Day 4 in Singapore: Botanical Gardens and Dempsey Hill

So I thought I would go ahead and post a couple of pictures of my bedroom and bathroom so y'all can see where I've been staying the past few days. Kacey's rooms is right next to mine and she has her own bathroom too. :0)

Bedroom

Bathroom

We had a nice morning today, sleeping in a little bit and then Patrice fixed us breakfast burritos for breakfast. We chatted about things while Patrice fixed breakfast and then ate together at the table with Ernie and Elliot. The first thing on our itinerary today was the Botanical Gardens. Ernie dropped us off and then him and Eilliot went sailing today. The Gardens were absolutely beautiful, with so many different plants and flowers to look at. It was of course extremely humid and hot today, but it was kind of overcast so it wasn't as hot as it could have been!

Botanical Gardens on the map :0)

National Singapore Flower

Bonsai Tree exhibit!
Love these cute little trees!

There were so many really pretty flowers at the Gardens, I wanted to take pictures of all of them! There were a lot of unique flowers we hadn't ever seen before! We continued to walk around the gardens and walked down to Swan Lake and were lucky enough to see some swans while we were there. There was also a group of people playing Ultimate Frisbee while we were there!

One of my favorites!

In front of Swan Lake.

Swans!

I thought these lilly pads were really neat, they were huge!

Love this :0) "Mom and the Girls"

There were a few flowers that were kind of weird... not sure how this one made the cut to be in the garden!

One section of the Botanical Gardens was specifically dedicated to orchids. You had to pay to visit this section, but it was definitely worth it!

I named this orchid the Aggie orchid for obvious reasons. :0) 

Really pretty arch way in the orchid garden.

This picture is of a "Black and White" house. These were built by the British in the early 1800s for British officials. They are really gorgeous buildings, and this one has been restored obviously since it was built. There are houses like these located in different parts of the island that people still live in today. There is a picture of one in a neighborhood farther down.

After walking around the garden, we walked out to a little shopping area that had some restaurants as well and ate some lunch. The shops in this building were really cool and eclectic, and once again this restaurant has that Austin feel I mentioned yesterday. This eating place was called Relish, and had burgers, sandwiches, salads and pastas. It was yummy!

Dempsey Hill Location

After lunch, we took a taxi over to Dempsey Hill, which is an area of antique and furniture type shops, as well as a few restaurants. We went into one shop and met a really nice man who new a TON about Chinese history and Buddism. We had really interesting conversations with him as he told us about some of the things in his shop. The red and black container below is called a wedding basket. It had different layered partitions that the family of the bride would give the groom's family, like oranges or lamb or material items. The groom's family would then use items out of it and then send it back to the bride's family. He also told us about the rain drum, which is the container he is pointing to in the picture. 

He also told us about the Buddist beliefs and fortunes that are based on the day you were born. It was actually really amazing how accurate his descriptions of us were without even knowing us! He went through and asked each of us what day we were born, and then told us some of our typical behaviors and tendencies associated with that day. I was born on a Sunday, and he said that my Buddha pose would be the one below, with the hands in front. This was the time that Buddha stood and listened to a lot of the people's problems and passed judgements for them. Therefore, someone born on a Sunday is sympathetic listener, respectable and wise, and loved by their family, which I thought was a good description. ;0) He was a really cool guy and it was neat sharing his history with us. While we were there, we bought some little rice baskets that were hand painted and very pretty.

My Sunday Buddha pose.

This symbol represents teaching.

Our friendly teacher :0)

This little guy was the store pooch named Ghani. He was a real sweetheart and made me miss my little girl!
When we walked in, the store owner said he was the boss haha!

After shopping around at some other furniture shops and looking at more antiques, we stopped at a restaurant called House to have some dinner and dessert. Kacey, Patrice and I just did dessert because we were full from lunch. We ordered strawberry shortcake (bet you can't guess which one of us picked that one hehe...) and a caramel salted banana cake. They were both yummy!

Restaurant welcome sign.

Demsey Hill Shopping Area

Demsey Hill Shopping Area

Demsey Hill Shopping Area

 So as we walked around, we came upon this open air bird area, that had lots of parrots and cockatoos. They were funny to watch, some of them were super aggressive (like the white one on the right side in the picture), and other were super friendly and sweet. The little green guy below got knocked off by that white cockatoo so he just walked over to us at the fence and climbed up to the top using his little feet and beak. It was actually quite impressive haha! He just sat there looking at us and walking down the fence, probably expecting something to eat, but we didn't have any treats from him.

Parrots - they were loud!

Little friendly guy! Loved him!

 After watching the birds for a little while, we got back in the car to drive around the area a little and look at some of the wealthier housing areas of the city. Of course, Elliott was super excited to be squished in the back seat with us, so we made him take a picture, which he loves. :0) We saw a lot of different houses, some very modern, some colonial like the picture below (another restored black and white house) and also some gaudy ones with weird 4 foot tall cat statues in the windows and silly fountains in front of their houses.

Our "little brother" - he just loves us!

Gorgeous restored black and white house.

And we are off to bed after another long day! Patrice has been keeping us busy, but that's the way I like to be when I travel! Hope you have enjoyed the pictures! 

Cute slippers :0)