April 25, 2019

Singapore, the city that is also a country. It is home to 5.6 million people, 39% are foreign nationals.  There is such a mixture of cultures here and it is one of the safest cities in the world.  It consists of one main island and 62 small islands.

^{The city ranks highly in numerous international rankings and has been recognized as the world’s smartest city, world’s safest country, second most competitive country, third least corrupt country, third largest foreign exchange market, third largest financial center, third largest oil refining and trading center, fifth most innovative country and the second busiest container port.  The Economist has ranked Singapore as the most expensive city to live in since 2013.}

^{Our immigration card states in red… the fate of drug traffickers here:}

^{Although we heard it is changed to life imprisonment now.}

^{It is a city of contrasts from an old Chinese quarter to Hindu temples to huge skyscrapers.}

^{We have been here several times before and I also spent time here with ICF, so today we decided to revisit the Gardens by the Bay, a huge, colorful futuristic park in the bay area of Singapore.  We were there when it was being built, visited when it was partially completed and now were eager to see what has taken place since our last visit.}

^{We took their amazingly efficient and clean MRT system to the Gardens.  We found out quickly that on April 14 a brand new feature was added – Floral Fantasy. This consists of 4 different garden landscapes, each showcasing a different concept.  In addition, there is a 4 D ride called Flight of the Dragonfly.}

^{It is simply stunning.} 

^{We moved on to the 2 cooled conservatories – and it felt wonderful since it was very hot out.  The main exhibit right now is Tulipmania in an area designed to look like the Netherlands.}

I will share just some of the hundreds of pictures we took in this amazing place. They even had some plants made out of Legos!

This one reminded us of Bhutan!

These gardens are just outside the Marina Bay Sands, here is a shot of that and also the huge wheel.

They also had a display of these poisonous dart frogs.  Very interesting, hard to find them! The natives used to rub their darts on the frogs to get the poison to kill animals.  The display said the poison in what would amount to one grain of salt can kill a human being.  Glad they were behind glass!