The Next 3 Day Which Ended Up Being 5!

Moving on to Monday...Steve and I decided to get a little wild so we headed to the Singapore Zoo of course! The Singapore Zoo is tauted as being world class and as good as the San Diego Zoo but smaller (as Olivia said). Having never been to the one in San Diego I have nothing to compare it to. But in my humble opinion, the Singapore Zoo is excellent. It is an open concept and most of the animals' exhibits have a moat for a barrier. I won't bore you with a play by play but here are some of the highlights:

• Right when you walk in there are these little monkeys that are essentially wandering and jumping around from tree to tree or tree to sign. One of them actually ran right between Steve and I. You are really close to them. It was pretty cool, though I bit frightening because it was a wild animal.
• The white Bengal tigers were cool too but like all kittens they slept most of the time.
• I swear the Hamadryas Baboons would look right at you and the moat that is a barrier looked like it would be no problem for them to jump over. None of them did but I bet the thought did cross their minds. The other monkeys seemed to look right at you too which can be a little unsettling. One little guy seemed to be following Steve.
• We went to the "Rainforest Fights Back" show and it was soooo cheesy. I'm not sure I would recommend it to someone.
  
• The free ranging Orang Utans were not very active except for one couple that were engaging in a natural act.
• By far one of the best parts was the Fragile Forest exhibit. You actually get to walk among the animals. There are a lot of birds and butterflies but we also were really close to some ring-tailed lemurs and bats. It was pretty cool.
  
• The Giant Tortoises were huge and there were about 5 of them. We decided not to ride them.
  
• We happened to be there for the Kangaroo feeding...the animals aren't so interesting when they are being fed. It was kind of like feeding a group of house cats or dogs.
  

Overall the Singapore Zoo was pretty cool. That evening we kind of took it easy.

Alone in Singapore...

On Tuesday, Steve went back to work so I had to entertain myself. I decided that since I was on vacation that I deserved to not rush. So I didn't. Eventually, I made my way out to Boat Quay (pronounced "key"). Boat Quay is a place that has lot of restaurants but just across the way there is an island where many of the colonial roots of Singapore can be seen.


This picture kind of shows both sides of it. To the right is the area where there are lots or restaurants. On the left is the area with the historical buildings. The city had a couple of nice walks in that area. So I took one of those and say the old Parliament and Supreme Court buildings, Raffles landing point - who was the founder of the city more or less, the Cricket Club and Pedang, etc. The walk takes you back along the water and you can see a great view of the Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay.


It was a nice day for the walk. I then headed back to Steve's. I picked up some tennis balls on the way because Steve and I have been playing and someone keeps losing the balls. :)

Animals, animals day and night...

On Wednesday, more animals were on tap. I had bought the pass to see the Singapore Zoo, Jurong Bird Park and Night Safari. I wanted to see all of them before the weekend in case we decided to go to Malaysia for the weekend. On tap for today was the Jurong Bird Park. I had decided to go there via public transportation. Steve and I had been taking taxis to the other places that weren't close to the hotel just because it was quicker. Since I had some time on my hands and I'm just generally cheap, I took public transportation and about an hour later I arrived there.

Jurong Birk Park is also pretty cool and they try and give you ample opportunities to be close to the birds. Though lots of the birds are in cages so they are hard to photograph and find especially if they are from a jungle habitat with a lot of trees and bushes in their cage. The Lory Loft was pretty cool because there were tons of birds flying around you though after a few minutes you realize that they are waiting for you to feed them. I didn't feed any of them but happened to get a couple of good pictures.


The park also has an indoor 100m tall waterfall which was neat and there were different birds flying around. I also was impressed with the Southeast Asia exhibit because various birds were wandering around. I'm never quite sure how close to them I should get or how fast I should move. At one point, I turned the corner and a peacock was standing right there...kind of cool. You could get really close to the pelicans and the flamingos as well both are a bit smelly if you ask me. I also caught the Birds of Prey show which was fun but maybe I'm just like watching the birds fly around for food.

I took one self-portrait with the ostrich...I guess I was feeling goofy.



That evening...The Night Safari! Unfortunately, you couldn't really take pictures because it was dark and the flash might scare the animals. Check out their website for some pics. Overall, it was pretty cool. We rode the tram and you can get really close to lots of the animals. Some of the deer were right next to the tram. They had one of the elephants really close and made her wave at us. There are a lot of big cats and well like most kittens many of them were sleeping. Most were in cages as well except for the tigers and lions. There was one pacing leopard and a fishing cat from China that were pretty active. We decided that they only release fish at certain times for the fishing cat because she kept looking like she was going to go after a fish but couldn't find any. Part of it is also walking on some trails. The flying squirrels weren't out but we got really close to come fruit bats. It seemed like the majority of the animals were from Southeast Asia so that was kind of interesting as well.

And the last 2 days?

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. I kind of took it easy and didn't take in too many more sights. I tried to pack a lot in early in the week in case we decided to go to Malaysia. We didn't but it was nice to have quieter days. Friday night I went back to Chinatown and was late for a walking tour so I ended up walking around by myself for a few hours. It was good to scope out the stall and figure out what kind of souvenirs to buy. I thought more would have been going on since right now the Mid-Autumn/Moon Festival is going on. Apparently it is mostly lanterns and moon cakes.

First 3 Days in Singapore

Well, here I am in Singapore after 24 hours of travel. I was afraid that I would be jet-lagged but thus far things have been fine.

On the first day, Steve & I went to breakfast at a mall. To be honest, I wasn't sure if he was exaggerating when he said that here were malls and shopping EVERYWHERE but apparently that is true. So we went to a cafe for breakfast and was introduced to a Flat White (essentially American style Cappuccino) and the ex-pat wives community, which seemed to be mainly comprised of Australians.

Later in the day we went to the Singapore Botanical Gardens, which are more or less right down the road from where Steve lives. This seems to make up a good area of the city. It was really beautiful. They have a wonderful orchid exhibit that I loved and as Steve mentioned, "Who doesn't like orchids?" Apparently, Singapore is a center of orchid cultivation and creation of new species.


Steve took some really nice pictures of the flowers and especially those in the slipper exhibit.


That evening it was off to Chinatown for dinner. I know it sounds strange since most of the people in Sinapore are ethnically Chinese but whatever. We went to a place to have cold noodles and the guy made them right there in the store, which was pretty cool and the noodles were awesome. It was cool to walk around the area at night. It was packed and a little crazy. After the noodles Steve took me to the Bratwurst booth where a echte Deutsche is making sausages. It was kind of funny and really crowded. I guess everyone likes a good sausage. We will be going back there.


On to Saturday...

We spent Saturday walking around the city some more time exploring the city. In a way it is hard to plan you days since it may seem overcast in the morning but then you go out and a few hours later the sun come out and it is hot hot hot or vis verse. Today we went down to Little India and did some exploring. It looked as if there was a festival recently because there were still signs over the streets. This part of the city certainly was fragrant with flowers and spices. We headed to the Veeramakaliamman Temple - dedicated to the ferocious Hindu goddess, Kali - and it was a pretty cool temple. We ate at a South Indian place called Komala Villas that for the first 5 minutes was hectic and confusing. This is how I envision India to be in reality. We had a great lunch of dosai which are big pancakes stuffed with potoatoes and veggies - yummy! - and were entertained but the young woman next to us who was talking non-stop. After than we did some more walking around and browsing the shops. A young Indian woman tried to sell me a $180 Pashmina scarf! It was a great color but I'm still not sure what is so great about Pashmina.

We thought we would head to the Arab Quarter as well but for some reason we got really tired. I guess it was the heat a bit. We saw a big thing of street vendors selling Moon Cakes for the Autumn Festival. One of the stands sold vegetarian ones so he picked some up. We checked out the Kuan Yim Temple (Buddist) and the Sri Krishnan Temple (Hindu). The Kuan Yim Temple was interesting because people were burning incense and praying. I wished I understood more about Buddism. Interestingly, there were many Chinese lighting incense at the Hindu temple as well. I'm not sure why. After that we went back to Steve's place and relaxed.

Biking on Sunday...

Sunday we headed out to one of the islands near Singpore, called Pulau Ubin. We hopped on a bumboat and in less than 15 minutes we were there. We rented mountain bikes and went riding on the island. The guidebooks claim that Pulau Ubin is what Singapore looked like 50 years ago...I guess that depends on which part of Singapore you are looking at. I'm pretty sure the colonial area wasn't comprised of wooden houses and dirt roads but then again, what do I know.


After a bit we got off our bikes and walked through the wetland preserve. It was really interesting though we probably should have gone when the tide was low to see some of the sealife and corals. It was cool to walk through the mangrove forest. Though there is a significant amount of garbage that washes up on the shores. After our walk through the preserve, we got back on our bikes and headed out for more exploring.



The island is pretty small and easy to get around there are a few hills and at times it was a bit scary going down the hills. I guess I have been spoiled this summer in flat Chicago. I have to say that mountain biking is pretty fun and I'd definitely do it again. On one hill my chain fell off and I couldn't get it back on so we walked it back to the rental place. The woman was like "use gear 2 it is better!" My knees were like, "gear 2 are you nuts???" So after that some of the hills were a little challenging. Right was we were heading in for the day it started to rain. We got in just in time. We grabbed a drink and then is started to pour for like 15 minutes. Then it just stopped again...I guess that is the tropical climate for you. We jumped back on the bumboat and headed back.

Later that evening, I met my friend Olivia. She and I went to undergrad in Madison. She's from Singapore and lives here now. I met here husband, Tom, and daughters, Georgie and Ella, who are all cute. It was great to see her and it seem like we both felt that we were pretty much the same. We'll be meeting up later in the trip. It is hard to believe that I hadn't seen her since 1994.