Singapore: Day 2

We went to the Singapore Zoo on day 2. Initially we were thinking about going to the Night Safari as well, but we decided against it because we would have to wait 1 1/2 hours between the time the zoo closes at 6pm and the Night Safari opens at 7:30pm. I read that kids don't enjoy the Night safari it as much as the zoo, which has bigger animals and provides several opportunities to interact with some of them so the zoo, it was.

There's a lot to do here, from watching shows to interacting withe the animals during feeding or animal encounters, but some of them go on at the same time so I had to select which ones we had to prioritize. I was hoping for us to get there by 1pm so we could catch the first afternoon feeding trail but we got there at around 2pm. We did catch the tail-end of this trail, which included the white tigers:


and the pygmy hippos.


We managed to catch a couple of interactive feeding sessions, too. The first one was with the giraffe:


and the second was was with kangaroos.


You have to pay extra to feed the animals ($5 per person for the giraffe and $5 per group for the kangaroos) but the proceeds are used for conservation efforts. Speaking of, during our afternoon snack break, CJ asked for some spare change so he could make a donation to the Wildlife Reserves Singapore Conservation Fund.


Of course, it wasn't all about animal feeding. :) We also got to see a lot of the animals, like zebras, white rhinos, and other big cats. What's great about the Singapore zoo is that a lot of the animals are not kept in traditional cages. Instead, the enclosures are surrounded by thick bushes, so you feel closer and more connected to the animals. I especially love the orangutan area which is actually open and allows the orangutans to roam freely about the zoo.

There are several animal encounters but the one we really wanted to do was the elephant ride. This is done twice a day, from 1:15-2:15pm and from 4:30-5:30pm. Can't recall how much the ride costs ($18 I think) but my mom and nephews got on the elephant. I didn't join them since I had been on one before and I wanted to take photos. My grandparents were told that, for safety reasons, they couldn't get on.


We caught one show - the Splash Safari at 5pm - where we watched Stan the sea lion do a lot of really cool tricks before we left the zoo. The luckiest break for us was that while waiting for the bus that would take us to the MRT station, a different bus called the Orchard Express drove up. It costs $4 for adults and $2 for kids but it goes straight to Orchard and in fact it's second stop is right in front of the Royal Plaza on Scotts! There were only 3 or 4 other people in the bus as we headed back to our hotel so it felt like we rented a private vehicle (with a lot of leg room) for only $20. That was really cool!

My grandparents were tired to they stayed in the hotel room while the rest of us headed out to Suntec City. My mom wanted to visit the Fountain of Wealth, which was listed by the Guiness Book of World Records in 1998 as the biggest fountain in the world.


We got there during the laser and music show but our main purpose of visiting was to gain some good luck by walking around the fountain three times while touching the water at all times. The guard told us that people would be allowed to walk around the fountain at 930pm, so we decided to have some dinner and ice cream first. We were probably the last people who went around the fountain that day.


Our final stop for the night was the Merlion Park. We were told it would take about 20 minutes to get there on foot so we decided to have a nice evening stroll. Along the way, we caught a glimpse of a wonderfully lit Marina Bay Sands.


We went through the Esplanade (brought back memories of F1 back in 2009) By the time we got to the Merlion, my nephews were already really tired so we just took a couple of photos.


One more tourist stop the next day then we head back to the Philippines. More on our last day in the next blog post.