1/9–Singapore–Gardens by the Bay Cloud Forest Biospheres

The Cloud Forest is our first destination, and it starts off spectacularly at the base of a huge waterfall.  Even though there is a huge school group here, we still manage to successfully navigate around them and get some stunning shots of the waterfall, and the foliage – including the wooden monkeys hiding in the trees – around the entrance way.

This biosphere consists of 6 levels of different plants and ecology.  The pathway winds around the base of the waterfall and “mountain,” passing by statues and carvings, huge ceramic orchids, real orchids and a fabulous mirror pond full of different plants and lego representations.

Once at the top of the walkway, we take an elevator to the treetop walkway – which is a suspended walk around the top of the biosphere with great views out over Singapore and more incredible plants and trees.

The walk leads you gently down into different layers of cloud forest including a waterfall overlook, more great orchids and a stalactite and stalagmite exhibit…

…then finally down on the lower levels looking back up at the superstructure and ending in a frightening display about extinction.

Essentially the display over says it all, are we next?  Our era has faster extinction rates than any other previous time, and we aren’t helping the environment any.  There is also a wonderful display called the Sixth Extinction Sculpture which is made of layers of materials that are affected by the loss of biodiversity.  Some of the layers represent honey comb, root systems, elephant ivory, plastic waste, mango tree bark, etc.  Really impressive.

The next exhibit is a floor to ceiling video screen that explains how the Gardens were developed and the reasons to focus on renewing plant growth and biodiversity. It’s an interesting tale, but the best is this little boy who is fascinated with the video that also shows on the floor.  Too cute – we pay more attention to him than we do the actual film.

The secret garden is the last stop in the Cloud Forest, with its beautiful plants, interesting wooden sculptures and miniature orchids that you can only really see through a magnifying glass.

Including a fantastic look into the garden from behind a waterfall.