random snippets of life: tour of singapore: National Orchid Garden (with a very cool model!)

19 March 2009

We were supposed to go to botanic gardens for a surprise picnic to celebrate Karen's 18th birthday. Sharon and I wanted to bring joel and chloe, who wanted to bring shermin, which then made it necessary for aunty carrie to come along, who also brought sean and sheryl, who then called sayuri. and ah ma decided to come along too.

we finally arrived at botanic gardens, after a long-drawn process of trying to get karen out of the house first before we could pack everything. It was a long long walk to the amphiteatre, where we were supposed to lay in ambush. This is the first time i'm visiting the gardens again after a good 5-6 years, and it really does look slightly different. It was ah ma's first time there too, and along the walk, she commented (in hokkien), 'what's there to see here? all grass and trees...'

until...

we went by the national orchid garden and it seemed that we were still quite early. I offered to go in with Ah ma, since it was free for students during the school holidays. it costs $5 for adults, so mummy stayed out and handled the kids.

in we went, it was quite big, and surprisingly, it was a very pleasant and colourful experience. there really was a large variety of orchids and some other plants too, and i think my grandmother really loves flowers. i tried to make her pose for pictures and it was personal satisfaction when i got one with a smiling face, haha.

a bit about the place: It is located in the western end of the botanic gardens, and is about maybe 6-7 acres. There are over 1000 species and 2000 hybrids in the collection, and the landscaping is very well-done. there was also a section for VIP orchids, where special breeds were presented to visiting dignitaries and an 'orchidarium', which housed the more exotic species i believe.

here are some pictures:

at the entrance... i really wanted a picture of the 2 of us and the background by my arms weren't long enough...

so i got a random schoolboy to help us, but he did a terrible job... the above is edited, and still quite bad. heh. so i gave up and decided to be the photographer from hence on...

touching the petals and telling me about how the orchid is one of the hardiest flowers around, and what some of the other plants in the garden were for...

i made her go into this huge birdcage thingy... part of the rather interesting landscaping.

plus, there was a big photo sign, which means, 'TAKE YOUR TOURISTY PICTURE HERE'. so we did.

presenting... the national flower of singapore... vanda miss jochaim...!

inside the orchidarium, there were interesting breeds...

this was like 5 mins after mum called to tell us to get out of there cos karen was coming... we were trying to find the exit, and saw this mirror. some quick thinking resulted in this, but we were kinda still moving so it's blur... wasted :| she was very amused indeed.

my ah ma is so cute, half way through, she whipped out her handphone from her handbag and told me to take a picture of her and the flowers, but i didn't know how to read the chinese words so i couldnt figure out how to activate the camera, so i used my phone instead. just put the photos onto her phone just now, it's proudly sitting on both her's and my ah gong's phone desktops! :)