Even though we had been in bed pretty early again, I slept through most of the night. I woke up at one point in the very early morning hours. I did not immediately settle back down. I read a couple of chapters and then I went back to sleep. The next time I woke up, it was 7: 00. Graham was stirring as well. We got up, ready and headed downstairs for breakfast.
We both had some coffee. I had some more fruit punch juice and Graham had some orange juice. He had different kinds of fruit followed by fried eggs on toast and some oatmeal. I had some tinned pears and longans followed by congee with fried shallots, onions and soy sauce, braised beef patties and yakitori chicken skewers. I also had a Chinese pear. I had never tried one before. It had a very subtle flavour with the texture of an apple. It was also very juicy.
After breakfast, we headed back up to the room to get organised for the day. Then we headed downstairs to the MRT station. Our destination that morning was the Botanical Gardens. Singapore Botanic Gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When we visited in 2019, we got caught out by a thunderstorm, which cut our visit short. This was high up the list of things to do this time. One of the entrances to the Botanic Gardens was only four stops away on the same line as our hotel was. This made this really easy. At the other end, we just had to cross the road, and we were at a rather regal looking gate.
The Botanic Gardens is huge and is served by two different MRT stations. We entered through Tanglin Gate, which is next to Napier station on the Thomson East Coast Line. The Botanic Gardens station is just outside the Bukit Timah Gate at the opposite end of the Botanic Gardens and is served by the Downtown and Circle Lines. This makes the Botanic Gardens really easily accessible from most of the main tourist areas in Singapore. The one exception to this is Sentosa, but even that is entirely doable. It also makes exploring the majority of the park really easy as you do not have to backtrack at the end of this.
When we entered the Botanic Gardens, we first came to a woodland area. Even though the Botanic Gardens is in one of the busiest areas of Singapore, once you are inside the gates, it is really tranquil and peaceful. There are a number of heritage trees in this area, and I felt that they have struck the right balance between providing information about the history of the Botanic Gardens and special trees without this being intrusive.
Our first stop was the Swan Lake. We found a shady bench and sat down. There was one solidary swan on the lake. There were Myna birds and birds of prey in the area. We had some amusement as there staff out on the lake in a boat and on a raft trying to remove seaweed. I suspect that this is a futile endeavour. We also encountered the first water monitor of the trip there. They are fascinating creatures. Water monitors are the second largest lizards in the world after the Komodo dragon. They can get up to three metres long, but an average adult water monitor is usually between 1.5 and 2 metres. Technically they are venomous, but their venom is not dangerous to human beings. They are also very docile. There is one recorded case where a 7-year-old boy was bitten by a water monitor and needed eighteen stitches. However, it is likely that the water monitor acted in defence. The one we saw at the Swan Lake was quite small. It was definitely curious, but in no way aggressive and ultimately it was minding its own business.
Once the water monitor decided to leave the area, we figured it was time for us to move on as well. We walked through the sundial garden to the frangipani collection. Frangipanis, which are also known as plumerias, are one of my favourite flowers. Their scent is my favourite scent. I was in my element there. The most common colour of frangipani flowers is white, but I had come across pink and yellow flowers before as well. At the Botanic Gardens, they also had really dark pink, red and multicoloured flowers. They also had swings in the area. We found an empty one and sat down. This was one of those moments where I realised that life really does not get any better than this. I was sitting in beautiful surroundings in glorious weather gently swinging with the person I love most in the world. Things could not have been any more perfect.
As tempting as it was to just stay there, we had places to go and things to see. We walked through another section of woodland to the National Orchid Garden. Most of the Botanic Gardens is free to visit, but there is an admission charge for the National Orchid Garden. This is not very expensive. Graham originally said that he was not interested and would wait for me. He did however change his mind. For him it was even cheaper as he qualified for senior rates.
The National Orchid Garden is extremely well done and consists of different areas. The first area we came to was just a landscaped garden area with a fountain that displays different types of orchids. This area led to the VIP orchid garden and the celebrity orchid garden. Those areas are home to rare orchid hybrids named after visiting dignitaries, heads of state, and celebrities. Next to this is the access to the Tropical Montane Orchidetum. The tropical Montane Orchidetum simulates the experience of ascending through a tropical montane forest and displays a diversity of orchids and other plants like bromeliads, gingers, tropical rhododendrons, gesneriads and magnolias that thrive at different elevations in a montane forest. Not only is this area very pretty and educational, but most of it is in the shade and there are also handy benches dotted around. We made good use of those and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings in comfort.
The next area was the Yuen Peng McNeice Bromeliad Collection. This was a bit surprising. The best-known example of a bromeliad is the humble pineapple. I was not quite sure why they were given a special area in an orchid garden. They are however pretty, and the area was very nicely done with streams and waterfalls. In this are we also saw the first exciting bird. We initially thought this was a hummingbird as it was of a similar size and shape. What threw us was that the bird was perched on a branch, which is not something that hummingbirds do. A quick look on Google confirmed that there are no hummingbirds in Singapore. They do however have a similar species of bird that also feeds on nectar and often does this while hovering like a hummingbird. They are called sunbirds, and this particular one was a crimson sunbird, which is the unofficial national bird of Singapore. That was a very cool sighting.
Next up was the first of two indoor areas. The Tan Hoon Siang Mist House mimics a paleotropical garden at 650m to 1000m in altitude. In this area a wide range of rare and award-winning orchids are on display. When we left this area, we entered the secret ravine. This area is named after the habitats that can be found in deep, narrow valleys of tropical mountains. This trail displays rare orchids and ferns that grow in the ground or the crevices of rocks. There are also some interesting sculptures in this area.
The second indoor area, which was located at the bottom of the Secret Ravine, was the Sembcorp Cool House. This zone simulates a high elevation, mountain environment that has temperatures ranging from 16-23 degree Celsius. This felt blissful after the heat and humidity outside. We sat down on a bench, but we were dripped on and soon moved on. However, just slowly walking around this area provided some welcome respite and there were some really spectacular orchids in this area.
Once we had cooled down a little, we slowly made our way to the exit. I took some more photos on the way. There is a small shop near the exit, and we were hoping that they would sell us something to drink, but unfortunately, they only sold souvenirs. Opposite the National Orchid Garden was a kiosk that sold snacks and drinks. We both had a tin of iced tea. According to the menu, they had iced oolong tea and iced green tea. Graham wanted green tea, and I fancied oolong tea, but they were out of this. I was quite happy with green tea. I had to smile though when the person helping us pointed out that the tea is cold. I would have worried if it was not.
Opposite the National Orchid Garden is the Ginger Garden. I have seen some photos of this after the visit, and this looks really pretty. We may ned to check this out this year. This time, we decided to bypass this and headed towards Symphony Lake. This lake has a stage at one end where the Singapore Symphony Orchestra offers monthly concerts. I think this would be an amazing experience. When there is nothing happening on the stage, this is just nice area to take a seat and watch the world go by. We did just this for a while. We saw a slightly bigger water monitor as well as a different kind of sunbird and some crested Myna birds.
After a while, we moved on and slowly headed towards Bukit Timah Gate, which is where the Botanic Garden MRT station is located. In 2019, we came out of this station, and I asked in which direction the Botanic Garden is. Graham just grinned and pointed over my shoulder. The Bukit Timah Gate is right next to the MRT station. I was just looking in the wrong direction. We had a bit of giggle about this before heading into the station this time round.
A few weeks before the trip, I found out that there are two pieces of art by Dale Chihuly in Singapore. Both of them were not there on our previous visit in 2019. The first one was installed at the Cloud Forest that is part of Gardens by the Bay in 2022. The second one is called Singapore Sun and was installed at the Village Green area at the One Holland Village mall in August 2024. I wanted to see both of them. Gardens by the Bay was on my must do list anyway and Holland Village was a very minor detour from the Botanic Gardens. I had a look at this before we left for Singapore and apart from the Chihuly installation, he fact that they have a branch of Toast Box and there was a hawker market next door caught my eye. Graham was teasing me mercilessly about finding yet another “mediocre Chihuly” after some lacklustre examples in Vancouver and Toronto, but he was happy to go along with this.
The hawker market was just across the road from the MRT station, and the One Holland Village mall was not much further. As soon as we got to the mall, I saw the branch of Toast Box. Toast Box is coffee shop concept that specialises in kopi, kaya toast and runny soft-boiled eggs. We discovered this chain in 2019 and developed a taste for kopi and kaya toast. Kopi uses Robusta coffee beans instead of the Arabica coffee beans that we are used to. The roasting process is also unique. A combination of 80% beans, 20% sugar and margarine is roasted for 25 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. Halfway into the roasting time, salt is added. Sugar is also added at the end to provide a caramelized finish and remove any bitter aftertaste. The ground beans are placed in a muslin bag and boiling water is poured over it. The coffee is then poured back and forth between two special coffee pots. There are a number of different ways to serve this, but unless you ask for something different, it is served mixed with condensed milk. This is then served with kaya toast, which is a dish consisting of two slices of toast with butter and kaya (coconut jam) and runny soft-boiled eggs. This was one of the dishes I was really looking forward to.
We got there during the peak lunch hour. All the tables were taken. There were some benches outside. I left Graham there and went to see if I could find the Singapore Sun. From the press release that the owner of the One Holland Village mall put out when this was installed, it sounded like it would be quite obvious. I had a look at a map and could not see any evidence of the Village Green. I decided to check with one of the shops and they had no idea what I was talking about. I headed back to where I left Graham. In the meantime, Toast Box had emptied out and there were a few tables available. Graham went to sit down, and I went to order our food. This was every bit as good as I had remembered.
I told Graham that I had admitted defeat regarding the Singapore Sun. He just grinned. Once we had finished our lunch, he had told me to follow him. We headed upstairs and through some corridors. When we were out in the open again, we went around a corner, and the Singapore Sun was right below us. We found a way down and had a closer look. Graham had to admit that it was actually worth making the effort to see this. I took some photos and then we moved on. On the way back to the station, we stopped by the hawker market for a drink. We both had something called honeydew milk. I think this was probably a mix of honeydew melon juice and soya milk. Whatever it was, it was delicious. Once we had finished this, we continued towards the station and headed back to the hotel.
When we got back to the hotel, we headed back to the room for a short while to digest our lunch. Then we headed to the pool. When we stayed at this hotel in 2019, we had not even realised that there was pool. I found this out because this time, I booked directly with the hotel. It was a pretty hot day that day and cooling off in the pool sounded perfect. We got changed and headed downstairs. The pool was the least spectacular pool that we would experience on this trip, but it was very nice. It was a good size and had been divided into three areas. One half of the pool had been set aside for lane swimming, which covered the whole length of the pool. The other half was divided into a shallow end and a deep end. The water temperature was perfect. We spent about 90 minutes in the pool. Then we got dried off and headed back to the room to get showered. We decided to have some downtime before heading out again. I set an alarm, and we both had a nap.
When the alarm went off, we got up and ready. There was something I had wanted to do in 2019, but we had run out of time before we made it there. One of my favourite foods is satay. We did sample some of this in 2019, but we never made it to Satay Street. Every evening the street outside the Lau Pa Sat hawker centre is closed to traffic and is turned into Satay Street. In fairness, getting there in 2019 would have been a major undertaking. However, with the MRT station just outside the hotel, it could not have been any easier. We just had to take the MRT for three stops and then it was a short walk at the other end. We did not find the quickest route on this occasion, but it was only a small detour. Once we reached the road leading down to Satay Street, even my nostrils could guide me as the smoke of the charcoal grills carried quite far. When we got closer, I also recognized the very distinct building of the Lau Pa Sat hawker centre. On weekdays, Satay Street opens at 19:00. On Saturdays and Sundays, it opens at 15:00. We got there soon after opening time, which turned out to be a blessing. We managed get some seats and it was still relatively quiet at that time. The drawback to this one was that the various stallholders were trying to drum up some business. We have never experienced this when eating at any of the hawker centres.
I had a look at some of the stalls and then ordered some chicken and some beef satay at the stall closest to where we were sitting. I was given a pager. I decided to get us some drinks while we were waiting. Apart from the various stalls selling satay, there was also a stall selling beer, juices, and soft drinks. I got something called a lychee drink which was some kind of lychee cordial with water plus some lychees. This was not exactly what I had expected, but it was refreshing. Pretty much as soon as I got back with the drinks, our pager went off. I went to collect our food. We both enjoyed this. Once we had finished this, we decided that we both still had some room for more satay. I got another ten sticks of beef satay from another stall. I preferred the satay from the second stall, but the sauce from the first. That did not mean that I did not enjoy both of them.
By the time we were done, the place was absolutely packed. We will definitely be back on our next visit, but we will make sure we go early again. The atmosphere was amazing as was the food. We cleared our stuff away and then we headed back to the MRT station. We did not have to wait long for a train. When we got back to the hotel, we got ready for bed. Graham fell asleep straightaway. I read for a few minutes and then I fell asleep as well.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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