This place is incredible. It is massive, and amazing in the breadth and depth of the botany here. Instead of the cultural show, we get to ride the tram around the property giving us a 360 degree view of everything the family has accomplished. Walking from the restaurant to the tram, we venture through the Italian gardens, one of the first gardens planted here. Then walk through these incredible trees called Adenium, which grow with exposed roots. They are just amazing, their root structure looking like sculptures or some sort of art work. There are over 15,000 pots of these trees across the whole garden complex.
Hopping onto the tram, we start out tour of the gardens, passing through what the gardens call the “animals kingdoms.” These are little tableaus of the animal statues I mentioned previously, which are located throughout the gardens. The following pictures are in no particular order, but just give a sampling of the many creatures we encounter during our journey through the gardens.
The tram takes us in a circular route past many of the gardens, then lets us off at the Dinosaur Valley, a huge newer area with tons of different dinosaur statues menacingly perched on a terraced rock cliff. Its really sort of cool and frightening all at once, as we climb up the cliffside looking at the different species of dinosaurs and plants.
At the tram stop, we watch as garden staff work on even more huge statues. Crazy! They are all hand made and hand carved. Really amazing artistic work, so painstakingly detailed, it must take them forever to finish these huge beasts.
Waiting at the tram stop, Cha has a brief argument with the driver, because we are supposed to be waiting in the air conditioned building at the end of the dinosaur garden. But, after brow beating the driver (in a style only Cha can accomplish, the same as she did at lunch to get our tables together by the railing for more air flow), we board the tram and the driver takes us on a private ride back to the car park area. We’re beginning to think that we really threw her for a loop when we declined the cultural show – it doesn’t seem like she’s been on the tram before, and she did act very surprised when we said we didn’t want to see the show. It all turns out well in the end, and hey, it is a new experience for all of us then.
So, we spread out in our private tram and snap pictures of the French Garden, the Stonehenge garden, the palm tree garden, and anything else we can see as we make our way back.
Off the tram we walk through the complex to the carpark, weaving our way through the ever thickening crowd. This place is crawling with people, and in the carpark there are more buses than we can even count. Cha says this is nothing, that in the busy times there are many, many more people here. Ugh. We sure wouldn’t want to see this in the busy times then!
Now onto to the piece de resistance – The Sanctuary of Truth.
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