up once or twice below and I don’t want it to catch you by surprise, the weather for the time covered in this post lacked precipitation, but it was again sultry. My usage of “sultry” in the preceding sentence is a euphemism for “almost unbearably hot and humid.” I say “almost” only because, as these words prove, I did live to tell the tale. But it was touch and go for a while.
A programming note that you probably won’t care one whit about: I usually split my daily journal entries into two, one for before lunch, and one for after lunch. I will still post two today, but the first, this one, will extend past lunch. I had lunch in a gloriously air-conditioned restaurant in Singapore Botanic Gardens’ Ginger Garden. I then spent well more than an hour exploring the Ginger Garden and the Learning Forest before leaving the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
Rather than split the gardens across two posts, I put it all here. This afternoon’s post will, therefore, probably be quite short.
Ethnobotany Garden
The Ethnobotany Garden in the Singapore Botanic Gardens is lush, but that applies to pretty well all of the Singapore Botanic Gardens. So if I use “lush” everywhere it’s appropriate you’re going to get even more bored than you usually do reading these posts. That might lead to a situation requiring resuscitation equipment. You probably don’t have any nearby, so I’ll call the Ethnobotany Garden lush and you can just mentally apply it, or one of its synonyms, to everything in the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
Beside or in front of many of the plants and trees in the garden there were small signs naming the species and listing the purposes for which the plants are put, including nutritional, medicinal, ceremonial, and for making clothing and shelter.
There’s also a small Ethnobotany Centre in the garden that provides more information about ethnobotany. More importantly, it also provides air conditioning.
In the centre, I learned that “Ethnobotany is the study of the relationship between people and plants, and how plants have shaped human culture in turn. The field spans cultural, domestic, religious and medicinal aspects, and much more.”
Before today, I didn’t even know that there was such a thing as ethnobotany, let alone what it was called. Now I do. I tend to gain a lot of knowledge when I travel. If I keep travelling, eventually I’d be a genius if it weren’t for the fact that I have a memory like a large-holed thingy that you use to drain water from foods like pasta, whatever those thingies are called.
National Orchid Garden at the Singapore Botanic Gardens
As I mentioned, the National Orchid Garden is the only paid attraction in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. For seniors, admission is quite inexpensive—S$2 for locals and S$3 for foreigners. That compares to the full adult price of S$5 and S$15. I have a theory about the large difference between the regular adult and decrepit adult prices. I think they figure that, “There’s no way those old farts are going to last for traipsing around in this oppressive weather. We’ll give them a prorated price for the time they have before they pop off.”
But the joke’s on them. I survived.
Despite bearing a price, the National Orchid Garden is not apart from the Singapore Botanic Gardens. It’s well within the grounds. However, it’s large enough that it would make a respectable botanical garden on its own. It offers untold numbers of species of orchids, with lots of winding paths working their way through them.
I’m a bit confused about orchids, as I am about a great many things. Different species of orchids can look very different and have unique features. I mean, just look at the collage of orchid pictures I posted in this section. It’s hard to believe they’re all from the same general family, isn’t it?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that some orchids are better than others. All orchids have worth. They should be proud of who they are and fully self-actualized in their orchidness. But, considering how varied the species appear to be to me, what makes an orchid an orchid as opposed to say, a rose, tulip or rhododendron? I’m sure a botanist could tell me. But I’m not a botanist.
Fortunately, some orchids prefer cooler weather. To accommodate them, the National Orchid Garden has a glassed-in building that is air-conditioned. I spent more time looking at those species than some of the ones outside.
Praised be to the orchid god for creating species that require weather cooler than the tropical climate here in Singapore.
By the way, there is a building in the National Orchid Garden that I think might be an event space of some sort. It has a lawn in front of it. When I was there, the building and lawn was closed off and an outdoor wedding was in progress. The audio of the service was considerably amplified and I’m pleased to report that the allegedly happy couple did, indeed, promise to love, honour and cherish until death did them part. Good luck with that, you two.
Ginger Garden
As I mentioned, I had lunch in a restaurant in the Ginger Garden in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. It was near where I entered the Ginger Garden. The restaurant offered both indoor and outdoor seating, with the outdoor seating option larger than the indoor one. Most people at the restaurant chose to eat outside, proving that there are many more masochists in this world than I ever imagined. I chose the air-conditioned alternative.
After lunch, I explored the Ginger Garden. It confused me.
Of the signs in front of the species in the Ginger Garden, only one that I saw (I didn’t read them all) had the word ginger in the name of the species or the description of it, Cheilocostus speciosus, aka Crepe Ginger.
Some of the plants bore exquisite flowers. Before today, my only familiarity with ginger has been with ginger root or its shaved or minced form, not with pwhat’s above the ground. None of what I saw looked like anything I could imagine ginger plants looking like, in no small part because I couldn’t possibly imagine what they could look like. So, as I said, I was confused.
After wandering around for a while, I gave up on trying to understand it all and left the Ginger Garden at a different spot from where I entered it. There, I saw a large sign that provided information about ginger. It told me that, “The ginger order contains many plants that are used by people for a wide range of different purposes. Bananas and plantains are staple roods in many tropical areas. Ginger, turmeric and cardamom are important spices with medicinal uses as well. Ornamental plants, cut flowers, fibres, starches and many other products are also obtained from gingers and their relatives.”
Even the bird-of-paradise plant, which is native to South Africa is in this group.
Oh, I almost forgot. I had a strange encounter in the Ginger Garden. A slow-waddling lizard crossed the path I was on. And, when I say slow, I do mean slow. It took a long time for it to cross the narrow path. I waited patiently, if only because I was both fascinated by and frightened of it. I’m here to tell you that a four-legged-waddle is one of the weirdest gaits I’ve ever had the privilege to see.
I don’t know when it first started doing it, but if you look at a photo of a plant or animal and sometimes a landmark in Apple Photos and tap on the information button, it can often tell you what it is. I tried that with the picture I took of the lizard and Apple Photos told me it’s an Asian water monitor lizard. So now you, and I, know.
Learning Forest
According to a sign at its entrance, the Learning Forest “is an experimental forest for learning about forest ecology and conserving biodiversity. It encompasses both lowland rainforest and wetland habitats, covering an area equivalent to 60 football fields.”
Earlier, I promised not to use the word “lush” or one of its synonyms again, but I feel it’s particularly warranted for the Learning Forest. It is verdant and a pleasure to stroll through.
The Learning Forest contains a wide variety of trees and other plant species, including several different types of palms. I invite you to compare and contrast the two palms in the accompanying picture. One is green. The other is flesh-coloured. One typically grows in natural surroundings. The other appreciates nature in small doses. One resides in the Learning Forest of the Singapore Botanic Gardens. The other lives in Toronto, Canada. One has a sense of humour. The other can’t photosynthesize.
In the Singapore Botanic Gardens, and also at the Gardens by the Bay I visited on my first day here, there were signs at several points saying that otters may cross paths. The signs also give instructions on how to act if they do. For example, don’t talk loudly, don’t take flash photography, don’t get too close, don’t feed them, and if you have a pet keep it on a short leash.
I didn’t see any otters at the Gardens by the Bay. Nor did I see any in the Singapore Botanic Gardens until I was close to leaving the Learning Forest which was at the end of my visit to the Singapore Botanic Garden. Beside the path I was on, there was a small patch of sand and what looked like it might be a shelter, a kind of manmade cave, specifically for otters because there on the sand near it was a bevy of otters.
I didn’t get close to the bevy, but I did stop to take a picture. What I didn’t see was that an otter was hiding under a bench that I did get close to. It leaped a frightening leap and made something of a barking sound, scaring the heck out of me. It then made a mad dash for the other lolling otters. So, that was an experience.
There’s a lake beside the Learning Forest called “Swan Lake.” The singular, swan, is appropriate. I saw only one swan on the lake. And despite watching it for a while, it refused to stage a ballet. Swan Lake? Harrumph.
Shortly after visiting Swan Lake I left Singapore Botanic Gardens.
Aside
Not intermittent fasting
The only times that I’ve ever tried intermittent fasting was when I was younger and still living at my parents’ place. I did it from sundown to sundown, but one day a year, Yom Kippur. It was the worst day of the year, particularly because my mom was a great cook.
I stopped fasting when I was on my own. That’s ironic because I’m an awful cook.
This morning at the Singapore Botanic Garden I practiced the opposite of intermittent fasting, intermittent slowing. The oppressive heat and humidity slowed my gait almost to a stop. And I made a few stops at shaded benches.
I’m reminded of something I learned at the Singapore City Gallery but forgot to report in that post. Singapore is only 150 kilometres from the equator. When I heard that, I thought, “That’s impossible. The equator runs through Ecuador. We’re way more than 150 kilometres from Ecuador.” Then I remembered, Oh, yeah. The equator runs around the belly of the globe like an infinitely thin belt. Never mind.”
Sometimes I can be a bit ditzy. Fortunately, I can blame it on jet lag today. I have to travel more so I’ll always have that excuse.
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Wow again! That was one luscious blog. I even jumped at the story of the otter. (Well, a little, and not that anyone could see, a kind of literary jolt, you might say. A combination of an impressionable imagination and your narrative vividness). Never thought that creatures who could be so impossibly cute in the water could also be so unpredictably scary. Such flora and fauna! And I learned a lot. I did know about orchids, but I didn’t know about the vast genus of ginger, or palm for that matter. I have to hand it to you, a riveting lesson, that one, not least in the evidence of what happens to a human brain transplanted from a northern clime to the sultry tropics after enduring time-altering travel. Fascinating. Reading your blog and seeing your photos, I would love to spend the day at the Singapore Botanical Gardens, but I would rather read about the humid heat. Holding on to what’s left of my spryness is some compensation for the dark chill of a Canadian November. As a writer I admire might say, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
If the otter gave you a jolt, imagine what it did to me.
Learning new things is a wonderful aspect of travel. It’s a pity that I’ll remember little of it.
There is a narrow range of heat/humidity that I enjoy. Neither this nor brutal winters lie within that. But at least, as you say, spryness, or what passes for spryness in a man my age, is more likely in the cold.
Travel blogger and his most faithful reader stun me almost into speechlessness (wordlessness?) with their lively, clever, delightful, colorful, and lush language. All I have to add concerns dealing with the equatorial heat and humidity while the traveler is out of doors in Singapore. Carry water with you and drink it before you are thirsty, before you stop for victuals, before you dehydrate and become one with the soil of, say, the Singapore Botanical Garden. Carry moist towelettes with you and use them frequently to mop sweaty brow and neck, and apply them periodically to pulse points at wrists, elbows, or knees: the mopping allows room for more sweat to make its presence known; pulse point application makes you feel for a fleeting instant that your blood is not aboil within. Tut-tutting my obliviousness, a local who accompanied me on a tour of the Singapore Botanical Garden on my first ever day in Singapore scurried around to equip me with said water and towelettes before letting me step an inch out of doors. Just saying.
Thanks for the advice about dealing with the heat and humidity. I’ll probably follow little of it because I’m an idiot. It’s a pity I don’t know any locals who can act as a Sherpa to help me with that sort of thing,