Where in the world is Kelly?

The colonial ties in Singapore are still strongly felt. Everyone speaks English, and some ties are still felt as this nifty motorbike parked in Little India may suggest.

Teh C (tea with sugar and condensed milk) is a popular drink in Singapore. I tried this cup out of a cute cafe in the Arab District.

Haw Par Villa is an at-times quirky at-times freaky larger-than-life display of Chinese mythology. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I am pretty sure that the writing on top of this cave says “Welcome to Hell.” Inside there were displays of the afterlife punishments for different wrongdoings in the mortal plane.

One of my favorite things about this trip is the ready abundance of Indian food. Oftentimes (like at lunch today) the food is served on a banana leaf (with a spoon and fork for the white girl – I will admit that I do need lessons on eating rice with my fingers in a way that does not completely soil myself) and is delicious and cheap. This thali was a welcome addition to a day filled with walking around the parks of Singapore.

The Singapore botanical gardens are world-class. I was able to hoof it to the orchid garden (at the other end of the park from the MRT station) and snap some pictures at dusk. The variety and abundance of radiant orchids was a delight.

When a famous personality visits the garden, they get an orchid named after them. I dub this one Orchidaceae kellianus.*

Marina Bay Gardens, located on land reclaimed from the sea located behind the iconic three-towered Marina Bay Sands, is yet another green oasis/wonderland. This photo was taken at the entry of the gardens. Those supertrees in the back are enormous and look like they are straight out of a sci-fi movie about colonizing some distant land with life from earth. Someday the trees will be covered with green, but for now much of the plants are still in the lower level.

*For the biologists out there, Orchidaceae is the family, not the genus of orchid plants. But I like the flow and am willing to bend on this flight of fancy for the sake of humor.