New tour for the visually impaired at Gardens by the Bay

Unlike other visitors, they can touch plants and trees, aided by a tactile guidebook

- Fatmah Khan

Stretching his arms around a Chilean wine palm at the Gardens by the Bay's Flower Dome, Mr Ali Daud could barely cover half of the tree's massive trunk.

It was the first time Mr Ali had hugged a tree and the 60-year-old, who had been born blind, laughed.

"I didn't know that palm trees can be so huge, and the trunks, so big. It's something you can't imagine unless you feel and touch it," said Mr Ali, who is president of Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped (SAVH).

Chilean wine palms can grow up to 25m tall, with trunks of around 1m in diameter.