Night Safari

The massive crowd waiting to get into the
animal show. Fortunately we were in front!
The one thing we knew, without a doubt, that we would do in Singapore was go to the Night Safari. But even though we bought tickets on our third day in town, it took us another three days (and one false start) to finally get there.

There are three main parts to the Night Safari: an animal show, walking paths, and a tram ride that travels beyond the walking paths. We hoped to get in all three. We were able to do the show and the tram ride but, because we had to make sure we made the last train home, we were able to do only a small part of the walking trails.

In general, the safari was very cool. The animal enclosures are unique in that many of them use natural barriers. I suppose this is to try to create more of a 'safari' experience for visitors. Unfortunately, it's hard to feel like you're encountering an animal in the wild when you're surrounded by the 'wilds' of civilization. There were so many people! It was so crowded, we had to get to the show area really early in order to get a decent seat, and then we had to wait in a long queue for the the tram. Not to say that the experience was terrible. The animal show was well done, and the main presenter was quite a showman. The tram ride, however, was just okay. It was difficult to hear the guide with so many people on board ignoring her and just talking amongst themselves. Also, they never really paused at any of the displays. So you didn't really have much time to see each enclosure. The guide, though, was quite funny. Obviously trying to push conservation, she would say things like, "It takes the coats of three lions to make a coat for one selfish individual to wear. Does that seem fair?" And, "It takes the coats of three tigers to make a coat for one selfish individual to wear. Does that seem fair?" And, "Their tusks are used to make chess pieces and ashtrays ... I don't think that seems fair, do you?" You get the idea. But, overall, I am glad we went. I've wanted to go to the Night Safari since reading about it during my layover in Singapore in 2000. It's just unfortunate that we had to share it with so many others.

For more photos, see our Singapore photo album.

Singapore's OK!

Singapore is more than OK!
After a short interlude in Indo, we arrived in Singapore. We didn't really know what to expect but, if Changi Airport (love Changi Airport!) was anything to go by, we had high expectations.

We were in and out of Changi in less than 15min (did I mention that I love Changi?) and onto the MRT, Singapore's fast, efficient, and affordable public transit system. We had decided to stay in Chinatown -- a decision we would regret only because it made it so difficult to leave -- at a small family-run hostel called A Travellers Rest Stop (ATRS). Owned and operated by Lucy and Boy (Lucy's mother and father also work there), cosy ATRS quickly became our home away from home.

We had only planned on staying in Singapore for four days (01 Apr to 05 Apr), but ended up staying an additional three (until 08 Apr)! As I said before, the comfort of our guesthouse, combined with the ease of getting around Singapore, conspired to keep us a bit longer.

Most of our time was actually spent at Funan Digitalife Mall. Although neither of us are big shoppers, as most of you know, we had decided to buy either a laptop or PDA to help us keep on top of our emails and blog entries (as you can see, it's helping already!). We spent a lot of time researching what we wanted and, with some helpful input from a friend back home (thanks Jeff!), we decided to get an HP iPAQ PDA. But our decisions weren't done just yet. Now we had to decide who to buy from. Funan is this huge electronics mall, but the strange thing is that although there are over five floors of stores, they all sell pretty much the exact same products at the exact same price. And, yet, for some reason it still took us most of the day to decide on who to buy from!

The welcoming party to the Tree Top Walk.
That task completed, we escaped to the outdoors; specifically the MacRitchie Trails. One of the trails is the Tree Top Walk, which leads to a suspension bridge that is 25m above the ground. The walk itself is about 10km, but we only ended up walking about 8km as it started to pour and we met a nice Singaporean guy who offered us a chance to get in his car. Don't worry, we haven't completely lost our heads! We had walked with him for some time, and then hung out on the bridge under a bit of shelter while waiting for the rain to stop. In total we probably talked with him for more than an hour-and-a-half before we actually got into his car. He was a really friendly guy. He not only drove us to a food court to try a new dish (pratha, which we had mentioned wanting to try), he paid for it, and then took us on a mini tour of the city before dropping us off where we had originally planned to go after our walk. Thanks Ian!

Another example of that amazing Singaporean efficiency.
Other than the huge distraction and job of making our big purchase, our time in Singapore was very relaxed. We really enjoyed exploring our little part of town, especially trying all the tasty little treats in Chinatown and beyond. Although some people (both locals and foreigners) don't like the almost sterile nature of the country. (It can seem a bit big brother-ish. There are signs everywhere telling you what and what not to do: don't spit; throw away your rubbish; keep the bathrooms clean; etc. One would hope that adults would just know to do this but Singapore, apparently, doesn't want to take the chance.) But I really liked Singapore. The funny thing is, if I were running a country I could see myself doing the exact same thing. I, too, am an anal-retentive control freak. Perhaps that's why I enjoyed Singapore so much!

For more photos, see our Singapore photo album.