World Cruise--A Cloud Forest and Flower Dome

Instead of making the long walk to the MRT station our second day in Singapore, we opted to take the complimentary shuttle bus that would drop us off near the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. It was still a bit of a walk to get across the park area of Gardens By The Bay to the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome. The day promised to be hot again.

When we got to the Flower Dome, I was glad we’d bought our tickets ahead of time. The line to purchase was growing. The tickets were not very expensive once you did the exchange between currencies. The combo ticket for both was 32 Singapore dollars/person which worked out to $23USD each.

I hoped the flower dome would be tolerable as far as heat went. Many times you go into a flower display and it’s way too warm and humid. Not the case here. It was very pleasant and surprisingly cool. The Flower Dome was huge. We’ve never been in an inside botanical garden this large.

Trees of all sorts towered above us and between them were all sorts of plants and flowers. We started to the right which took us through the succulents. I’m not a fan of cactus but there was an amazing variety of them not to mention the most unusual succulents I’ve ever seen, all shapes and sizes.

The little brown "stones"
are actually plants.

We followed the winding path and found ourselves in several other types of gardens of plants and flowers from all over the world. Mediterranean Garden. South American Garden. California Garden. And on and on.

The main attraction for this month however was the Japanese Garden that was full of cherry blossoms and other flowering trees. It also included some beautiful and unique displays of Japanese garden ornaments and fountains, the most unusual of which was the water that dripped through bamboo tubes to fill another tube that would dip when it was full and send a hammer into a gong.

It took a good hour to go through the Flower Dome and I’m sure you could spend even more time there if you inspected the plants more closely. We were done though and headed out to the Cloud Forest which was in the neighboring dome.

The Cloud Forest was much taller as it covered a huge “mountain” of plants in the center. A walkway that could be accessed by a lift (elevator) wound its way around the mountain of plants and through other displays as well.

The information I had found on the cloud forest showed a misty cloud that surrounded the mountain to give you the feel of what it would be like to be in a real cloud forest. While I could see the large tubes that would probably produce the misty cloud, there was no mist coming out except for a couple of small fountains at the start of our journey.

For me, the most fascinating part of the Cloud Forest was the display of orchids. There were the usual orchids and unusual varieties but the most intriguing display was of miniature orchids, so small you had to view them through a magnifying glass.

There was also a place called the Crystal Garden that had long strands of plastic that changed colors from white to blues. Inside the area was an interactive display much like the immersive display that toured in many parts of the world that was a way to step into a Van Gogh painting. 

As we entered the Crystal Garden, the floor upon which was projected a video of water with frogs and fish swimming through under your feet made you feel as though you were walking on water. The amazing part was that as you stepped, it appeared you were moving the water with your steps.

Bob was having a Big Mac attack by the time we finished the Cloud Forest and the day before, we had spotted a MacDonald’s nearby inside the park. We found our way there and ordered our usual, one meal and an extra sandwich and drink. We were surprised later when we learned how inexpensive it was after the currency exchange.

There was no way we were going to take the MRT back to the ship. The walk the day before, while in the A/C was way too long and then the walk to the ship outside would be very warm, hot even. While it was a bit of a walk to get back to the cruise shuttle pick up, it still didn’t seem as long.

And, did I mention that we didn’t have to use the escalators in the MRT station? What was wrong with that? Well, you have never seen such a fast escalator. Trying to judge your step onto the moving stairway was the most dangerous thing we’ve done in a while. Unfortunately, we discovered later that one of the friends Bob played Pickleball with on the ship wasn’t so fortunate. His wife hesitated and when she did, he fell. Six hours later, he was well bandaged but not up for Pickleball for a while.

As we ate dinner, we watched a tug boat as it lurked nearby waiting for our ship to move on. It looked a little eerie as you couldn’t see anyone on it. Soon enough we were on our way. There would be two more days of ports before we would get some sea days. It could be a little tiring especially since it was predicted to be hot and humid again.