Second day in Singapore

Time to write about our second day in Singapore. The Smiths are very much zoo people. Whenever we are in a new place we always have to check out the zoo. Singapore was no exception since it is known for being one of the best zoos in the world. I had read about the Breakfast with Oragutans program that you could buy tickets for. It was highly recommended so I went ahead and reserved some spots. So we got to go have a nice breakfast buffet and after about 20 minutes the zookeepers brought out a family of orangutans that sat directly in front of our table and they ate their breakfast right along with us. They were close enough for us to touch. It was really neat.

After our breakfast we started to explore the zoo. The Singapore zoo is an "open concept" zoo. When I read about it the explanation was, there is minimal space and barriers between visitors and the animals (except for dangerous animals of course). I assumed that meant no bars on cages and no glass but it goes beyond that. When we first walked into the zoo, this monkey was sitting on the welcome sign above us.
He was not behind anything, he was not attached to anything and there was no zookeeper keeping an eye on him. The further we walked the more we realized there were monkeys loose all over the zoo! Gibbons, spider monkeys, tamarins, all sorts! There were also ropes crisscrossing above throughout the zoo where the orangutans climbed overhead all day long, free to go wherever they wanted. It was unbelievable.
The Singapore zoo also has shows throughout the day, kind of like sea world. So we caught the sea lion show, the elephant show and the monkey show. They also have animal rides so James and Abigail wanted to ride an elephant.
The other part of the zoo that we really enjoyed were the "walk-throughs". In the Australian "walk-through" there was a winding path and as you walked there were kangaroos hoping along right next to you as well as various species of deer and pigs. I'm not sure it was allowed but we saw a boy reaching down to pet a small kangaroo so James decided he would try while I held my breath and quickly took a picture.

My favourite walk through was called the "fragile forest" and had wildlife from southeast asia. We had lemurs, sloths, monitor lizards and bats right next to us. It was so hard not to reach out and touch them because there is nothing between you. Mark was in monkey heaven, but I really loved the bats (Malaysian flying foxes).



So, another great day in Singapore.

It has taken me way to long to get these posts done. I am going to post a link to see more pictures of our week if anyone is interested.

We have a busy weekend ahead of us and I will blog on Sunday so that I am all caught up and posting about current stuff instead of what we did almost a month ago.

Love from Suzhou until next time.

Singapore

I am sheepishly posting this blog with my tail between my legs and promising that I will return to weekly blogging and not monthly, as would be the assumption based on my recent activity.

Although I do not want to give excuses, I just haven't settled into the Sunday night "sit down and blog about the week" habit since we've been back from the summer.

So I think instead of catching everyone up on everything that has happened in the past month, I will blog about our most recent adventure in Singapore for the Chinese National Week (or Golden week as it is known here)

My first choice for this vacation was Malaysia. I wanted to have a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur where I lived for 3 years when I was in elementary school and then hop over to an island for sun and snorkeling. My children have experienced warm ocean water in the Gulf of Mexico, but the water in Galveston is filthy. They swim in the Atlantic Ocean every summer in Canada which is clean but is it ever cold! So I wanted them to have the best of both and enjoy warm and clean water which you can find in Southeast Asia.

Anyway, due to lack of aeroplan seats on flights to KL, we settled for flying to Singapore. Same area, similar culture and weather. I had been to Singapore as a kid and remembered it to be a clean, safe city with a lot to see. Although I was not looking forward to another big city vacation since we had been to Hong Kong last February I was pleasantly surprised at what Singapore had to offer.

I had done some research online and found a national park where you could experience a treetop suspended bridge over the rainforest. The only catch was, the hike to the bridge is 2.5 hours and another 1.5 hours afterward. I wasn't sure how the kids would do but we headed out with snacks and water and hoped for the best.

Right before we entered the hiking trail I spotted some monkeys playing in a clearing. Mark was, of course, extremely excited since he loves monkeys and has never seen one out in the wild. So he walked over to see how close he could get and asked me to take his picture with the monkeys. I proceeded to put my backpack on the grass, grab my camera out and approach Mark and the monkeys. As I turned my back James said "mom, I wouldn't do that if I were you". I asked why without turning around and heard a noise coming from behind me. Sure enough, a little monkey (must have been a baby) was stealing snacks out of my backpack!! By the time I ran back he was way up in the tree above me trying to open a bag of doritos! Of course at that time my 12 year muttered "that's why".

This is the picture I was taking.

So off we went with 1 fewer bag of doritos. It was quite warm and extremely humid but we really enjoyed the quiet and the beauty around us.

I thought this tree was so cool. Had to take a picture for Uncle Claude and Aunt Lynn. I'm sure they know exactly what kind of tree this is, why is grows this way and what it's proper name is. What can I say, weird vegetation makes me miss my aunt and uncle.


After much huffing and puffing we made it to the canopy treetop bridge.
We had the whole place to ourselves and were able to enjoy the view and take a breather.






So over all, a great first day. We returned to the hotel to cool off in the swimming pool and were quite exhausted. We had dinner at an interesting place. It was a sort of indoor food stall area where foods from all over the world were offered. The kids had mexican! Mark decided to be a little more adventurous and tried a Singapore delicacy called bo-bo-cha-cha. It's basically shaved ice with syrup, some kind of sweet cream, cubes of some kind of jelly and a scoop of ice cream on the top.

I think the overall review was..."not so great".

Stay tuned for day 2!