We are now happily settling into Penang, but more on that later. First, we enjoyed a stop in Singapore, or S'pore as it is written in shorthand. This city-state is highly ordered and modern, just as we expected, and yep, there are very prominent signs about allowing no gum into the country. Luckily, we're TicTac people.
We landed in the middle of the night and were absolutely knackered. So a straight 10-hour sleep was in order. Our hotel was near Clark Quay (a bit too touristy for us) on the Singapore River, so the first day we walked along its banks to the waterfront. Knowing that we'll definitely head back later this year, we enjoyed the leisure of simply wandering, not bothering with the camera or an agenda. It was quite refreshing, and given the heat, much less sweat-inducing to not be lugging around a 10-lb camera bag!
On our second day, we headed out early to the Botanical Gardens. It is a hybrid of English Garden and tropical rainforest. All of the plants were stunners, and we laughed over a few... This one looked like the backs of several heads.
Within the Botanic Gardens lies the National Orchid Garden. Oh, this is not to be missed! There were orchids practically exploding off of every surface. Each was different in color and shape, putting even the poshest of floral shops to shame. There is a special walk within the garden that displays orchids named after VIPS, like Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher and other world dignitaries... Happily no tributes to Elvis or Justin Bieber.
Here are a few of the dozens of photos we took; more will be posted at our smugmug.com site.
We landed in the middle of the night and were absolutely knackered. So a straight 10-hour sleep was in order. Our hotel was near Clark Quay (a bit too touristy for us) on the Singapore River, so the first day we walked along its banks to the waterfront. Knowing that we'll definitely head back later this year, we enjoyed the leisure of simply wandering, not bothering with the camera or an agenda. It was quite refreshing, and given the heat, much less sweat-inducing to not be lugging around a 10-lb camera bag!
On our second day, we headed out early to the Botanical Gardens. It is a hybrid of English Garden and tropical rainforest. All of the plants were stunners, and we laughed over a few... This one looked like the backs of several heads.
Within the Botanic Gardens lies the National Orchid Garden. Oh, this is not to be missed! There were orchids practically exploding off of every surface. Each was different in color and shape, putting even the poshest of floral shops to shame. There is a special walk within the garden that displays orchids named after VIPS, like Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher and other world dignitaries... Happily no tributes to Elvis or Justin Bieber.Here are a few of the dozens of photos we took; more will be posted at our smugmug.com site.
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