And More Singapore!

Well in between the Thai food and looking for air conditioners, The Sunday program was the new "Gardens on The Bay" built behind the huge Sands Casino complex that faces downtown.

There are the Avatar like Supertrees here and two big eco domes.

 This is the back of the Sands hotel with the big 'Sky Park' on the top.

 And these are the SuperTrees. As they evolve the panels of greenery will mature and they generate their own power, heat is radiated from the top and cooler air brought to the bottom, the whole area has it's own rain basin - there's enough thermal and solar energy to power the two big glass domes...

 In the distance is Marina Bay.

 There's a walk way among them and a restaurant in the biggest one.

 Don't be fooled by the pics there are more than 3.

 These Papua masks and Vanuatu ones too are scattered in the park.

 This is the cloud forest dome, cooler than outside and because it is sealed off, it has it's own humidity making machinery.

 The plant growth is lush and it is refreshingly cooler than outside :) The higher you go up the fake 'mountain' the cooler it gets!

 Down through the mist to the peons below. Perhaps coming here on a Sunday wasn't clever - lots of people :(

 Inside of the mountain has those limestone rocks that the Chinese love, always looking for shapes and meaning in the erosion they suffer.

 The scale of these things is hard to show.

 The spider like walk way sprays mist all over.

 The second dome is devoted to plants from many different climate zones... desert to Mediterranean though, no northern forests :)

 Bottle trees like in Sydney!

 As ever with Singapore, flooded with orchids and even orange trees for the year of the snake.

 Quite the park, I spent about 6 hours walking around, very nice :)

 More sushi for dinner, and a walk through Chinatown - which is essentially where the trip began. This fellow has a huge audience singing old Chinese tunes. I could have bought a CD but my hearing couldn't take it.

 Oh another out of place shot - thanks Blogger.

 Durian Pancakes! For someone I work with, Chinatown was full of the smell of Durian and 3 Thai Mangoes is 10 Singapore dollars.

 The building below has coloured plant pots on the sides!

 No Durian allowed in store!  ;) Sorry Christine!

 And back to the Subway to get my bags at the hotel and ataxi to the airport. I fly at midnight for Tokyo.

 Tokyo... not sure if i will be able to leave the airport as my bags will be checked right through - I am no longer staying there. I will try though - I have a 12 hour layover... eugh! On the way to the airport the taxi driver was bemoaning immigration of recent years and he dropped me off at the wrong terminal, so off I went to get the monorail to the correct one...

And we sped off in the spookily quiet A380 headed up over Manila and on to Tokyo. Even at Narita airport though they have good sushi :) so whatever happens I should be fine... Happy Travels!