Trip to Chinese Gardens

Wow....two posts in a day. That's a rarity hey?

Like I mentioned earlier, I went to SAC to check out the Mt Elbrus trip details. Of course, with my impressive planning skills, I went there on a Sunday at 4pm and it wasn't open. Ah well...maybe I'll write an email instead.

So...what do I do now that I'm out? I decided to go check out something called the Chinese Gardens right on the other side of the island. That took all of 25 minutes on the train. Yes, Singapore is not very big.

It's called the Chinese Gardens right? Well the first section I walked into was called the Japanese Gardens. :-) The gardens are not as big as the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne and it only took me about an hour to walk around the whole place. It's a pity most of it is under renovations right now. Most of the sections were closed off including the Japanese Gardens. Just my luck...

I also saw some interesting signage that claimed the gardens have the biggest collection of tortoises in the world or something like that. They even have on display some six footed, double headed tortoise which I didn't get to see (under renovations). I hope the creature is not being kept alive purely as a tourist attraction...

I took some pictures but it was such an overcast day, most of them look shite.

This Big Pagoda is at the west entrance

The trees are positioned in such a way that you can't really see any tall buildings. Neat eh?

Nice lakes

Another lake

Bonsai garden

This is a fifty year old Bonsai tree. Some were 100 years old!

Big Bonsai tree at the East entrance

This cockerel (sp?) was walking along the road path, enjoying his views. Then he saw me take a picture and ran for his life after that. Chicken!

A not-very-clear photo of the tortoises and fish under the west entrance bridge.

Took the long way home via Woodlands on the train and I must say the west coast of Singapore is pretty depressing from an architectural and landscape point of view. Just blocks and blocks and blocks of high density residential housing apartments. They all have almost the same design, are only metres apart, it makes me wonder what it feels like to live in one of them.

Anyways...time to go to sleep. I'm not feeling too flash again. It's weird - I never get sick in Melbourne but I keep getting sick in Singapore. I usually average 5.5 hrs sleep in Melbourne but here I can't stay awake if I sleep less than 7 hrs. Must be the tropical weather!

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