Ah the Singapore zoo. We went there just the weekend before National Day and a very hot and sunny weekend it was.
No. I’m not exactly sure but uh, they’re tree mascots. Very fantasy-ish in a spirits of the rain forest sense. The cast for this episode is the main crew for the Adventure crew! Raven came a bit later since she had training. In fact, in this episode you might see them in the various pictures. Try to spot them if you can!
And thus we bought our tickets! We didn’t go for the packaged ticket that had the tram and boat ticket rides included. You get a free dollar voucher to one of their restaurants or something and a map of the zoo including a schedule of feeding times and shows happening there.
Looking at the weather, I was glad I was wearing sunscreen but I was more than sure that wasn’t enough so I purchased a hat from the zoo’s store! I AM SO GLAD I bought it! It was freaking sunny and it was worth it having a hat like that. Also, we managed to pull away from buying soft toys there. There’s lot of cute fuzzy stuff and snakes. I like the fuzzy toy snakes.
The first few animals you see as you enter would be the parrots and some tiny monkeys in their special houses near the entrance. The last time I went to the zoo was years ago and now, wow. The place looks awesome. I forget that Singapore’s zoo is one of the best in the world with numerous awards too.
You first start through a tree top boardwalk thing. If you look over the railing, you’ll be able to see some animals swinging about or if you don’t, too bad! It’s ok though since you’ll see more of them later in their own zoo habitats.
Most of us usually went to the zoo during school excursions or thought it was a tourist thing to do. Well for one thing, woah it is very fun visiting the zoo! Sure, you’ll smell the animals before you get to see them but it’s a fun day to be had if you get to see the shows or participate in the feeding times!
What was fun to see besides the animals were the descriptions on them! They were in various languages including braille! Ok, the last one was on the babirusa aka a type of wild boar and not a tapir. I didn’t take the braille version of the tapir’s description but I’m sure it’s there somewhere.
We didn’t get on the boats. Heck, we took one day and we didn’t really do everything at the zoo! You can go through the exhibits and all within a day but if you want to do everything would need a few trips since there’s elephant shows, feeding times and photo opportunities with animals and whatnot. We just did the “land” bits and next year there’ll be more exhibits opening since the pandas will arrive!
As you can see, my hat is very useful that day.
We got to see lots of zones at the zoo. You can actually buy a ticket for the tram, the zookeeper or guides usually talk about the various sights around there when you ride it.
It’s kinda amazing that some animals have free reign in their own zones. The orang utans are free ranging so they’ll really be above you in the trees. You can spot the zookeepers along the pathway either picking up stray branches or carrying some fruits to feed them at times.
Yes.
Orang utans above you.
Randomly, I don’t know if orang utans poo on the ground or while they’re on trees, hmm. Oh yes, as we walked along a lake of sorts we spotted the Ah Meng memorial statue too.
And then we went to Cat Country. HUGE KITTIES. I like lynxes. They have pretty pointy tipped ears. Like elves but furrier and clawier so not like elves at all. The white tigers are at their own enclosures instead of being with the rest of the huge kitties since apparently they’re special or something. Everyone was crowding at the white tiger enclosures anywho.
As you go around the enclosures, you’ll notice that the architecture and themes of the various places where the animals came from is pretty picturisque! There’s no barred gates around, just really well designed open air enclosures. Except for the glass for bits where you want to get “up close” to the animals of course.
The Australian Outback lets you touch young kangaroos! Well, if they bother hopping towards you anyway. The zookeeper is there to keep an eye on the safety of the animals and I guess the children too. You’re not supposed to touch their heads since they don’t like that. That’s what the zookeeper said anyway so you can touch their bodies! There’s a nearby sink for you to wash your hands with soap there too. For any petting areas, there are convenient washing points to be used.
OH YEAH, we fed the giraffes! For $5 you get the stuff from the zookeeper there and then you feed them the carrots. They drooled a bit on Mintea. HURRR. The official zoo photographer is there too. You can buy your photographs at the zoo shop near the entrance. We bought ours because it looked really good! You can only pay via cash or credit card. No NETS for the photograph sets.
The coolest part of the zoo. The polar bear enclosure. They were hanging out in the back instead of swimming because they have a hidden air conditioned lair there and it was a really hot day.
On a different point of temperature scale, there’s an orchid garden too. Make sure you bring loads of water. There are stalls selling drinks and ice cream but eh, you know how prices are at places like these. Oooh yeah, we went for the elephant show! That was fun, if you want to be chilled out, sit at the front because they’re gonna splash you with water! Ho ho.
Meanwhile, considering this was before the Ramadhan fasting month, we pitstop at KFC at the Kids zone. Prepare to wait a while before you can buy your food since there’s a long queue. Considering this was a weekend, naturally it is busy. However since it is now the fasting month perhaps it’ll be quieter? I don’t know.
Anyway, there’s a carousel, pony petting/feeding sessions and a water playground! Lots of kids running around. Make sure you really have sunscreen on. It was as if you could feel the burn of the sun.
BUT WHAT IS THIS? Hidden in the “old” part of Kids zone is a flying fox! Naturally we took tons of pictures as we swung on them.
We took the Dino Walk and followed the trailed to see what was in store. Yeah, I’m so using such cliche “adventure” discovery lines right now. So yes, there are dinosaurs at the zoo.
THE TRAIL IS SO FUN. There are hidden adventury obstacle things if you wanted to play on them. This one is especially fun. You get your team and stand on it and pull yourselves across the mini lake. It is not deep but I doubt you want to get wet legs or fall in it. Do it, do iiiiit if you’re in the Kids zone, through the Dino walk and deep into the bushes to find this!
As we exited the zoo, we looked up to see the little poster banners. Heh, Mio and Okto eh? Well, the animals in the zoo are adopted by various brands. For example, the white tigers are adopted by Tiger beer. No prizes on who adopted the parrots Mio and Okto.
