Singapore Zoo

On Wednesday 2nd Norshidah was back to work. Warren helped Will and I take a taxi to our hotel and even though we were quite early, we were able to check in. For the next 2 nights we were staying at Hotel 81 in Chinatown. It was a brilliant location, right next to the Chinatown MRT station. Warren then took us out to a big sports mall, as I was keen to buy some new badminton shoes, and they were a lot cheaper in Singapore than back in NZ. I managed to get last seasons top of the range yonex shoe for $120, which was pretty good considering RRP was over $200. The sports mall was where he and Norshidah found me the rackets I was after earlier in the year, and they bought them over to NZ for me when they were there at Christmas time. It means I'll have new shoes and new rackets to play with when I get back home, exciting!

After some very cheap, tasty and plentiful Indian in another hawker centre we parted ways with Warren and caught a taxi out to the zoo. I do love a good zoo, and this one was awesome. We took loads and loads of photos, so I'll try and narrow it down to a reasonable amount... I love all the monkeys, especially the orangutans. They also had the rare proboscis monkey which I saw in the wild when I was in Borneo. I always think their noses make them look like old men...

I also love the big cats. There was a white tiger which I had never seen before.

However, our favourite animal in the whole zoo was the giant panda, which is another animal I hadn't ever seen before. We spent ages just watching it, plus taking a stack of photos...

Here are some other random pics, including a very cute otter which is one of Will's favourites... I, myself, was quite taken with the pygmy hippo, it was surprisingly cute and graceful!

Just as we were leaving the zoo there was a torrential monsoon downpour, and some of the most incredible thunder and lightening I have ever seen. The size of the raindrops was ridiculous! We were heading for the Night Safari which was just next door, so we waited out the weather under cover. I was impressed that the zoo reception had free wifi, so I caught up on a few emails, facebook etc. The downpour lasted about an hour.

The Night Safari was cool, a lot of people rate it as one of their favourite things to do in Singapore. However, we had spent so long walking round the zoo that we were pretty fatigued by the time we got there. We started off by doing a full circuit on the tram which takes you right around the park in 40 minutes or so. It's a great idea, you get to see loads of animals that are active at night. We didn't take any photos as there was still quite a bit of moisture in the air, so probably not the best for the camera. Also, the tram was constantly moving. After the tram ride we did one of the several walks that are available. We went to go see the fishing cat which was pretty cool, plus Will got to see more otters... After the walk we watched the 'Creatures of the Night' show, which was pretty funny, sometimes unintentionally so... At one stage they got someone out of the audience and draped a big snake around her neck. Unfortunately they chose a little Japanese women who was absolutely terrified! The ensuing hysterics were pretty funny. We also saw a beautiful big white wolf, plus they had (randomly!) trained some otters to put rubbish and recycling into different bins.

Our timing was perfect in that after the show we managed to pretty much jump straight onto a bus that took us back to Chinatown, arriving home just after 11pm.