A mist, a stream and Mt Kinabalu

©Alamy

From Ms Peggy Tan.

Sir, Daniela Morena (Letters, February 23) notes that anyone wishing to see the Margaret Thatcher orchid within Singapore’s Botanic Gardens must pay a $5 entrance fee to enter the orchid garden. May I add that this enclosure is a three-hectare spread on a verdant hillside replete with majestic tropical hardwood trees, and that, as visitors walk up this gently sloping hill, they are treated to themed landscapes filled with orchids at every turn of the path, culminating next to a two-storey colonial house on the top of the hill where the award-winning Dendrobium Margaret Thatcher is but one of dozens of such VIP hybrids given pride of place?

There is also a valuable species section and, nearby, special enclosures house not only Borneo phalaenopses but orchids from central and South America too numerous to name.

But the place that wins my vote is the Cool House, a glass-enclosed building where the temperature is several degrees lower, and which houses more than 250 tropical montane species found only in the highlands of Southeast Asia. Here, amid a gushing stream and enveloping mist (all man-made, mind you) you just need to close your eyes and you are immediately transported to the mountain ranges of Mt Kinabalu. Now who wouldn’t pay $5 (or two and half British pounds) for that?

Peggy Tan, Singapore