Botanic Gardens, Botanic Opera!

I spent today at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, a nature reserve lush with exotic plants and garden arrangements rival any.  By the time I arrived at the heart of the park, rain began and then it really began.  Quite quickly the opacity of the trees faded in my gaze as a haze dimmed as I reached the rain forest part of the park.  Then suddenly, torrential rains unloaded from above and soon the paths seemed to turn to rivers. It just kept falling and falling and with it thunder and lightening with such intensity, frequency, noise, and earth shaking magnitude, I thought, this must be what it is like to sit the a bombing campaign during a war.  Yet all the explosive rain and power was fittingly right for the rain forest.

As time went on and the rains let up somewhat, I wandered out from the shelter beneath which I had taken shelter and headed deep into the rain forest of the park.  It is amazing to see the haze, smell the odours of the wet and rich soil and earth, to hear ever rain drop crackle of the massive leafs, and gaze upon mysterious vegetation the seemingly leap miles from earth into the sky. 




As I passed onto other areas of these botanic gardens, I wound my way through other amazing garden arrangements as well including a bonsai collection, sundial garden and a ginger garden.  Although hiking around through this giant park in the rain made for a fatiguing day, it could not stop me from remaining to see a once a summer spectacular to be shown at that park that night - the summer opera in the park, and it was everything it was billed to be, even if there was a little rain.  There was Puccini, Dvorak, Mozart, and others - a two-hour collection of highlights from various operas of the composer choice.  The scene and sounds were perfectly produced, and the performance perfect.

I finished the night eating at my favorite hawker center on the bay, watching a live band and enjoying the lights as always.

Singapore fun fact day 19: the botanic gardens were founded in 1859 as a pleasure garden