The Golden Palms resort and spa

14 acres of lush foliage was promised and thats exactly what the Golden Palms had to offer. While the others cooled off at the pool or in the indoor game area, some of us wandered through the well chosen and well cared for tropical vegetation.

I loved the trees around the tennis courts

and the many flowers, full in bloom thanks to the plentiful sun

Two trees in particular were extremely interesting -- the tall white one in the picture to the right -- presumably a century tree; and the strange one in the picture to the left that had massive 'roots' coming off its trunk, reaching for the ground...

The walkway around the buildings and the pool made for a good jogging/walking path

We ran into what looked like a gooseberry (amla) tree

and sure enough, there were the tell tale berries...

But thats not all, there were plenty of plants in riotous colours, full of berries, fruit and flowers. To the observant eye there were many exotic spiders, busy spinning their webs; there were creepers inching upwards and ephiphytes throwing their roots downwards; and there were the elegant butterflies, the common lime and the common emigrant. More pictures and stories to come..