Stopping over in Singapore

This time last week I was sweating in Singapore, a bit of a contrast to last night’s low of 2 degrees Celsius here in England’s Cheshire – I much prefer the cold!

Lucky for me, one of my cousins lives in Singapore so it was the perfect place to break the long haul from Auckland to Manchester and enjoy a short visit with her at the same time.

I’ve been to Singapore many times so wasn’t really interested in a lot of sightseeing and, anyway, it was far too hot to stroll as much as I normally would. One thing that had been on my ‘must see’ list for a while, though, was the Gardens in the Bay, especially the Super Trees, so that was my focus for this short two-day stopover.

After a good night’s sleep, armed with one of my cousin’s MRT cards and directions to the nearest station, I set off to explore. I was rather proud of my handling of the MRT – I managed to recharge the card, find the right train to get on and negotiate a change of stations en route to Bay Station, the nearest to the Gardens. Admittedly, Singapore’s well-signposted and well-organised transportation system was a huge help and made it easy to find my way to the Gardens once I alighted from the train.

I hit the humidity wall walking up the steps from the wonderfully air-conditioned train and station so it wasn’t long till I was red-faced and dripping. I just kept on walking – and it was a good excuse for a deliciously cool mango ice cream a little later – round the beautifully landscaped gardens, along boardwalks by the canals, finding interesting plants and gigantic sculptures.

The stunning baby boy sculpture is Planet, by Englishman Marc Quinn, a huge bronze cast sculpture measuring 383cm x 353cm x 926cm, that balances, incredibly, on that lower arm. Silvery sculptures of dragonflies also grace the water’s edge in places and then, of course, there are the eighteen trees. Ranging in height from 25 to 50 metres, they tower over the wandering visitor, though you can pay $5 to walk along the 128-metre-long Skywalk that stretches between some of them.

I didn’t bother with that but I did explore the two conservatories, the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest ($28 for the two), both enormous structures of glass and steel filled with botanical species from around the world. The Flower Dome was less interesting to me as I’ve seen most of the plant varieties before, though the rather garish Diwali / Deepavali flower display was interesting to say the least – not quite sure what giant teddy bears had to do with it but it was very colourful.

From below and from above

From the moment I walked into the Cloud Forest dome and got deliciously damp from the spray of the 30-metre-tall waterfall, I loved it. Strolling the precariously balanced sky walks was both breathtaking and exhilarating at the same time – with thumping heart I made myself walk on the see-through mesh and lean over the side to take photos – definitely not a place for the vertigo-challenged!

Towering over the Gardens by the Bay is the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, an impressive piece of architecture, known for the incredible view from the infinity pool on its rooftop terrace. I didn’t go up but I did enjoy a walk through the equally impressive interior of the hotel on my way to the enormous shopping mall next door. This is a paradise for retail therapy – not my idea of a fun day out but the air-conditioning was almost literally to die for and the food hall had so many delicious choices for lunch that it was difficult to choose just one.

Outside the shopping centre you get a good view around Marina Bay, of The Flyer, Singapore's version of the London Eye, and other well-known tourist attractions like the Merlion. Here also sits another amazing piece of architecture, the ArtScience Museum, shaped to resemble a lotus flower. It’s certainly an incredible structure but I was just as impressed by the waterlily garden in the pool at its base. Waterlilies are my favourite flower and these were simple gorgeous.

Nature trumps man-made in my book every time, and I guess that’s what I think about Singapore as well. Its skyline, its architecture, its immense man-made structures are the result of wonderfully creative imaginations and incredible feats of engineering but I probably spent more time photographing those gorgeous waterlilies than I did admiring the constructed city around me.

Manu jungle: day one

At my briefing the tour guide, Abraham (Huaman of Amazon Trails Peru -- highly recommended!), reassuringly said he carries anti-venom, but then less reassuringly asked whether I had travel insurance in case I need to be helicoptered out! He also warned me to be sure to shake my clothes and shoes before I put them on in case of scorpions! And I had to buy a flashlight as we would be going out at night looking for caiman. So, there was a chance I was going to be bitten, stung and eaten!

We left Cusco early on Sunday morning – and I do mean early: my pickup was at 5am! – and headed southeast past Oropesa, where I work, then turned inland to start climbing up and over the huge hills that are everywhere in the Andean foothills. The road was steep and narrow, with a sheer drop of several hundred metres at one side, but for this first part of the journey it was at least tarmaced. Later the roads would turn to gravel, dirt and mud, with frequent huge potholes. These were what the Cambodians call ‘dancing roads’; I think Peruvians just think they’re normal.

Breakfast was a cold omelette, sweet bread and tea at 6.30 in a sleepy little town that was just waking up for its busy weekly market. A couple of hours later we visited the interesting pre-Inca tombs of Ninamarca, commonly known as Chullpas. These were the tombs of the aristocrats of the Lupaca people, who lived about a thousand years ago, mummified their dead and then entombed them in a seated foetal position. From there we continued on to Paucartambo, a picturesque Spanish colonial town, where we stretched our legs with a short walk around the village square and into the ornately decorated church. 

More winding roads followed as we wound our way up to the Acjanacu pass, which marks the beginning of the Cultural Zone of Manu Biosphere Reserve. Manu National Park, located in southeastern Peru, is one of the largest parks in South America. Manu protects over 4.5 million acres (2 million hectares) of territory rich in flora and fauna species in a variety of habitats, including the high Andes, cloud forests, and lowland tropical rain forests. In 1977 UNESCO designated Manu a biosphere reserve because it contains the world’s best example of biodiversity in protected areas of rain forest and cloud forest.

Misty mountains above the cloud forest

As Manu has remained intact and untouched by civilization, it is possible to observe a variety of animals in their natural habitats, including giant otters, black caiman, the majestic jaguar, the strange spectacled bear, the tapir, the ocelot, 13 species of primates, and an estimated one thousand species of birds including seven species of Macaws. Manu also contains 10% of the world’s vascular plant species, including several species of figs and palms, as well as countless species of medicinal plants which scientists are currently cataloguing.

Every hour or so we would leave the van and walk for a kilometer or so, looking for birds, animals, etc. It was fun, and a great relief from the bumpy travelling, and we saw many interesting creatures – luckily the one snake we encountered – a coral snake – was dead! We enjoyed a delicious picnic lunch by the roadside, thanks to our wonderful cook Isidor.

In Manu a thick cloak of clouds provides perpetual humidity and makes an ideal habitat for epiphytic plants such as bromeliads. This varied and fascinating world is also home to the Cock of the Rock, Peru’s national bird, which we stopped to observe mid afternoon. The male birds are a vibrant reddish orange and come together for an exhibition of a ritual mating dance. They display their crest, showing off and posturing for the females. The females, fewer in number, watch to select the most suitable males.

We continued down the narrow road for another two hours or so, between waterfalls and canyons toward the town of Pilcopata. A highlight was a troop of brown capuchin monkeys Abraham spotted by the roadside, which came over to eat the bananas and apples we threw them – very entertaining and photogenic! Abraham proved to be an expert bird and animal spotter, partly due to his 20-year’s experience and living up to his surname of Huaman, which means hawk! We also saw a woolly monkey asleep in a tall tree on the other side of the river.

 

We finally arrived at the Bambu Lodge, our accommodation for the night, just as the sun was setting. After another delicious meal, we ventured out with our flashlights on a night walk. There were lots of creepy crawlies: huge spiders, grasshoppers and crickets, cockroaches, and a big fat toad – the stuff of nightmares though, in fact, I slept very well in my cute little hut.