It as been a day or two that you’ve arrived in Singapore and one thing that you’ve noticed is that not one business, even malls, won’t open until 11 in the morning. Sometimes you just want to sleep the entire morning and wait for real things to happen, but there is one establishment that is open from 5 in the morning all the way to midnight, which is the Singapore Botanic Gardens. During this time of the day. The last remaining thing that you’ll witness in downtown Singapore is a retreat that is filled with dogs, joggers, and practitioners of tai-chi.
As you’d expect from Botanic Gardens – you get to wander through the virgin rainforest, which is what will welcome you when you go through the main boardwalk coming from the Upper Palm Valley Road. You also get to witness their many-colored orchid species collection over a thousand, not to mention they also have 2,000 hybrids as well. When you are done here, you can head straight to the food court just near the Tanglin Gate if you want to try out what the locals eat traditionally for breakfast such as toast with coconut jam, soft-boiled eggs, and coffee.
But the exploration of Singapore’s Botanical Gardens doesn’t end there. Why is the place a must visit when you arrive the country for the first time?
You get to have an audience with some VIPs – VIPs refer to Very Important Plants before you jump off from your seat and book your ticket in Singapore. But why do they relate to these plants as such, anyway? Going to the National Orchid Garden, you get to see the names of VIPs such as the Paravanda Nelson Mandela and Vanda William Catherine. This place has a long tradition in naming the orchids after celebrities and dignitaries that have a significant contribution to society.
You get to witness the rubber boom’s birthplace – the rubber boom of Southeast Asia is located in this Botanic Gardens. Experts say that Southeast Asia would’ve been different or at least not the way it is now without the Botanic Gardens. Back in the year 1877, the rubber seedlings were imported from Kew Gardens in London, where it was then cultivated in this very same Garden.
You get to enjoy the atmosphere of England right in the tropics – to those who cannot afford a trip to England just yet; you can witness a glimpse of it in Singapore’s Botanic Gardens. With the sprawling grounds, natural distribution of its plants and the meandering paths, this place is the only garden situated in Southeast Asia that has the English style landscape. Lawrence Niven was the one who designed the gardens, wherein his work reflected on the influence of the pleasures of the English garden and parks that are evident in England itself. The layout has survived for many ages.
Directions to us.