Singapore

Last time we were here, we focused on Gardens by the Bay. This time we ate our way through Hawker’s Markets for street food, marveled at the Jewel in the Changi Airport, and walked through the Botanic Gardens.

For the Gardens, we headed out early to avoid the worst of the heat and humidity. Even so, we ended up getting pretty sweaty and sticky with the temp at 88 F/31 C and the humidity at 70% or more. There are numerous small gardens devoted to specific plants, like Frangipani…

… or certain architectural sites like this reflecting pool…

… but hands down, our favorite area was the…

There were over 1,00 species (!) here and it was interesting to learn that orchids make up 10% of the world’s flowering plants, with around 30,000 different species.

The variety of shapes and colors…

… was mind blowing.

This is a type of Lady’s Slipper orchid:

We definitely dawdled in the Cool House…

… as a welcome break from the heat and humidity.

The Jewel in Changi airport is a “nature-themed entertainment and retail complex”, complete with the world’s tallest indoor waterfall at 130 ft high!

I was mesmerized…

… by both the falling water, as well as the various levels at which you could see the waterfall (video, so open this post in your browser to see it) -

In the Hawker’s food markets, you can get a plate of food starting at $5-7, and try various regional specialties. On our previous stay, we had gone to a nice restaurant that specialized in Singapore Chili Crab in a sweet, salty, chili tomato sauce and paid $100 (figuring it was a one time splurge, so why not). I sought out the Hawker’s Market where you could get it for $38, and it was just as tasty (and a mess to eat).

In the upper right corner of the picture is a plate of Cereal Prawns, which I highly recommend as another dish to try when in Singapore.

We stayed in Chinatown again, as it’s easy to get around on the Metro, has innumerable restaurants and Hawker’s Markets, and is clean and walkable.

The view from our hotel rooftop -

I forgot to close my last post with a sunset, so I’ll do so here (jumping back to Indonesia for a moment) -

Diving in West Papua, Indonesia (again)

As I’ve said many times, we hardly ever repeat destinations, but the diving in Raja Ampat Indonesia is frequently hailed as some of the best in the world (and in our dive experience, we agree). We had previously stayed at Kri Eco Resort and were quite impressed with their operation, so we made a repeat visit. It is located on the tiny island of Kri, north of Sorong on West Papua. It’s hard to try and get a realistic map here, so I’ll let you google those names if you’re so inclined. Basically, we were out on the farthest eastern reaches of Indonesia.

It’s very uncommon to see an anemone balled up like this, and it provided a gorgeous contrast to the white tentacles. White is also unusual to see, as most are greenish -

I truly loved the photos I was able to get with my new camera. It’s best at macro subjects (little critters up close), while Steve’s GoPro provided us with some stellar videos. I’ll try to not bore the large majority of you who aren’t divers, but I like to share the beauty underwater that keeps us diving. (I also just reviewed the blog I wrote 2 years ago from here, so I’ll try really hard not to repeat fish species.) This Fimbriated Eel was new to us, and had a very striking color -

On our last visit here, it was May, and we were able to see Reef Mantas at a cleaning station. Being here in Feb. this time allowed us to see Oceanic Mantas for the first time. Man, are they huge! First up is a video I shot, allowing me to zoom in and out, but I’m definitely not a smooth operator yet. This is a Reef Manta, showing its white shoulder patches. Its wingspan is 12-14 feet. [as I’ve noted in previous posts, you may need to click the link at the bottom of the post to open this in your browser, so you can see the video]

Next is the massive Oceanic Manta (with a 20+ ft wingspan), and Steve’s video was better than mine, in the murky conditions -

The Oceanic Manta has a black “T” on his shoulders and back. As it repeatedly passed over us, it felt like a bus was gliding overhead. So majestic!

Now, from the gigantic to the miniscule…Pygmy Seahorses were amazingly plentiful here, and included several different types. They range in size from 0.5 - 1 inch. Our guide was a master at finding them, and even when he’d hold his pointer right near them, I usually couldn’t see them, but just pointed my camera and let its autofocus do the magic. First, the out of focus picture that shows the silhouette…

(enlarge the picture and focus on the center area)

Now that you know where to look, hopefully you can see my favorite coy pose -

We didn’t know this creature came in such vibrant colors. The more common type (and that we’d seen before) is much harder to see on the sea fans that they mimic so perfectly -

In the picture above, find the tiny dark eye and slightly yellowish tail wrapped around the branch. There are actually 2 seahorses in that sea fan. The other has his back to the camera, and is at the 4 o’clock position to the upside down one. When they are slightly gray, they are slightly easier to see:

(hint - look in the center of the picture)

I just thought this Signal Goby was so cute as he hovered over the bottom, flashing his colors:

I’m pretty sure I showed a Mantis Shrimp before, but these Peacock fellas have such gorgeous coloration that I need to share again. Usually, they’re hiding in their holes, and this is “all” we see, but I’ll take that any day -

On a number of dives, we saw them out scurrying around, but this guy was proud and posing:

A pipefish is in the same family as seahorses, and you can see the resemblance in the snout, but that’s about where it ends. This Double-ended Pipefish was about 6-8 in long, and we saw him on a night dive -

The next video shows a Ringed Pipefish with his characteristic tail -

This is a beautiful Flatworm…

… and this is a Nudibranch, complete with 2 rhinophores to smell with, and the “naked gills” on the back that give them their name -

There are numerous types that come in all shapes, sizes and colors. That one above was about an inch or so long.

This last video shows the amazing density and variety of fish in Raja Ampat, which will keep us coming back for quite awhile -

See ya later!

Bicolor Blenny