Singapore Part 1- Singapore Night Safari

Day 1: Get the lay of the land & Singapore Night Safari

I had a very articulate itinerary for the 3 days we spent in Singapore. All done from the get-go. Alas, you know what they say about the best laid plans.... Lunch was supposed to be at Asia Grand for some awesome Peking duck. Way out of our budget as expected. I was beginning to think the website recommending the activities was not for starving budget tourists. So thank God, I had an alternative listed for 1300hours. Raffles City it is.

There was a chain of food courts to explore. But luckily, we met up with Jared who suggested Mos Burger- no regrets. 

Ying and Jared shared a 'Buddy meal' and I had the Unagi burger.

My amazing itinerary.

On the horrific bus ride into Singapore(6 hrs + getting down twice for immigration), we met 2 cute Singaporean Malay kids. Siti and her brother. They were P3 and P4 I think. We had a fun time chatting it up about animals, he even sang us the national anthem in Mandarin! Fooyoh. Plus he said Malaysia is very dirty. Couldn't agree more. They told us about the YOG- youth olympic games. So here.. after lunch we walked around a bit and saw the famous casino-boatlike thingy atop a hotel and the YOG campaigns. It was also just the day after Singapore National Day. So naturally....

YOG street toilets! So cool. With mascot pictures on them! A glimpse of the Singapore Eye and Ying's new shoes. We bought them at a factory outlet store there. It was really cheap!

We had very yummy economy rice for dinner. Don't know why people say Singapore food sucks. I personally like it and I like good food. 

Off to the Night Safari!


Ying continues his progression of oddity- it has become a tradition now in every foreign land he steps into which has statues.

Picture with a giant walking tree/vine/imp. Ticket prices which we luckily didn't have to pay thanks to Jared's uncle. Thank you! A short walk waiting for the night show to start. 

We walked on the Fishing Cat trail. Many animals were spotted but by the naked eye only. The camera was worth peanuts in the Night Safari. Stupid tourists were still using flash photography despite clear signage against it. Same donkois are the ones who make noise passing the lions den and stick a flailing arm out passing the tigers. Spotted a leopard and crocodiles just inches next to us. 

Onto the night show. The big white wolf came out to howl as an opening for the show. We later got to witness a leopard leaping high into the air for fish. 

Charlene was cheeky. They'd been to the show many times so they chose very 'strategic' seats for us. The zoo people made it quite real. After some minutes sitting in a standstill with no one on stage, they announced that they were having some 'technical difficulties'. Suddenly, panic ensued the audience as the hosts 'interrupted' the show announcing an animal was missing. I kept going, 'NO WAY. Don't tell me it's a snake.' I had been to the safari a long time ago as a child. I had a vague recollection of a snake of some sort. As my noisy brain tried piecing it together I noticed we were seated on 2 hatches. I freaked out. OMG YES IT IS! I REMEMBER. A SNAKE IS GONNA BE UNDER US!!! OMG OMG! At that point it was too late. Charlene was smiling at me. She was probably annoyed by my constant yelping. AHHAHA. Alas, the snake was in the hatch right next to us. Thank God. By then I was literally in a different row. Panicking. Snakes creep me out so much. So Maggie (the 10 foot python) was dragged out of the hatch and brought on stage. Troublemaker. :D

The final segment of the show was cute little otters who came out and taught the audience how to recycle.

So, we hopped on the 10pm tram and went off to see the lions and tigers. En route, Ying got sprayed on by an elephant (as the tourguide called it 'gave him a welcome shower'). He was absolutely flabbergasted. LOL. Best part of my night definitely! :D

Saw some giant water buffalos (yelememader in Tamil I think HAHAHA) Stopped by a phosphorescent? (glow in the dark shop) and Ying had some fun looking at his new shoes. Everyone's teeth in the shop was blue.  Reminds me of Ross yet again in one of the episodes in Friends where he overwhitened his teeth and the girl had a black light.

The next day it was pouring when we headed off to meet with my dear cousin who was gracious enough to pick us up at 7 am. God bless her! Dim sum!