Singapore part 2 - close encounters of the furred kind

Day 4 (Saturday) Shopping

Shopping day. Went and checked out the shopping malls again. I'm not a big shopper so didn't buy much - only 4 packs of razors for Andrew and one lot for me as they were a lot cheaper than Australia.... Had another S$2 lunch from next door and went to Chinatown in the evening, bought some wall hanging type souvenirs and had Chinese steamboat for dinner - despite the look on my face in one of the photos, it was very yummy.

Day 5 (Sunday) Singapore Zoo and Night Safari

Biggggg day! We left the hotel by about 8:15ish to go to the Singapore Zoo, and did the night safari afterwards and got home about 10pm.

The Singapore Zoo is a fantastic zoo!! There's heaps of feedings happening all day for heaps of different animals. They're "token feedings" (ie. snacks) which allows you to see the animals eating as their main meals aren't neccesarily during opening hours. They also make sure they throw food all over the animal area as well to give them exercise and so you can see them in action.

The zoo is set up really well, with as few actual fences as possible, and it's great to be able to get involved in the feedings. We fed elephants, Hamadryas baboons, the massive Arapaima fish - also got a photo of mum almost crapping her pants as the fish jumped out of the water. These beasts are upto 2m long and upto 90 or so kg. They just kind of snap out of the water to get their food.

The monkeys were all a scream. There was heaps of chimps and we could have spent all day watching their antics. Among them was mum, dad and small baby who was clinging to mum. There was also a naughty chimp. He kept trying to annoy the baby and mum. he'd come up and push mum who would push him back and they'd have a bit of a barney until dad came and sorted things out. Then the naughty one would run off and come back with a stick and bash mum over the head!!! That caused dad, older brother, and mum to go racing after him trying to beat him up! It was an absolute scream. After that the naughty one would come and parade in front of us jumping up and down and clapping his hands. He obviously thought it was hilarious :) We were talking to a keeper who throws in any leftover bananas into them if he goes past as he usually sits and watches them for a while. He said if the naughty one wants a banana and he hasn't got any, the naughty one will find a stick and throw it at him!!! Such characters. It was also cute to see the baby and what we thought was an older sibling playing chasey racing after each other running around mum.

Other highlights were the white tiger feeding, the elephant show which included elephants working and playing, the proboscis monkeys which I thought were just GORGEOUS, a walk through area which had ring tailed lemurs which were so used to people and more happy for you to give them a pat, the jaguar feeding was impressive, and I took some footage of that one and the elephant ride was cool too!

The night safari was a bit of a let down after being at the zoo all day. I mean it was very well set up again with no fences between you and the animals and you did a tram ride through the park and they just had cattle grates to keep the animals from going to the next enclosure. They also had great "mood lighting" so the enclosures looked as though they were lit by moonlight. The only problem was that we'd seen the same animals during the day at the zoo when there was more light, so they were easier to see and thanks to the feedings you got to see them in action. We didn't really see the point of the night safari - the animals were just as lazy still at night!

There was a fair bit we didn't do as it was 9:30pm we were over it by then after being at the zoo since 8:30am....

Day 6 (Monday) Jurong Birdpark, resting and Singapore Slings!

Today we went to Jurong Birdpark. I wasn't all that excited about a zoo with only birds, but my aunt Nola was keen so we all went along. There was a great Bird of Prey show with birds such as eagles, owls and vultures and that was pretty impressive. Aunty Vicki got to be part of the show and hold some owls so that was good! Asians seem to be quite reserved so don't volunteer for things, but us Aussies throw our hands up and wave them wildly once we hear "Can I have a volunteer for...."

They had plenty of birds I love such as macaws, birds of paradise, various parrots and lorikeets. Ok, so lorikeets are very Australian, but I love feeding them and it'll be a while until I see another! They had a massive enclosure for them and you could purchase some feed for them, so we got some great photos.

My favourite parrot is the eclectus parrot which I think are just gorgeous, and we all got in a photo holding a bird, and I got to hold an eclectus so I was happy (although I was hoping for the beautiful green male, but got the red female - oh well).

Then we got home, got a few more things from the shops we needed, had a bit of a relax, then went to Raffles!!!

We had a great time at Raffles. We only stayed for a Singapore Sling each (and at S$20 each,, you'd only want one! S$20 would get me 10 good meals at my favourite little food guy!!!). But the atmosphere was fun and we took plenty of pics and ate lots of yummy peanuts (and I stuck to tradition by throwing the shells on the ground unlike my more OH&S conscious relatives...).

We got back to the hotel and the others got some dinner (from my favourite guy, but he charges them S$2.50 - he only ever charges me S$2!), and we sat around laughing at our photos and just giggling lots.

Day 7 (Tomorrow)

We discovered when going to the zoo that the Malaysian border is very close and we can get a cab there for about S$20, so that's the plan for tomorrow! Zip over to Malaysia, get a stamp in our passport, if there's anything over the border have a wander about, then zip back to do any last minute things before we fly out on Wednesday! Gee time flies.

Things I've noticed Part 2

- Road rules, indicators, and anything like that seem to be a guide rather than a rule! Nobody stops for you at pedestrian crossings, people just weave in and out of traffic without bothering with indicators, if you're sitting in the passenger seat of a cab, the while line seems to be going under you most of the time as they don't bother staying in one line, they prefer to take up a couple of lanes.
- Singaporeans do not walk with a purpose and do not watch where they're going. We walk reasonably briskly and are constantly getting caught going at a snails pace behind people, or they walk out in front of you without looking to see where other people are, or there'll be a group of people taking up the whole sidewalk, they'll stop, turn around to be looking towards us (waiting for really slowpokes) and won't even think to move out of the way.
- Cabs are SO CHEAP!!! Costs us S$4-5 to go most places we want that are local. For the far away places we haven't paid more than S$15 for a 20 minute or so drive! Amazing!
- Hotel staff are just lovely. Not have to be friendly, but genuinely friendly. My aunt Nola is a smoker so is often downstairs having a smoke, and quite a few doormen know her now and have a chat and ask what we've been upto. One of the waiters Norman knows us (we have a buffet brekky included every day) and always says hi and asks how we're going and many others may not speak english very well but are getting to know our faces so always greet us when they were a little shy before.
- The entire place is just very well thought out. From the layout of the tourist attractions to the cultural areas, we've been very impressed.
- They aren't big fans of REAL milk! The soy milk is just completely gross, so have been putting regular milk in my tea at breakfast time, and it's always UHT milk. Bleuchh! I'm hanging out for a real loose leaf cup of tea with real milk. Mmmmm!

Anyway, not long to the US now!! Can't wait to get there! It's nice to finish a holiday and have something else exciting to look forward to rather than just going back to the drudgery of work and regular life.

Next post will be from the US!