Singapore Botanic Gardens

This week has turned into a very garden orientated week as on Saturday we went to the Singapore Botanic Gardens.  As I mentioned before my fiance went to a course with his work there earlier in the week and had said what a lovely place it was so it was decided that was where we'd spend our Saturday.

He was right in that it really is a lovely place to spend some time.  It was so peaceful that it was hard to believe we were so close to Orchard Road.  The gardens are full of amazing tropical plants and are so lush and green, having been here and the Chinese and Japanese gardens earlier this week it is easy to see why Singapore is also known as the garden city.

The gardens were established around 1860 and some of the areas we wandered around included an area known as Swan lake (fittingly there were some lovely swans on the lake), an area devoted to plants in the ginger family, an ecological garden, a bonsai area and much more.

Within the gardens there is also the National Orchid garden.  We didn't do that on Saturday as I'll be honest we must have walked a fair distance and we were both a bit tired but I definitely plan to take a trip back there soon.

Asides from the swans there were plenty of other birds to be seen and the lakes were teeming with terrapins.  The plants in the gardens and by the lakes also attracted some beautiful coloured dragonflies and butterflies.

The gardens also have a nice selection of places to eat which I was glad about as the walking ensured I had worked up a good appetite.  However no fish for me this time, I played it safe and had a tried and tasted plate of rice.  There were prawns in my rice though so I suppose it wasn't a totally seafood free meal.  There was also a lovely gift shop which sold plants amongst other things.  These are something I want to get as our balcony (apart from one small cactus plant) looks a bit bare at the moment and I'd like to buy some more exotic plants.  However I decided we could probably buy cheaper plants somewhere else so for now our little cactus plant will have to suffice.

After our trip we walked back a little way a long Orchard Road and ended up in the Hard Rock cafe where a yummy cocktail went down a treat!