Singapore in pictures

I'm not sure I've ever  been anywhere as sorely underestimated as Singapore. Bland, sterile, sanitised - it's regularly called all those things, and yet for me its a fascinating mix of futuristic business hub, colonial outpost, and an ethnic melange that means you can eat dim sum for breakfast, daal and chapati for lunch and meze for supper all within strolling distance of each other.

It's a truly crazy city; 5.5 million people squeezed into 760 square kilometres - just slightly more than twice the size of the Isle of Wight, with  85% of the population living in high rises.  Part Manhattan, part Asia, it's anything but bland.  But rather than me wittering on, better just to let the pictures do the talking.

First up, the city's spectacular $1 billion Gardens by the Bay.  They make the Eden Project look like my back garden.

Fabulous display for Chinese New Year ; 2015 is the year of the goat, thus the, er, flower clad goats...

Outside the Supertrees - 25-50 metre high vertical gardens are like something out of a sci-fi movie

and overlooking it all the mammoth 2,000 room Marina Bay Sands hotel complex.  Check out the boat-like level on top - home to a huge alfresco infinity pool, bar and restaurant - the right-hand end is the largest overhanging structure in the world.

Away from the futuristic bay area, different ethnic communities have their own areas of the city.  In Chinatown, the streets are gearing up for Chinese New Year (19th Feb)

while Little India feels like being in a completely different country

sadly I was too busy scoffing meze to take a pic in the Arab quarter.

Eating out is a huge part of Singaporean life; from hawker markets where dozens of different stalls offer ethnic food of every variety (Lau Pa Sat Below) to Blumenthalesque eateries serving up cheesecake pills and truffle polystyrene (yes, really).

And on every street corner, spilling from every building, are plants, flowers, trees, shrubs - lush greenery that softens the gleaming angles of the office buildings and apartment blocks.  It's not the polite-potted-plant version that dots English cities, but towering palms, rich clusters of banyan trees - you get the sense that if it wasn't controlled, the plants would quickly just take over the city, wrapping around buildings, draping the malls in layers of greenery.  A kind of tropical Day of the Triffids, only without everyone having to end up on the Isle of Wight.

For someone who loves gardens, flowers, plants and all forms of greenery, it's the dream city.  But check-in is calling and Sydney beckons.  Just time to add a last picture; of Singapore's national flower, the orchid.  Beautiful.