![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/20230320_123028-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A while back, my partner and I decided to tackle one of the to-do things on our Singaporean bucket-list and paid a visit to the city\u2019s celebrated Gardens by the Bay.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Every day I get to view the Gardens, or at least the two huge domes that dominate them.\u00a0 They\u2019re visible from the bridge over Marina Bay that my bus crosses when I\u2019m travelling to and from work.\u00a0 With their exoskeletons of giant, curved ribs, the domes resemble a pair of gargantuan woodlice huddling in the vegetation not far from the Marina Bay Sands<\/a> building (which is distinctive in appearance too \u2013 like a huge, futuristic version of one of the structures of standing stones and lintel stones at Stonehenge).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We entered the taller dome first.\u00a0 It contains what’s known as the \u2018Cloud Forest\u2019 and, to quote the Gardens\u2019 website<\/a>, is \u201chome to one of the world\u2019s tallest indoor waterfalls and a lush mountain clad with plants from around the world.\u201d\u00a0 Our visit coincided with the dome hosting a temporary display called Avatar<\/em>: The<\/em> Experience<\/em>.\u00a0 For the most part, this meant that life-sized fibreglass representations of the Na\u2019vi and other examples of the flora and fauna of Pandora, the planet featured in the James Cameron movies Avatar<\/em> (2009) and Avatar: The Way of Water<\/em> (2013), were positioned among the vegetation inside, allowing fans of the movies to pretend they were seeing them in the movies\u2019 alien jungle.\u00a0 Even if I\u2019d been an Avatar<\/em> enthusiast, which I\u2019m not \u2013 I thought the first one was merely okay and I haven\u2019t seen the second one \u2013 I would have found these annoying.\u00a0 Their presence was a distraction from the works of ethnic \/ indigenous art, from such places as East Timor and Malaysia, that stand permanently amid the foliage.\u00a0 Still, it wasn\u2019t too difficult to ignore the Avatar<\/em> paraphernalia, even if a lot of people \u2013 especially young kids \u2013 clustered around them taking selfies.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The dome\u2019s main feature is a hulking, sandcastle-shaped mountain covered in a shaggy cloak of ferns, leaves, fronds, creepers, briars and occasional flowers.\u00a0 However, like the volcano in the James Bond film You<\/em> Only<\/em> Live<\/em> Twice<\/em> (1967), the mountain isn\u2019t what it first appears.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the secret HQ of a supervillain planning world domination, but behind the greenery festooning its exterior, it\u2019s a structure of decks, terraces, lift-shafts and staircases.\u00a0 Not only can you go up inside the mountain and look out from its various levels, but you can follow elevated catwalks that swirl away from it, past the tops of the surrounding trees, to the internal surface of the dome itself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When we came through the entrance doors, we were struck by a chilly mixture of water droplets and water vapour emanating from the bottom of the waterfall mentioned on the website \u2013 really, five streams of water pouring down from five spouts near the mountain\u2019s summit.\u00a0 The water hits the ground near a M\u0101ori sculpture, made out of totora wood, slightly reminiscent of a Japanese torii<\/em><\/a>, and unveiled there by Jacinda Ahern during a visit in 2022.\u00a0 Thereafter, you need a couple of minutes to get accustomed to the organisation of the place.\u00a0 To your right, the path takes you around the base of the artificial mountain.\u00a0 Above you, the catwalks encircle the mountain like hula-hoops swinging around a burly torso.\u00a0 And above and beyond everything else, the dome\u2019s glass extends in a massive, curved grid of steel.\u00a0 At the time, three cleaners in abseiling-like harnesses were working their way down the outside of the dome, scrubbing it with long-handled brushes, sluicing it with jets of water, and looking absolutely tiny.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A lift took us to the mountain\u2019s top. \u00a0From there, you gradually descend, enjoying the different levels\u2019 views and wandering along the catwalks as they loop out and back again.\u00a0 Amid the botanical displays at the very top is one containing pitcher plants, bladderworts, butterworts, sundews and Venus flytraps \u2013 yes, it\u2019s a collection of carnivorous plants.\u00a0 The Venus flytraps are contained in a couple of glass globes suspended above the display, their fanged maws sprouting from masses of soil and plant-matter. This was the first time I\u2019d seen the famously fly-hungry plant for real and I was surprised by how small it was.\u00a0 Despite its diminutive size, it still looked sinister, like a vicious, vampiric little Pac-Man.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Obviously, we took advantage of the catwalks.\u00a0 These lead you away from the mountain, past the treetops, and right to the dome\u2019s inside surface, where you can peer out through the last leaves and stems at such Singaporean landmarks as the aforementioned Marina Bay Sands building or the Singapore Flyer, the observation wheel that looms over the Formula One track.\u00a0 It feels like being an explorer who\u2019s just set eyes on the great, lost city of Singapore from the edge of a giant jungle-clearing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Beneath the mountain, on a basement level, there\u2019s an area known as the Secret Garden.\u00a0 Threads of water leak down from the complex above, into what seems a congested and chaotic muddle of ferns, shrubs, branches, vines and flowers \u2013 though this being Singapore, it\u2019s no doubt highly structured and organised in reality. \u00a0One reason why I liked the Secret Garden was because of its collection of sculptures, made from gnarly and sprawling segments of tree-trunk, tree-branches and tree-roots. \u00a0Not only have these been trimmed, smoothed and varnished, but among them lurk cunningly-hidden, carved animals. Thus, a zig-zagging chunk of tree-trunk that serves as a garden-bench has, skulking along its surface, a crocodile\u2019s head; while a twisting, tangled section of treetop, erected like a statue, is home to a wolf reposing along one of its branches.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The dome\u2019s temperature is controlled and kept to an agreeably cool level.\u00a0 It made a pleasant change to be able to walk amid nature in Singapore for an hour and not end up drenched in sweat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As I said, the Avatar<\/em> exhibits (which also included cubicles in the basement-area where you could get your photo taken and have it superimposed on a Pandoran landscape, and an animatronic dragon-creature that threateningly stirred and crankily growled), didn\u2019t impose too much on our Cloud Forest experience.\u00a0 The biggest imposition was probably when we found ourselves sharing a lift with an incredibly excited wee boy, who was enthusing to his mother about how wonderful the dome was because it was so full of Avatar<\/em> stuff.\u00a0 Then he became aware of my surly, bearded presence behind him, turned around, looked up at me, and declared, \u201cI love you, Mr Klingon,\u201d before kissing my belt-buckle.\u00a0 Well, that was unexpected.\u00a0 Though if I had to be mistaken for an alien species, I would far rather it was a grumpy warrior race who dress like they\u2019re in a 1980s heavy metal band and say cool things like, \u201cSurrender or die!<\/a>\u201d, rather than a wimpy bunch of blue-skinned James Cameron-ian space-hippies<\/a> like the Na\u2019vi.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Then we headed for the other dome at Gardens by the Bay, the Flower Dome.\u00a0 But that\u2019s a topic for another blog-post.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A while back, my partner and I decided to tackle one of the to-do things on our Singaporean bucket-list and paid a visit to the city\u2019s celebrated Gardens by the Bay. Every day I get to view the Gardens, or at least the two huge domes that dominate them.\u00a0 They\u2019re visible from … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/20230320_125146-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/20230320_120648-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/20230320_123506-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/20230320_122815-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/20230320_124023-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/20230320_124007-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/20230320_130703-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/20230320_130729-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/20230320_125740-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"