Flights, Visas and sharp things and more in Singapore

Flights
On Monday, the team and families headed to Singapore to begin the KITAS visa process. The flight is only 1.5 hours but for an early morning flight it meant getting up at 3am, traveling to the airport, doing the security and immigration steps to then wait for the plane. It turns out that Delta is a partner of the airline we used. It's Garuda Indonesia and is the national airline of Indonesia. This allowed Brad and myself to use the lounge which was nice. B is currently a Platinum SkyMiles Member. Most of the flight attendants wear a gorgeous shade of teal for their uniforms though I did see a few orange outfits as well.  I won't say Garuda has spacious accommodations onboard. Also, having on-time departures doesn't seem to be their thing.  On the return, the LED board actually said the flight was closed before they started boarding. There didn't seem to be anything distracting them from loading, it just seemed to be their method.

Visa business
I signed some papers and handed over my passport to an agent. That was it. Needed to be back at 5pm to get the passport that would then contain a multi-entry visa.  Followup on Friday this week to finalize the KITAS visa.

What to do between about 10:30 and 5pm?
The group all set off to do different things. One family went to the Singapore Zoo, some went to the Botanic Gardens, some did other things.  Just before we took off, Brad got a call that he needed to go to the Michelin office in Singapore mid-afternoon, so we opted for the Botanic Gardens. It was very close and meant less travel time so more time to explore.

The Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG)says it is the most visited botanic gardens in Asia. It is HUGE! Entry is free.We didn't see all of it in the few hours we were there. They actually close a couple of the sections off one day a week. There is an enormous orchid section for which there is a fee to enter.

The first highlight for us was the Evolution Garden. So much here to see. I will only mention a few items. Between 438 and 410 million years ago, mosses and liverworts began to appear. Large area to appreciate these plants.

Later lots of ferns (first seed bearing plants), cycads (oldest and most primitive of the living seed plants) [ 410-290 million years ago]. There is a Vietnamese cycad here that's supposed to be 1000 years old.

 There is also a an artificial display of extinct prehistoric lepidodendron (or scale)trees which was really cool. The bark is interesting.

Next it was on to the flowering plants. There were assorted footprints in the walkways of everything from dinosaurs to humans.  All of this was just in the Evolution Garden.Very, very interesting.

Next was the Healing Garden.This area was divided into quadrants for respiratory & circulatory; head, neck, ear, nose &throat; digestive; reproductive; musculo-skeletal and then a separate section on the toxic plants.  The toxic area included a gated off section with a sign that said you could enter it only as part of a guided tour. There was also information that they would not be held responsible for anything anyone did with the information presented in the Healing Garden or toxic section. Was it just a question of keeping visitors from accidentally touching or ingesting something or were they gated to prevent criminal acts using these plants? 

This plant was for treating syphilis, fever and earaches.

We saw a lot of flowering plants, but this was really pretty. The flowers look like insects. I have no idea what it is because we couldn't find a sign.

There were several pretty lakes including this one:

I mentioned sharp things in the title of this post. Yes, indeed. Some US plants have small spines as a defense again insects and other animals. Many Asian plants have also spines or spikes but they take it to a whole other level.  Here are just 3 we spotted in our brief time at SBG:

The one in the upper left is rattan- as in basketry and furniture. These spines can be 4 cm long(1.6 inches) long. I guess they remove the spines early in the process! The tree in the top right had spikes several inches long.

Perhaps even more interesting than the flora found in the SBG was the fauna. I'll mention a few here. Buzzing around many flowers were very, very, very large shiny-bodied black bees or vespids of some kind the size of my entire thumb. At first glance I thought maybe they were sphinx moths but no, these were of the bee variety but so BIG! ( no pictures, sorry)

We also saw quite a few squirrels. Yes, squirrels! I think they were plantain squirrels. They have thin  cream and black stripes on their sides down near the belly.  (again, no pictures) Similar size to a US red squirrel or grey squirrel.

We also saw a few birds. The only one we really got a photo of (thanks to Brad) was this common mynah with bright yellow bill, legs and feet.

We also saw pigeons and possibly a magpie robin or something called a pied fantail (again, no good pictures) so I'm not sure. This bird reminded us of a mockingbird. We definitely saw 1 greater racket-tailed drongo but didn't get a photo of it either. That's a mouthful of a name. It is a large dark blue/black bird with long rackets on the tail. This one is worth looking up (I know, more work for you). The genus and species is Dicrurus paradiseus. It's pretty!

AND NOW FOR THE BEST CRITTER OF ALL:

Another area we really enjoyed was the Rainforest Walk. It was very hot in Singapore, but this was shaded so pretty comfortable. We were just walking along when we heard the sound of a "large critter" moving through the leaves. We looked alongside the boardwalk and VOILA! We saw a 6 foot long lizard. Brad's first reaction was it was a Komodo dragon. I said, no, I think it is a water monitor. In fact, it was a water monitor (Varanus salvator to be exact). In these parts they call it a Malayan monitor lizard or Malayan water monitor. This was such a fun discovery!

One bird we did not see, but I have since learned all about, is the common goldenback or common flameback. It is a woodpecker and just looks like the coolest bird. Picture maybe something like a pileated woodpecker but it with a bright yellow back. I want to go back to the SBG to get a look at one of these some day.

In our brief visit we saw a lot but then it was time to taxi to the Michelin offices. After that we headed to the airport to retrieve my passport with it's new multi-entry visa and then fly home. Lots of delays and long lines coming back into Jakarta so we got to bed just before midnight.

We'd been up for 21 hours.  Whew! That is one long day.