Singapore Day 2

Saturday, 2nd July 2011

After breakfast, we headed to Singapore Zoo and arrived there around 1030am. I anticipated that we can cover the place in 3.5 hours max, inclusive of lunchtime, but we took 5 hours and left the place after three quarter coverage at 4pm.

We bought entrance tickets that included unlimited tram rides (hint: this is a total waste, don't bother as they don't check your tickets when you board the tram. Moreover there are only 4 tram stops and none in between leaving most visitors forced to walk) and unlimited boat rides (another waste of money as we had no time to sit more than one round).

More than half the tourists are foreigners, from my observation, and many are Koreans or Japanese and Filipinos. We ate at Ah Meng Restaurant - the kids had Hainanese Chicken Rice, hubs and I shared the BBQ Chicken Leg and Nasi Briyani (actually he hardly ate, I ate most - famished from all the walking!)

Another thing I want to add is that I have never been very fond of visiting zoos, even when young. The only thing I remembered was how pathetic the animals looked, inactive and almost malnourished, the lions did not roar and only lay around lazily posing for pictures, and how the zoo is forever hot - and me always sweating, sticky and involunteerily feeding the resident mosquitoes.

In my last visit to the zoo in Taiping a couple of years back (also only because of the kids), I remembered how hot and sticky I felt although we went early in the morning, and within the hour, we were all feeding the mosquitoes there! We left in less than 3 hours.

Oh, but Singapore Zoo IS DIFFERENT. The were plenty of plants, trees and the walkways, railings, trams and eateries were clean - typical Singapore, you can say. I didn't check out the toilets though but I won't be surprise if they are equally clean. None of us had a single mosquito bite on us, and the visit was pleasant, the staff working at the shows and feeding the animals were professional, informed and polite.

And me, the scardy mommy who dare not take up my 6yo's daughter challenge / invitation to get on any roller coaster with her, for the FIRST TIME in my life, fed a rhinoceros. *pat myself on the back*

Less said, here are many many pictures taken.  Enjoy!

Interesting tickets that we can keep as souvenirs.  Brilliant idea!

Monkeys everywhere... so many different types. 

The seal show was quite good, but lasted only 15 minutes.  We rushed there the moment we got our tickets.

She didn't want to take a pic with the giraffe, but mummy "asked" her to.  Just look at the majestic, tall animal. 

Another mode of transportation - on daddy's strong shoulders.  Best of all, free of charge.  : )

Elephant show.  Was quite entertaining. 

Ele

Vic says these are parrots.  William says they are "Angry Birds"... lol!  See what commercialism has done to the kids?  Oh, and did you know that parrots can outlive the majority of us, up to 120years... nobody would keep them as pets because you will have to leave them in your will.

One of the record.  The photographer and her two monkeys adorable kids.  : )

Since cannot sit on the real tortoises, they kids "giddy-up-ed" on this. 

Finally... the one that the kids can pestering us every 3 minute... "Daddy I want to see the crocodile"... "Daddy, where are the crocodiles?"... "Daddy, are we near the crocodiles yet?"  Urrghh, that really got on our nerves... come to zoo to see animals, and all they are excited over are the crocodiles... might as well go to crocodile farm, right?  Oh well...

As expected, both kids conked out in the car on the way back to the hotel.  We wanted to have dinner at the Ion shopping mall, because I simply love the price and variety of the food at the Food Hall, but the GPS brought us round quite a bit in the jam, so we ended up eating at the Food Hall in Takashimaya.  The food there - not good - the variety nothing to shout about and even worse - the price.  Screamingly expensive, don't convert else you rather go on a diet.

Most important the kids ate full, hubs and I decided to go for local hawker supper later, which was what we did.... we tapaued Singapore Hokkien Prawn Mee and Prawn Lobak at Newton Food Court.  While in Takashimaya, we bought some organic, allergy-free snacks for the kids in case they get hungry in the car the next day.