Last week, I blogged about our first visit to Gardens by the Bay. One week later, we've made it back a second time, and this time round, we went into the conservatories! Thanks to a dear friend who told me about concession tickets she's got, so we only paid $10/adult and $6/kid. It was totally worth it!
And can I say, even though many people said that the conservatories are over-rated, I like them a lot! Cloud Forest, especially, felt like a paradise of some kind. Not that I've been to Paradise before, but with the mist, coolness and faint music playing in that place, it really felt like a piece of heaven.
As we were waiting for some friends, we explored the outdoor area of the Gardens by the Bay again, but went to another section we didn't manage to cover the first time round. So many more interesting places to visit!
We found this dome-shaped pavilion, which worked really well as an echo space. Many kids were making weird noises inside just to hear their own echoes, mine included.
It was such a nice and comfortable feeling strolling in the gardens in the evening... Definitely not as warm as in the morning & afternoon.
I have no idea why a stone horse suddenly appears in the middle of nowhere, but it made the kids excited for a photo, so that's all it matters.
Then it was time for the conservatories! We first ventured into the Flower Dome, which was a huge treasury of colourful flowers of all kinds and types from different countries in the world. My mum is a lover of flowers, and I think she might go hysterical there if I bring her.
There are two levels in the Flower Dome. I absolutely love how spacious and wide this whole place was.
Quite a lot of interesting-looking plants and flowers around, and the kids had fun touching them.
Joey brought along her camera and she snapped every flower she liked. Gave her a sense of mission too. Haha..
Love the shape of these leaves. :)
Lots of pretty flowers in the Flower Dome, really. Here is a collage of some of the flowers I captured (Click to enlarge any photo):
On to the Cloud Forest! The signature waterfall, of course. It was so high and magnificent! I was standing so far away from it, and was already freezing cold. Baby Jayne went all the way to the barricade, and got herself all damp and wet. But she was so happy she got splattered by the icy cold waterfall!
I was glad we were inside the Cloud Forest at night time. It definitely felt very magical with the lights everywhere. The black heart-shaped pathways in the following picture were actually the skywalk. There are different levels of walkways inside the Cloud Forest, and people with phobia of heights might find it a little scary. =P
Kids of course have no phobia of heights. While many adults were spotted looking apprehensive walking on those pathways, the kids were practically jogging and dashing their way through. The pathways were well-fenced up and very sturdy though, so there was really nothing much to worry about.
At different levels, you could catch a different view of the waterfall. Pretty awesome.
There was also a section where you can see different types of beautiful crystals and some were in raw forms, which was quite interesting.
The final section of the tour in Cloud Forest was the educational short documentary on the reason for the existence of Gardens by the Bay. Ignorant me had thought that the Supertrees were purely for decoration purposes. Turned out, they play a critical role in slowing down global warming effects. The documentary explained that in about 100 years, the temperatures of Earth would have increased by 5 degree celsius as a whole. There is an urgent need to slow down global warming, otherwise, Earth will eventually become uninhabitable. Wow, I learnt something!
What a great evening we had at Gardens by the Bay. :) I enjoyed myself in the conservatories, especially the Cloud Forest, and my kids did too. But, honestly speaking, I don't think I would be back any time soon. Once is more than enough. :)
