The Travel Trip

In the center of the city lies the Singapore Botanical Gardens, a favorite of mine because that’s where you’ll find the Royal Orchid Gardens.  It’s a respite away from city life with ponds and bridges, gazebos, flora and fauna, and walking paths for anyone fortunate enough to find their way here.  If you want a picnic, this is a great place for it, a place where you can walk on the grass and it’s even encouraged.

Near Orchid Road, the large Botanical Gardens is an easy walk from shopping centers and five star singapore hotels, perhaps just ten minutes or so from Tanglin Mall.  Certainly, it’s a wonderful place to simply sit back and relax and take in all the beautiful tropical plants.  The banyan trees are amazing, and there’s a swan pond, filled with fish and turtles and, yes, swans, too!  If you can spare a few crumbs of bread, the swans will love it.

However, the centerpiece of the part is the National Orchid Garden.  You have to pay a small entrance fee, but it’s definitely worth it.  There’s so many orchids.  I was surprised to see they have a section of orchids with the names of celebrities — although most celebrities seem to be politicians that have visited Singapore at one time or another.

Lots of open space for the kids to run in, and, some nights, there are special events — often performances given by the Singapore Orchestra.  Occasionally, they show movies in the park, too.

The Botanical Gardens have a few restaurants, too, including Halia (which means ginger), and Au Jardin (a fancy French restaurant).  Au Jardin is very nice, but for me the more interesting place was Halia, which was a cafe surrounded by a ginger garden.

If you don’t want to take the ten to fifteen minute walk to get here, you can try out the mass transportation.  Since the MRT doesn’t come here, your best choice is to use the bus.  Arriving from the city?  Try these lines: 7, 77, 106, 123, and others.  If you think a taxi might work best for you, then be sure to have them come to the Visitor Center in back, but when you leave, go to the exit on Holland road, because it’s hard to get taxis from the Visitor Center.  You may be lucky and get a cab as one drops other people off, but I wouldn’t count on it!

Related posts:

1. The Kampong Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami
2. Restaurants and Dining in Singapore Shopping Centers
3. The Ethics of Singapore Business
4. Aspects of Singapore Hotels, Restaurants and Cuisine
5. Lin Hsin Hsin’s Virtual Singapore

Posted on November 16th, 2009 by admin
Filed under: Travel