By Carolyn
We had a resting stop in Singapore, which means two nights instead of one. It’s the rainy season but rain showers are unpredictable. You look out the hotel window and there’s chunks of blue sky, but you start walking and sprinkles become a downpour. But, the next day could be worse, so just carry on!
Becky and I headed to the Singapore Botanical Garden which was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site on July 4, 2015, exactly the last time we were here. This garden is spectacular with dense plantings and rainforest collections from around the tropical world. We are only a couple of degrees north of the equator and the garden showcases orchids, gingers, palms, frangipani, bonsai, and more. For a change of pace, here are sculpture photos.
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| Swans in flight |
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| Child on Bike |
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| Girl on Swing |
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| Pouring Water |
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| Watering Trees |
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| Girl on Hammock |
But, even intrepid nature lovers eventually tire of the rain, so tomorrow we’ll return to see more.
Which we did, until the steamy temps drove us inside to the small Peranakan Museum. In the 1400’s, Chinese immigrants began moving to the Southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. Their descendants (as well as those of other immigrant communities) use the term “Peranakan" which means ‘local descendants’ to distinguish themselves from more recent immigrant arrivals. No photos to share of the elaborately carved Asian furniture, gaudily painted chinaware, and intricately beaded clothing and wall hangings...it must have been sensory overload to live surrounded by so much colorful detail.
This city-state is spotlessly clean, full of trees and expertly manicured medians, and mixes new architecture with colonial/Victorian era buildings.
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| Trees everywhere! |
Thursday, we had a smooth flight to the Maldives and stayed one night at a less-than-lovely hotel near the airport in a messy part of town (does anyone here ever put trash into a trash can?) Quite a contrast from Singapore. Becky and I walked through a high rise residential area to a “park” to look for birds but didn’t see much.
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| Ferry terminal is across the sidewalk from the airport |
The Maldives is a collection of 1,192 coral islands, grouped in a double chain of 26 atolls, spread over 35,000 square miles in the Indian Ocean, making it one of the most geographically dispersed sovereign states. It is the lowest country on earth, with an average elevation of 4’11” and therefore extremely venerable to rising sea levels. In 2009 government pledged to make the Maldives a carbon-neutral country by 2019, but I can assure you they are not on track to pull that off! Cars, busses, ferries, motor cycles were everywhere. They are still running on gas.
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| One of the MANY carbon energy magazines in our hotel |
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| The sign outside the school...maybe the next generation will be better. |
Because Islam is the mandatory religion, we couldn’t buy a glass of wine. We’d brought a bottle with us in the luggage and later found out we could be arrested for smuggling alcohol. So we finished it and smuggled the bottle back out. The resort islands have managed some kind of workaround because resorts couldn’t exist is a dry environment, but don’t even “dream of a wee dram” off resort.
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| Sunrise was beautiful |
