The Botanical Gardens was pretty busy on this Saturday morning. There were flowers and trees but also monkeys, monitor lizards, butterflies, army ants and birds. We strolled around for two hours with plenty of park bench time. We brought some cheese and salami to snack on. There was a fern house, a bromeliad house and an orchid house. Other buildings were inexplicably locked up including the bathrooms of all places. That was odd. There were tour groups, cute little kids, two photoshoots and some drama of the young love style. We managed to find cooling breezes in many places but at times it was just plain hot. Snagged a taxi back to the house and cooled down.
We passed a few different temples on the way there
One of them was way up in the hills
It was hard to get t good picture in the moving car
Walking through the gates to the gardens
Immediately we see monkeys
Long Tailed Macaques
In the fern house
On top of the fern house
Tropical flowers, Anthurium Rose
Huge staghorn fern
We are in a valley with tall hills on both sides
Bridal Photos
Macaque snack
We found the nursery
Mothers and little ones sitting
and hanging on
A huge twisted vine on a side path
Barriers to safe exploration
Ants on the march!
Thunbergia erecta!
In the bromeliad house
Tiny flowers staying close to home
Nice display
Bigger flowers
Very showy
And then some huge ones
Crossing over the stream
In the Orchid house
A blushing phalaenopsis
The most unusual orchid in the house
Tiny blooms coming out of a large flat leaf structure
Upside down and plump
Back across the stream
A different kind of Mmonkey
The dusky leaf monkey
Huge bunches of these blooms were on several trees
A gate being taken over by the growth
Cannonball fruits
A nicer gate
An updated "Brockabrella". The umbrella hat was first invented in the 1855's and was over due for an upgrade. It had a resurgence in 1976 when Lou Brock from the Saint Louis Cardinals would wear one in the outfield. It was especially effective when playing in Chicago as fans regularly threw beer at him from the stands
The flower from the cannonball tree, a good snack for a macaque
Great balls of fire!
A three foot long monitor lizard
Most likely a water monitor
