The Moove Cows are back

Whilst travelling down Orchard Rd the other day on the bus, I noticed some cutouts of cows grazing in the open space along Orchard Rd. For the next  three weeks more than 400 cows can be seen grazing across 51 Singapore’s open spaces throughout the island. 

The cows appear in Singapore each year to celebrate different themes. Past campaigns have included World Cup cows with the cows in the nations guernseys and Flower cows.  This year the cows are part of the “Moove Cows@Work” campaign that a media company has launched in celebration of Singapore’s workforce. 

The cows represents several jobs across the various industries. There’s the accountant and executive cows representing commerce and trade; the cow representing building and engineering industries; army cadet cow representing defence; lawyer cow depicting Singapore's legal system; the doctor and nurse cows representing healthcare; the scientist cows representing  research; chef cow representing tourism; and the artist cow representing the performing arts. There are also cows representing the every day bus driver, cleaner and hawker store owner

Once the campaign is over the cows can be purchased with the money going to charity .

The Artist cow 

The Nurse cow

The Doctor cow

The Construction cow

The Legal cow

Accountant cow

Army cadet cow

Doctor cow

 The Executive cow

Chef cow

Cleaner cow

Local fire

Last Monday around 9am a fire broke out at a hotel just near our apartment. East Village Hotel was undergoing refurbishment but still operating with guests. The fire broke out in the basement and is believed to have started from welding sparks setting fire to polystyrene insulation as well as paint thinners stored in the basement.
The fire took 5 hours to bring under control and nine hotel guests were taken to hospital with smoke inhalation. One firemen was also treated for burns and another for heat exhaustion.

The hotel is still closed and refurbishment has stopped as the construction company has had its permit revoked.

From our apartment balcony

The adjoining houses to the hotel

Onlookers in Marine Parade

Marine Parade view

From our apartment balcony

Dense smelling smoke 

From our apartment balcony

From our apartment balcony

A weekend in Langkawi

Langkawi is a 75 minute flight from Singapore and is situated 30 kms of the north western coast of Malaysia. Flying into Langkawi is spectacular as you fly over many of the 104 islands that form the Langkawi archipelago.
The main island is very lush and large mountains dominate the island. One way of getting a better view of the main island and surrounding islands is to ride the cable car up the mountain. The cable car climbs in two sections and covers 2 kilometres in length and climbs to 708 metres above sea level. The ride down certainly felt like you were on a roller coaster as it is so steep. There is also a skywalk bridge up the top of the mountain that takes you amongst the treetops but it was closed for maintenance.

We hired a car for the weekend as it is the easiest way to get around the island and meant that we pretty much covered the whole island. Along the way we stopped off at a spectacular waterfall called Temuran Waterfall. This waterfall is the biggest in Langkawi and has a drop of about 30 metres. Along the path to the waterfall, there were a large group of monkeys waiting for people to feed them or to pounce on people with plastic bags that could contain food.


The hotel we stayed at was the Tanjung Sanctuary Beach Resort which is in the middle of forest and each afternoon monkeys would visit our verandah looking for food before moving on to the next room. We were told not to feed them as there is abundant food in the forest for the monkeys.

The beach at Tanjung Sanctuary Beach Resort

Sunset at Tanjung Sanctuary Beach Resort

Monkeys at the Hotel

Local fishing boat

The cable car up Machincang mountain

Sky Bridge

View from the top of Machincang mountain

Steep descent!

Temuran Waterfall

Monkey at Temuran Waterfall

Singapore Garden Festival 2012

Singapore's annual garden festival was held last week at the Suntec City Convention centre.The exhibition covered 2 hectares over two levels of the convention centre and attracted large crowds. Many of the displays were suited to owners of apartments and there were also a few larger show gardens suitable for Singaporeans with landed properties. Garden designers from around the world had contributed to the displays.
Also included were floral and bonsai displays . The floral displays were by floral designers from Singapore and Malaysia. Many of the floral displays featured orchids. In the retail area countless stores were selling orchids and were doing a roaring trade.

Large olive trees were used in this display

Fantasy Garden

Floral dragon

Floral fish

Floral arrangement with orchids

Floral arrangement

Bonsai

Orchids 

Floral arrangement

One of the large show gardens

One of the large designer gardens

Floral arrangement with orchids

One of the large designer gardens

One of the seven dwarfs in the Snow White Garden

Frog Guard

Bird made using the dried palm leaves 

Gardens by the Bay

Last Friday saw the opening of Gardens by the Bay South which is part of Singapore's new billion dollar  Gardens by the Bay. Built on 101 hectares of reclaimed land, the gardens comprise of three areas - Bay East, Bay South and Bay Central. Bay East is also open and Bay Central is still being developed.
The Government hopes the gardens will become iconic like London's Hyde Park and NewYork's Central Park. The Gardens are located next to Marina Bay and can be accessed by train, bus and taxi or by a walkways from the Marina Sands complex.

Gardens By The Bay South  is the largest of the three gardens and occupies 54 ha.The gardens consist of 2 conservatories - one a cool - dry climate and the other a cool -moist climate. These conservatories house over 226,000 plants.
Throughout the gardens are 18 Supertrees that are structures that have vertical gardens up the stems and the tops of the Supertrees house solar panels to harvest electricity for the gardens.The Supertrees are also connected by an aerial walkway. One of the Supertrees is also going to house a restaurant that will open latter this year.
The gardens are also themed and the themes include - Heritage Gardens and The World of Plants. Heritage Gardens celebrate the the history and culture of Singapore and include an Indian, Malay, Chinese and Colonial gardens.
The World of plants showcases the World of Palms, Secret Life of Trees, Fruits and Flowers, Discovery Gardens and the Web of Life.
Two large lakes also feature in the garden and they act as a filtration system for the runoff water from the gardens before the water is filtered back into the Marina Reservoir.

Gardens by the Bay South

The Supertrees

The Conservatories

Skyway Walk

One of the many sculptures in the gardens

The Supertrees at night

Supertrees nightly lightshow

The Chinese Garden

Bromeliads wall garden

Dragonfly Lake

Giant rabbit

The Chinese Garden

Skyway walk through The Supertrees