| The Singapore Zoo and Clarke Quay | |
|
2008-07-01
I hate zoos. I find them depressing and generally don't like seeing so many fat and unhappy animals stuck in such small cages. Even the San Diego Zoo, supposedly one of the best in the world, has only "less unhappy" looking animals, along with some nice exhibits for pandas. So why did I decide to go to the Singapore zoo? Partly because I was running out of stuff to do here, and partly because -everybody- raves about this place. And I can see why. This the hap-hap-happiest zoo I have ever seen in my entire life. I have never seen so many content looking animals, nor have I seen so many free roaming animals. There are orangutans and monkeys and big birds all over the place, and even the African animals all look perfectly happy where they are. Even the huge torrential downpour that caused me to have to sit down and read a book for 60 minutes didn't seem to phase anybody. The only downside to the zoo? It's outdoors. That means, even with two t-shirts, you've only got about an hour before you're soaked through with sweat. I bought one on the way out of there just to tide the bus ride back to the hotel .... In the evening I worked myself towards Clarke Quay, where there are a tonne of romantic restaurants. And then my camera battery died. Argle! |
|
The bus ride here isn't that quick, but it's pretty cheap, and air conditioned at least.
|
The zoo is arranged kind of like a Disney theme park, with lots of key sectors and areas to go visit.
|
|
|
You can get your picture taken with some albino parrots to start if you like.
|
These are called gariels. They're like crocodiles, only way more bad-ass.
|
|
|
I think this is what happens if you try to play with them.
|
They have this huge raised walking platform area to wander through the "Ima eat you" animals section.
|
|
|
That's a pretty themed up garbage can.
|
Uuuuh, what the sign says.
|
|
|
Cool plans!
|
Some sort of tiger thing.
|
|
|
Rawr!
|
These pygmy hippos are still huge.
|
|
|
Wild boars. They seem to like eating grass a lot.
|
This is the huge monkey exhibit. There were zillions of these things all having the time of their life.
|
|
|
Way up top were some small deer.
|
||
|
There's not much to do when you're a monkey, so you just tend to sit around a lot.
|
||
|
Mom had a good system for keeping track of her l'il one -- never let go of the tail.
|
Who'da thunk that monkeys get male pattern baldness.
|
These deer guys seemed pretty happy way up top.
|
|
There's a huge reservoir thing here near the zoo too.
|
Next stop: Elefantes. Asian elephants, so they're smaller than the big african ones, but still pretty big.
|
|
|
Om nom nom nom nom. They hang food from the trees to keep the elephants active and alert.
|
Holy crap that's the freakiest butterfly I have ever seen!!!!
|
|
|
Penguins!!!
|
Most of this exhibit was closed, but there was still something to see.
|
|
|
This is the orangutan area. It's huge and not enclosed at all. They can pretty much just do their own thing.
|
Some colourful birds near here too.
|
|
|
Life as an orangutan isn't much more exciting than that as a monkey.
|
||
|
Gazelle!!!
|
Rhinocococerous!!!
|
|
|
Doesn't look terribly exciting.
|
Male cheetah. They only had one. I wonder if it's just a bad idea to put two together.
|
|
|
He just wandered around a lot.
|
Zebra!
|
Meercats! how cute!
|
|
Lions. One male and three ladies. Awwwww yaaaaah!!!!!!!
|
They had a few giraffes too, and you can feed them later in the afternoon. They looked pretty stoked wandering around and eating things.
|
|
|
There's a scary jaguar in here somewhere.
|
Oh, there it is.
|
|
|
Komodo dragon! Om nom nom nom!
|
These turtles are seriously like 4+ feet long each. They're huge!
|
|
|
Okay, towards Clarke Quay.
|
||
|
Tonnes of restaurants here.
|
Uuuh, this is the airport as I'm about to leave Singapore. It's very exciting.
|