Singapore Zoo

Posted by: missmegs1 on: October 18, 2010

• In: animals | life | Singapore | travel
• 8 Comments

On Friday night, Wendy, Laura and I flew to Singapore for what was to be a full weekend of shopping, site seeing and relaxing back in civilization. We arrived at our hostel at around 2am, and quietly got into our bunk beds. The next morning, we got up, walked around the marina (complete with a stop at Starbucks), made a quick shopping visit to Orchard Road, had lunch in Little India, and then took a cab to the Singapore Zoo (one of the top zoos in the world).

Merlion statue

Merlion statue and Singapore skyline

civilization

seahorse hanging from a taxi driver's mirror

beautiful colours in Little India

The zoo was absolutely incredible! It’s a 28 hectare, open concept zoo, meaning most of the animals aren’t in cages – some roam free, others have cleverly constructed areas using moats and other natural looking barriers. It was so amazing to get so close to animals that I would typically never encounter. We spent 4 or 5 hours walking around (and surprisingly covered the majority of the zoo). Some of the animal highlights (for me at least) were feeding the giraffes, getting face to face with lemurs and flying foxes in the fragile forest, the free ranging orangutans, and the many many many monkeys (chimpanzees, proboscis monkeys, cotton-top tamarin, hamadryas baboons, and more). I had a hard time picking out only a few pictures to post from our trip to the zoo. It was the first time I’ve had a “real” chance to test out the camera I bought before coming to Vietnam, and it was really worth the money! Thanks to Nancy for all her help with picking it out!

I think this guy is a gibbon

orangutans in a tree

proboscis monkey hiding his big nose

ducks swimming with the stingrays

mousedeer...not a mouse and not a deer

relaxed, tongue out

sunbathing

face to face with the flying fox

face to face with the flying fox

ring-tailed lemurs running around our feet

hanging out

giraffe

giraffe waiting to be fed

me feeding the giraffes carrots

zebra

orangutans in the trees

baby orangutan in a tree

orangutan in a tree

feeding time for the orangutans...I want this guy's job!

baby orangutan

baby orangutan

orangutans

baby orangutan

baby orangutan

Wendy and the orangutans

kangaroo

kangaroo

Laura the live animal

feeding time for the baboons

momma and baby baboon

baboon hanging out

one of the most entertaining monkeys at the zoo...I think this is a douc langur

cotton-top tamarin

The animal fun did not stop there. After the zoo closed at 6pm, we headed next door to the Night Safari! It’s a 40 hectare forested park where you can see nocturnal animals. Lucky for us, it also happened to be a Halloween event! We took the 40 minute tram ride around the park, where we were spooked by people in costumes and spotted many animals that were actually roaming free. After the tram, we did the walking trails that the tram doesn’t take you on. Highlights included the Asian elephants, walking through the fruit bat enclosure, and watching the hyenas as they looked to be planning their jump across the small moat separating them from the rest of the park. Also, the fire eating performance was incredible – felt more like we were at a chippendales show!

Wendy, Laura and I on the tram at Night Safari

fire eating stunts

fire eating stunts

fire eating stunts

Unfortunately that night, all three of us became violently ill with what we can only guess is food poisoning. We spent the night lying on the kitchen floor of the hostel, taking turns in the one bathroom and trying not to wake the rest of the people in the hostel. I’ll spare you all the details, but it was a real bonding experience and totally ruined our plans for Sunday in Singapore. Instead of more shopping and site seeing, we spent the day sleeping on the floor at the Singapore airport. Not exactly a great end to our first trip together, but at least we’ll always have the Singapore Zoo!