Things To Do and Spots Not To Miss At Singapore Botanic Garden

The Singapore Botanic Garden is so vast that you need a day to explore the whole area. In fact, it owns the largest plants exhibit in the world, over 60,000 in number. Thus, making the Singapore Botanic as the only tropical garden to be honoured by the UNESCO world heritage (2016).

Certainly, there are numerous of things you can do in the garden. As for me, here are the 10 things I enjoy every time I visit the garden:

1. Admiring the greenery and all the pretty flowers it behold.

2. Taking photos of every beautiful sites we find.

3. Relaxing while sitting at the bench or laughing with friends in a spread of cloth in the lawn. 4. Observing and appreciating the fishes and swans at the lake and pond.

Also, the birds, butterflies and chickens flying and roaming around the forest area.

5. Having picnic with family.

6. Walking, exercising or jogging along the trail to stay fit.

7. Watching masters play with their pets.

8. Checking out fashionable and cute dogs around.

9. Dining at the garden restaurants or nearby the vicinity.

10. Researching and learning different botanical species at the museums inside the garden.

11. Watch free entertainment at the Symphony Lake.

Also, here are the 20 spots I love and I don't miss each time I roam around the garden:

1. Swan Lake

2. SPH Walk of Giants

3. Palm Valley

4. Heritage Garden

5. Symphony Lake

6. National Orchid Garden

7. Sun Garden

8. Ginger Garden

9. Marsh Garden

10. Curtain of Roots

11. Saraca Fish Pond

12. Eco Lake

13. Sundial Garden

14. Bamboo Collection

15. Garden Sculptures

16. Evolution Garden

17. Bark of Trees

18. Foliage Garden

19. Trellis Garden

20. Bonsai Garden

Other interesting sites are listed below. It is as worth to check out as those mentioned above:

1. Herbs & Spices Area

2. Ethnobotany Garden

3. Library of Botany and Hidden Culture

4. CDL Greenery Library

5. Nuts & Trees Area

6. Fragrant Garden

7. Jacob Ballas Children Garden

8. Healing Garden

9. Keppel Discovery Wetlands

10. Rain Forest Trail

11. Frangipani Collection

12. Healing Garden

HOW TO GET TO THE GARDEN

Singapore Botanic Garden is located within the city proper of Singapore and is accessible via public transport such as the MRT and Bus. The garden has its own MRT stations: Circle Yellow Line (alight at CC19 Botanic Gardens Station) and Downtown Blue Line (alight at D19 Botanic Gardens Station). Coming from different parts of Singapore, simply hop on from the nearest train station and change train service accordingly.

Buses that stops at the garden are nos.: 7, 105, 106, 111, 972. For private vehicles, carparks are provided at Tyersall Avenue and Cluny Road.

There is no entrance fee required to the garden. Visitors are welcome from 5 AM until 12 Midnight.

However, the National Orchid Garden which is inside the premises, operates from 8:30 in the morning to 7 in the evening.

The orchid garden charge 5 Singapore dollars per person for adults and 1 Sgd for students and senior citizens. For children below 12 years old, it is free.

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What Others Did Unto You, You'll Do Unto Others

What Others Did To You

It was my first time outside the country and my purpose of visit is to accompany my younger sister while she takes on a new job offer as well as help her manage this transition. After such time that she will be able and stable, Im done - and I have to go home. This aim had kept me focused. So while my sister is busy with her legalities, I kept my daily routine of cooking, housekeeping, scheduling and such for her. But little did I realised that I can also loosen up a bit while doing so.

Luckily, somebody made me conscious about that. He has a good heart to divert me from mundane tasks. He (my then ex-boyfriend, now my husband) gave me and my sister a break. He was kind enough to offer and take us for a one whole day stroll at the Botanic Garden. So, we excitedly acknowledge his invitation, changed our clothes and zoomed at the bus stop.

As soon as we get to the garden, we were greeted by doves around the fish pond. Then, few hours after, we hooked ourselves in observing all the swans at the gorgeous lake. In fact, we were there for more than an hour, enjoying the scenery, the happy people around and the fresh air emitted by the surrounding trees.

Subsequently, we walk towards the symphony lake, sat at the grass for a long while and entertained ourselves with all the cute dogs playing around with their best friends. We moved on after a long while, by wandering at the lovely flower area and admiring all of them. As we grew tired, we settled down on a wooden bench and had a hearty, silly and playful laugh while ex-boyfriend is busy taking photos around. And when the night came, we direct ourselves for a long forest walk and down to a private road looking for something to eat.

To sum it all up, we had a wonderful, relaxing and delightful day. It made us appreciate more the foreign country we are staying and of course, the guy who extended a hand to welcome and saunter us around.

Few weeks had passed, we still can’t stop talking about our nice day at the garden. We can’t help but adore all the photos we had taken.

Fast forward to 2 years, mom and dad had booked tickets to visit us.

You Do Unto Others

How joyful and thrilled we are to finally introduce to our parents the country of our bread and butter. Of course, their itinerary for a month was packed with touristy activities and places. My sister and I divided our time with them equally. Fortunately, I was the first to take them out.

After work, I fetched them and gladly exclaimed that we are going somewhere they can breath fresh air, lay on the grass and had some mini picnic just like when we were kids. I believe they are still tired from their flight the night before. So a stroll at the Botanic Garden will just be fine to warm them up in a foreign land.

Upon arriving, I showcased to them the fish pond while remembering exactly how it feels when my ex-boyfriend brought me and my sister there. Further, they found the swan lake irresistible. Also, we lazed at the gazebo, ate our packed fruits and chips and gazed at the beauty of the serene lake. We actually waited for the shy swans to swim nearby us. Unluckily, after an hour they never came.

Consequently, we decided to slowly walk surrounding the lake to appreciate the fishes and turtles instead. And that was the time when we finally had a glimpse of the gorgeous swans. Seeing my parents smile while they watch the beautiful swans preciously creates a joy in my heart. As soon as the swans moved away, we spread our picnic cloth at the lawn overlooking the symphony and stayed there until it was too dark to see the stage and the people around us.

Going home, my soul is full. It is true that what others did to you and how it made you feel, you’ll most likely wanted to pass it on to others. Like anger, love, laughter and such, kindness is contagious. The actions, gestures and treatment that a person bestowed unto you will always have an unconscious impact. People may be kind-hearted or evil-hearted simply because somewhere along the road somebody had been to them.

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How I Knew He Is Someone Reliable

I was staying with a Chinese family in an old HDB* corner flat. My landlord was on his early forties, single and works as a taxi driver. The house matriarch is his elderly mother who still runs her hawker business just right down our HDB flat.

I shared my spacious and windy room with a Chinese lady from mainland China. She works in the same hospital as I do. We never talk much except every time she tells me her favourite English word, “wash”. That word actually signalled me that she is going to sleep and that I should also take a bath before I do.

Like the landlord and his mother, it was frustrating to communicate with my roommate for she speak little English. Though we often tried our best to understand each other through body language, it was challenging.

A couple of months after, the language barrier complicates our harmony inside the house. Unfortunately, cultural conflict rose as well and everyone in the flat decided for me to leave.

Always available, always willing to help. With him, I am confident I won’t worry his support.

Soon after, I found myself calling my boyfriend. I don’t know why but I see him reliable. Always available, always willing to help. With him, I am confident I won’t worry a support. I see him as my knight in shinning armour. My saviour. Few days after, he found a decent apartment for me to stay in the city. He arranged everything and readied the requirements for my transfer.

Few days after, I found myself in a messy move out. It was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon and I was sitting at the edge of a neighbour’s door right in front of the elevator. All my things encircled me and I was counting time to 6 pm, counting people going in and out of the lift and counting money for the remaining days before payday.

Finally, my bae arrived as promised. My relocation had been easy. He served as my hunter and porter. I was able to save labour and sweat throughout the process. My knight had also established friendship with my new roommate.

At 11pm, right after all my stuffs had been settled, my now roomie invited us to have some late night food tasting in a hawker centre just across the apartment.

I enjoyed my 2.50 sgd seafood hor fun, I paired it with iced lemon tea in my regular no. 82 table.

Little that my new roommate know, she actually introduced to us into what became my favourite local noodle dish, Hor Fun. It is mainly a fried flat and dried rice noodles with egg gravy and garnished with delightful seafoods like shrimp, fish cake and/or chicken fillets. Spinach is also added and chops of jalapeño is optional but necessary for my tastebuds.

The stall was owned by petite and hardworking elder Chinese couple. It was only open late in the afternoon until midnight. Each time I enjoyed my 2.50 sgd seafood hor fun, I paired it with iced lemon tea in my regular no. 82 table.

To date, it was still my best hor fun dish that I kept on sharing and talking about with family and friends. My then boyfriend, who had helped me settle down in a peaceful household still gets a treat of this from me. Now, I am married to this man who had built a good food tradition in our relationship.

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*HDB (Housing and Development Board) - A common term for Singapore's public residential building that houses 80% of its citizen's.