• Part 5 Day One

I was sitting by the window watching the rain drift down the window. Leaving streaks of fresh water, creating little droplets that followed the path left behind by the last water drop. We were driving along the road, each of us had our eyes trained onto one of the windows displaying the cityscapes outside. One of my favorite architectural buildings was these three towers that were in a line, then on the top of all of the buildings there was this huge boat laying on it’s stomach on the roofs of each tower. One of my other favorites was this big fountain representing a merlion, and on the bottom there were tiles arranged in a  formation that looked like waves. The tiles were all different colors, teal, ultramarine blue, sky blue, and sea green. My favorite color palette excavated into one place. I thought.  As we drove, I noticed that there wasn’t a single natural growing tree or plant in site. I mean, there wasn’t even moss on the old stone pillars or cement floors outside. It seemed that any greenery growing in an area was placed in that specific area, because it was a specific kind of plant. They either removed the original plants growing there, or placed new plant saplings there before the actual plant in the soil grew. Huh. I thought. How odd. But all in all, the city is amazing, and every building is always lit by lights.

The entire car ride, I spent my time keeping my eyes on the window, taking small notes in my head of the architecture and each and every building. Then we finally arrived in front of our hotel. It wasn’t that small, but not that big either. It was squished between two other building’s on the same side of the street. We all climbed out of the car, my grandfather was parked behind us. My dad and Ganesan Mama lugged our bags behind them. I had my backpack on my shoulders, it bounced up and down my back as I walked toward the door, my brother and my mom trailing behind me. When I walked inside the air conditioning hit me like an iceberg. I had to admit it felt nice to not be barbecued by the sun(the rain had suddenly stopped in the middle of the ride to the hotel.) I mean I know it’s weird to say this, but it felt like my pores were water bending. As we all filed into the lobby, sweat was dripping down the side of my face and going down my neck. My hair was sticking to my neck. The bags under my eyes looked worse with the sweat going down my face. We all stood there for a second taking in the coolness of the room.

Bala Thatha and my dad walked up to the desk that was beside the big glass double doors. I looked to see a little toy cat perched on the top, on of of the corners of the desk, it’s little plastic paw bopping up and down like a spring was behind it’s mechanism. We all then were led to our rooms. We all filed behind my grandfather, if you looked at us from the side we looked like we were on an assembly line in a factory. We finally stopped in front of one room, my dad opened the door. Wow. That single word repeated in my head as my mom, dad, my brother, my grandfather, and I walked inside. “Oh wow, it’s very small.” My mother scoffed. I really liked it though. And I knew we weren’t really going to be spending time in our rooms as the weeks spreads. There was one twin bed on each side of the room, the bed sheets looked like they were never used.( Yes, they were that clean.) There was a door leading to the bathroom in the corner, a TV was mantled at the top of room to the right side, and a dresser stood in the middle of the room, right next to the doorway.  (Ganesan Mama, Deepak, and Sumathi Aathai, were going to be staying in the room next to us. )

A little while later we went back to the lobby and walked out to a nearby restaurant Bala Thatha said was really good. We walked out the door and it felt like I was walking out of a freezer, and into an oven. The scorching heat made every piece of clothing I was wearing, feel incredibly uncomfortable. My shirt was sticking to my skin, my hair once again stuck to my neck and forehead. Sweat dripped down my face and ran down my neck and back. I had a lot of questions addressed to the sun that day… I UNDERSTAND THAT THE ENVIRONMENT IS THIS WAY BUT CAN’T YOU MAKE IT A LITTLE MORE TOLERABLE? I AM SPEAKING FOR HALF OF THE POPULATION RIGHT NOW. YOU FIND MY COMPLAINTS ANNOYING? YEAH WELL, DEAL WITH IT. We continued walking as the sun shined rays of disappointment at my face.

We came to a stop in front of a restaurant sporting the name Anand Bhavan( The restaurant was located in Little India).  There wasn’t a door to walk through, but it was designed so it was in the architecture of a garage, so you literally walk in and out. We stepped inside and sat down in little tables that were beside the counter. When our food was all ready, it was brought out by the owner of the store. She was extremely nice and served us our food with a smile. It was hard not to think of her as my grandmother. She was that nice. After we finished the last bits of our meal( it was delicous) we gave her our thanks, and walked out. Then my  grandfather decided to take us to the Singapore Botanical Garden. As we drove along, I surveyed the city once more( and yelled at the sun quietly) We finally pulled up in front of the parking garage, we all stepped out carefully, I clutched the door handle and hopped out( except my grandfather, he stayed in his car and said he would wait for us). We all walked to the entrance and walked in. Now let me tell you one thing. There were plants and greenery EVERYWHERE. I couldn’t even find a spot where there wasn’t any shrub or flower dominating the ground.

We walked along, Deepak and I took a few pictures of the tree’s and the little critters running around the branches. We then stopped in front of this big area where it was covered in wood chips, leafs, soil, and little green sprouts. There were tree’s scattered along the area, there roots were sprawled about like waves in the treacherous sea. My dad tapped on my shoulder lightly and pointed to the ground, a little sign was put into the soft soil. It read: HELP TO PROTECT OUR TREES. Root zones of trees are very important as they channel the nutrients and help trees grow. They are easily damaged from trampling and other human activities. Please help us to protect them by staying out of the area. – Singapore Botanic Gardens. I gave my dad a solemn face as we continued walking. An image of that sign was embedded into my head. Taunting me of what people are trying to put in other human’s clueless heads. We wouldn’t have to do this and give people a literal sign to read, if they respect nature and leave it alone. Anyway. we continued walking, the sun unfortunately didn’t hide behind storm clouds again. Even with the shade from the trees, we were still grilled by solar flares.

We came to a stop every time we reached a little koi fish pond, marveling at the large fish swimming along. There were all different kinds. Orange and white, midnight black, or orange, black, and white spot and specks all around there bodies. We continued walking, I tried identifying each and every tree we saw. But one of my favorite tree’s in the whole world is a Northern Red Oak tree. Though they are native in North America, I was able to see a few in the gardens. They looked brilliant in the sunlight, the sun’s rays penetrated the tree’s green hues, making it look like a stained glass tapestry. It looked almost celestial to me. After seeing my favorite tree species in such a bewitching form I started looking closely for the ingenuity of multiple natural elements creating into one stunning form of art made by the forces of nature and the elements of the Earth.

We soon came to a stop at a gazebo that looked out to a large pond that also seemed to be home to many turtles. We all sat in the gazebo, watching the turtles, and looked at the tree’s and bushes nestled amongst each other around the pond. We talked for a while, speaking about the flight and how the experience was so far. Then we walked to this area where they had this large building that looked a lot like a bamboo cabin to me. When we walked inside we discovered that they were little signs and inscriptions giving information about the orchids that were nearby in the garden we were currently in. We read each of the inscriptions and looked at the little displays as well. When we walked out, I took a few pictures of the orchids and then I observed each one. One of the ones that really caught my eye were these clusters of blue and white orchids, that merged into purple and indigo ones. I mean, they were diverse, but at the same time united. I know it sounds weird but I am telling you what I saw, and that is what I had seen. What I love about orchids is that the color can either look like a it was painted with a brush, or splattered with a brush. The way it grows can make it look like a creatures face or look like a mythical object. I mean it’s such a unique botanical phenomena, there is no reason for me to not love them so much.

Now here is one part that probably was really embarrassing and aggravating at the same time. We decided to buy little cups of ice cream for each of us to eat. We all sat on these big stone benches and ate. Once we were done, we threw away our cups and started walking. We wanted to head back to the parking lot so week can meet my grandfather and go back to the hotel. Buuuuuut we didn’t now which way to go. We tried the map but the way back was to far. So Deepak and I walked to the lady who was working at the little store selling the ice cream. “I am so sorry to bother you ma’am, but do you know the shortest way to the exit?” I asked. Her kind face looked sorrowful as she said “Sorry, the only way back is the way shown on the map.” Deepak and I huffed in dismay. “Thank you so much ma’am, again, we are so sorry to bother you.” I said.

We walked back to where we left the adults. We eventually found our way back to the front, and waked back to the parking lot where Bala Thatha stood there reading on his tablet. We were all extremely tired, on the car ride, I had to keep my head from drooping down and dislocating my neck from the sudden movement that would happen in the car. We all finally got back to our rooms, I changed into my purple pajamas and crashed into bed. “Good night Kanma-.” I was asleep before my dad could finish his sentence

Above is a picture of one of the many tree’s that were standing in the gardens.

Here is a picture of Singapore at sunset.