April 22, 2018
Today Hunter and I went to the zoo and night safari. We started by seeing some cotton tailed tamarins. They are very cute and small. I’ll post many pictures of all the animals we’ve seen below! When we first arrived, it was very very hot and humid as it was noon. 90 degrees Fahrenheit doesn’t sound that hot but when humidity is also at 90% it can be tough walking outside. We took our time and enjoyed the animal enclosures while trying to stay cool. At first, a lot of the animals seemed to be doing the same and we saw a few empty exhibits. Eventually however we met two beautiful tapirs which ran over and put on quite a display swimming back and forth in front of us. We also saw tigers, antelope, monkeys, and so many rainforest animals. It was really cool to see the animals from this part of the world in their natural habitats. The Singapore Zoo goes to great lengths to make the exhibits look natural and make sure you have an unobstructed view and can feel close to the animals. It definitely showed and it was incredible seeing all the animals almost like in the wild. One of the highlights were the family of elephants which started rough housing. The rest of the herd chased one of the elephants who had been annoying the others into the deep water of their enclosure. This cumulated with one of them throwing a full 10 foot long log at the one in the water. While they seemed to be having fun the keepers eventually seemed to be concerned and came into the enclosure to sort things out. It was incredible how the elephants immediately knew what was going on and listened to their keepers. They separated the quarreling ones with voice commands and even made them clean up the logs they had thrown around. It was like watching a teacher having their children clean up. After that Hunter and I started to walk further, but got caught in a classic rainforest downpour. We hid inside while the rain came down and once the storm cleared we got to see lemurs, birds, monkeys, and other animals in aviary like enclosures. The zoo also had large saltwater crocodiles which we got to see feeding.
Tapirs
Playful tapir
Swimming tapir
Tree kangaroo
Cassowary
Honey bear
Giant tortoise
Salt water crocodile
Mouse deer, neither mouse nor deer
A type of squirrel
Jaguar
Lion all spread out in the heat
My favorite, the giraffe
Interesting bird
Stingrays
Water dragon
Zebras
White rhinos
Cockroach
Stickbugs and caterpillars
After all day at the zoo we were a bit tired but we still had night safari tickets. To pass the time before the night safari we took a bus to a massive transit center at the Malaysian border crossing. This transit center had a massive mall with everything from traditional medicine stores to a fan emporium and a McDonald’s. After dinner we decided to try something local for dessert. We picked a place with pastries containing a local fruit called durian. The fruit is banned on public transit here which was funny. I understand why now, because boy does it STINK!
The night safari began with a tram tour ride. We got to see all sorts of nocturnal animals. I got a little sleepy on the ride and started to drift to sleep, but Hunter made sure to keep me awake. I would recommend going to the zoo and night safari on different days because the zoo takes a lot of energy away. After our tram ride we went to a show that had different animals to see up close. It was very cute. We then went to their walking trails and saw the famous fishing cat. They are super cute cats that fish. We also got to see big bats up close in an aviary.
By the time we were done walking, it was 11:30pm and we were exhausted. We had so much fun, but we’re ready for bed. We took Uber back to our hotel and shortly went to sleep.