Night Safari

Tonight I went to Singapore's night time zoo... they call it the Night Safari!
So cool!... so you know how you spend all day long in the sun trying to get the animals to even blink at you from their shady slumber? Well, that is because many of the animals there are nocturnal! So a while, Singapore decided that since the animals were active during the night, it would make more sense to show them off then!
Bam! Night Safari. It opens in the evening until midnight and is located within the normal Zoo grounds, but at the same time, it was also different. The Zoo tram drove on a slightly different path that took you much closer to many of the animals, and had a sort of "tour guide" navigating along the way. As you might have guessed, it was really dark, and no flash photography was allowed. There were also the walking paths, but they were much more restricted in some areas, and then there were other paths that must be closed off during the day, because they definitely weren't there before!
Highlights?
The wolves gathering to howl together, the huge Tiger playing with something right in front of the viewing window, the two Leopard cubs pulling playfully on ropes while their mom watched, Rhinos and Hippos actually MOVING around, an enclosed bat area that we could walk through as the bats flapped around and past us, huge flying squirrels actually soaring around.... get the picture? Needless to say, I enjoyed the whole thing very much. Unfortunately, I also am not in bed as early as I usually have been, so I am planning to sleep in and forgo the exercise in the morning.
Oh well. Anyway, so I've a full day ahead tomorrow.... getting ready to leave for Xian and Beijing Saturday morning, so I'll be packing and finishing as much of next week's homework as I can! When I was in Shanghai I couldn't access my blog, and I doubt I will be able to this time either, so it is goodbye for a week or so until I return!

"swing'ng" Singapore Zoo

So today I visited the Singapore Zoo with my mother and brother. I wasn't really sure what to expect, to be honest. For those of you who read about the Shanghai Zoo... you might know that it was huge, had some strange animal sections, and not always the best exhibits. The Singapore Zoo, however, is highly advertised as a "must see" of the country. They also have a Bird Park and a Night Safari, both of which I plan on visiting.

So the Singapore Zoo... it was awesome! You walk past  the entrance gates, and already they've transported you into some magical jungle-like world.

The first animals you see are these cute little monkeys with white faces sitting in this low tree... and then you realize, they aren't in a cage! They are free-ranging monkeys! There were about 6 different types of monkeys (or apes...whatever the proper terminology might be for each one...) that were "free raging" in different sections of the zoo including (drum roll please!) Orangutans!!!! haha, sorry but I really like orangutans. *interesting side note*... They always spelled Orangutans as two words: Orang Utan. Weird, right?
They also had some pictures of this really famous orangutan that used to live there... and he was with STEVE ERWIN!!!...Oh how I miss that man :(

Okay, okay... back to the zoo... They didn't have pandas here, but I think they are planning to acquire some within the next year  or two. They also had no alligators, but  they did have 3 types of crocs.
The Zoo is this section of land that juts out into a reservoir, and you could take a boat ride from one side to other... which had some nice scenery. It was a little strange, though, because the land across the reservoir and all around the zoo's property is what they call "live-fire land" or in other words, it is were the army and military and stuff do practice drills and things like that... so as we were taking this nice scenic boat tour... we hear strange sounds of firing from across the water.
The animal exhibits were all really nicely designed, and the animals seemed pretty happy with it... though I don't speak animal, so I guess I will never really know.
Another highlight?.... we all three got to ride an Elephant!!!!

Mom also had fun feeding the giraffes...

Overall? Awesome experience! It was beautiful, had a lot of animals...and showed a lot of them in a unique way! Fun for all, glad I went! Now I'm excited for the night safari...where you get to see all of the nocturnal animals roaming around!... unfortunately, many of them are probably predators, so hopefully I won't be eaten!