The first time I visited Garden by the Bay at Singapore, was in July 2019. I was especially impressed by the artificial super trees, the water lily pond and kingfisher lake in my quick walk through there during a business trip .
I went back to the park again with Lily, in the afternoon of Saturday July 31st. We stayed there the whole afternoon. The park has so much more to see and enjoy... the plants, the flowers, the lakes, birds and other animals, and many artificial supplements to the them
Plants and Flowers
There are too many species of plants and trees in the park to name or list. No matter which direction we look, it is some shade of green. The flowers and fruits make some plants, trees stand out from the crowd - coconuts, flame of forest, dainty white hibiscus, peacock flower... just to name a few.
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| view of Indian garden from Super tree skywalk |
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| Coconut Palm |
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| flame of forest |
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| dainty white hibiscus |
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| Peacock flower |
Sculptures, Super trees and etc.
The super trees are the most prominent, unique manmade artifacts with a mythic pull, in the Garden by the Bay. After visiting water lily pond, kingfisher lake, and a few gardens, we bought tickets online in front of the OCBC skyway entrance, and went up to the 72 foot tall, 420 foot long skyway - a curved suspension bridge between two super trees. We had a bird's eye view of the garden. It was enthralling!
A temporary exhibit of Chihuly Glassware was ongoing at the park. Because of this, a big chunk of the garden, the southern part of the park, the Meadow, was ticketed, and closed to general admission. But there were a couple of displays of Chihuly glassware outside of the restricted zone, in a pond and in dragonfly lake, which add some accent to the garden beautifully. The Chihuly glassware is, however, best viewed at night.
There are quite a few permanent sculptures in the park, trio of kingfishers by the bank of Kingfisher lake, a pair of dragonflies by the dragonfly lake, some stone sculptures. They fit into the environment nicely and enhance natural beauty.
The one odd sculpture is the so called PLANET sculpture of a baby boy. It is a huge white colored bronze object, more like an intruder to the park, incompatible with the surroundings in color or shape.
The Sands hotel and its boat shaped sky park, a landmark in downtown core, on the other hand, borders the garden by the bay to the west, and makes the garden feel like an oasis, an escape to the boisterous urban life.
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| Chihuly Glassware |
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| Stone Sculpture |
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| A stalagmite |
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| Super trees - artificial |
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| On COBC Skyway of the Super trees |
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| Sand Hotel and its ship shaped sky park and their reflection |
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| The sculpture of a baby boy - Planet |
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| A pair of Dragonflies |
Birds, Big lizard and etc.
Garden by the bay is also an oasis for birds and other wildlife.
Surprisingly, I spotted more new birds here than I did at Fort Canning park. I saw two species of bulbul, a red whiskered bulbul and a yellow vented bulbul. Unknowingly, I saw a female brown throated sunbird, which does not resemble the male brown throated sun bird at all, especially in color, which I saw near where I saw the female, and earlier at Fort Canning Park.
The spotting of Ash Tailorbird was very interesting. I saw it the first time in the dense bush by kingfisher lake, and trying to have a good view of it without success. I stood there for a minute or so, it flew to a bare branch close to me, with a piece cotton like material in its beak. It turned left and right, bobbed its head up and down, seemly posing for me for pictures!
The other interesting sighting of animals of the day was the view of Asian water monitor, a Komodo, dragon like lizard. While we were strolling on the west bank of the dragonfly lake, a paved sidewalk, I heard some noise and commotion on the west bank. Looking there, I thought I saw a snake like creature climbing onto a rock there and trying to catch a bird. I took quite a few pictures as it climbed onto the rock, and rested there. The one shown here is the Asian water monitor, with its tongue out!
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| white whiskered bulbul |
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| Ash Tailorbird |
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| yellow vented Bulbul - singing |
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yellow vented Bulbul - flying
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| A female brown throated Sunbird |
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| A male brown throated sunbird |
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Asian water monitor - a big lizard
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| Asian water monitor - zoomed in |
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| A big turtle - is it real? |
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| A turtle by the dragonfly lake |
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| Garden by the Bay - nested by ocean and the commercial district at downtown |
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