Susan's Blog: Complete Guide to Singapore Botanic Gardens( Part 1)

Dates of visit: 21 Aug, 2 Sep, 12 Oct 2014

PROLOGUE

Maybe I did go to Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG) with my parents when I was child, don't have much impression of it any more. Had wanted to visit but hubby always told me got nothing to see, it's just a boring garden blah blah blah.... An opportunity came when I was invited to Daylong Sunscreens Launch event held in the garden. After the event, I spend the whole day in this garden and found that....

HE BLUFFED ME

Now, I realized that he sort of "hates" tourist attractions due to scope of work. He brought guests to SBG repeatedly, but what he saw is always the entrance and car park. He did not explore but insisted that's nothing to see.

Have something or nothing to see depends on how you look at it and how you feel about it. Others may find it boring but people like me is totally fascinated with SBG.

Human is like a tree in a way. Each has a trunk and a green canopy, but each looks different. They have different leaves, bears different flowers and fruits; they stretches out to the sun and rain in a different manner. Whereas for human, we drive towards our dreams, reaching out for our goals in differently.

I found beauty in these differences although I have very minimal knowledge on plants.

SBG is also a habitat of animals. Some were timid peeking around, some walked across my path like bosses. I had encounter lizards from as tiny as 5 inches to larger 1 meter ones. Swans, ducks, different species of birds, large fishes swimming freely in the ponds and many squirrels! However, I did not see any monkeys during my visits. These "encounters" are some how different from looking at caged animals in the zoo. It's thrilling, it's exciting and it's sometimes unexpected. It's a shiok feel of FREEDOM!!

All these non-professional photos that you will be seeing are taking during a few visits. During one of the visits, I bumped into a young lady, Mariam from France.

Some of the photos that you see me in it were taken by her and a few were taken by Tiffany Yong.

Compiling and re-arranging thousands of photos together so that it makes sense to readers (and myself) was quite a challenge. May or may not be appreciated, able to compose an almost complete guide on Singapore Botanic Gardens gave me a great sense of satisfaction.

I feed my body with food

and

I feed my soul with nature's green

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Singapore Botanic Gardens

1 Cluny Road

Singapore 259569

Opening hours 5am - 12am

www.sbg.org.sg

www.facebook.com/SingaporeBotanicGardens

This vintage English style garden of 74 hectare was found in 1859. Beautifully baptized by history, SBG it's very different from Gardens By The Bay.

For larger map click HERE

As you may seen from the above map, SBG spreads it's area in a longish manner, it's divided into 3 sections -

Tanglin Core, Central Core and Bukit Timah Core.

Within each core, there are various attractions to explore, even little areas not high-light on the map can be surprisingly stunning too. Before visiting, I never know there so much in SBG. This garden is awesome, really.

I always enter from Bukit Timah Gate, so will start my pictures rolling from Bukit Timah Core (see from the right side of the map).

Bukit Timah Core -

Bukit Timah Core the is smallest section compare to the other 2 cores. Next to the MRT station, this section is easily accessible to most visitors. It's very lively during weekends, with both local and foreign picnickers. Personally, I prefer the tranquility state on weekdays.

Major attractions were:

* Trellis Garden

* Eco-Garden and Eco-Lake

* Foliage Garden

* Jacob Ballas Children's Garden

Mini attractions were:

* Bougainvilleas & Bamboo collection

* Fruit and Nut Trees collection

Trellis Garden

Trellis Garden showcases climber plants on many such triangular structures.

Sandpaper Vine

Eco-Garden

Prominent landmark of Eco-Garden.

Love & Peace Flower by Madam Anna Tzarev

Kindergarden children were here for excursion ^.^

Cute shelter.

We may not have Snow Lotus (冰山雪莲), but we have white hibiscus.

Found this white beauty near a public toilet at Melati Gate, heehee....

No worries, I checked before and after I sat on the tree, to make sure it's not injured by my weight >.<

No idea why it's tree trunk grows this way instead of normal vertical.

Lol at it's name, Dead Rat Tree. The trunk is like an elephant's leg though. Bottle Tree is another name which is more familiar to us.

Here's fruit!

ps. excuse me, have to "stamp" my cleavage >.<

It's skin is similar to kiwi fruit.

Triplets!

Bouganivilleas Collection

Son pounding onto his father lolxx..

Bamboo Collection

Giant Thorny Bamboo

Not all bamboos are for panda bears, especially this Giant Thorny Bamboo. The thorns aren't very sharp but pokes.

And near the bamboo, big lizard spotted!

I had a great time tailing it lolxx...

Fruit and Nut Trees Collection

Squirrel cuties and birds are often spotted on fruit trees. Most of them are very shy and timid, hides away whenever they see human.

Just stay very quiet, not to alert them, they could be capture in your camera.

Butter Fruit Tree

Butter fruits

Name of fruit tree - Assam Kandis

Eco-Lake

Kiddo attracting a herd of pigeons and ducks.

Feeding is actually not allowed as animals might get aggressive. However, this looked pretty heart warming. Our little ones nowadays are being hooked onto gadgets of all sizes, they should be out to feel the living, just like this.

Happily eating, they weren't afraid of people.

Eco-lake is also home of black swans from Western Australia.

Only saw one and spend more than half an hour observing it.

It's a big black bully biting smaller ducks, terrapins and even big fishes if they were in it's way.

The duck at the rear left hand was actually "running for it's life" as the black swan kept biting it lolxx... so cute!

I was waiting for it to walk out of the lake but it didn't.

See that big fish? It's more than a foot long and there were many in the lake.

There are a few shoreline plants which we don't get to see daily. These plants rooted at the border of the lake like a fence between land and water, but in a natural way.

Sturdy arrowhead plants around 3 feet tall.