What a well spent day at the Singapore Zoological Gardens. We have decided to make the trip on that Wednesday as it was Labour Day, a public holiday in Singapore. It has been almost 4 years since I've been to the zoo and being an avid photographer, I thought of it to be a great location to put my photography skills at work.
Ray, Sandra and I stopped by for breakfast first at Choa Chu Kang interchange before our adventure kicked off, settling on McDonald's. It has been awhile since I last had hotcakes so I said "Why not?". It took us approximately 20 minutes to reach our destination, the weather didn't seem too friendly on that day and we feared that it would rain and our it turned out to true as it rained heavily in the later afternoon (Oh crikey...) but thank God it lasted for a short while, therefore not hindering our trip as time was precious. Looking the at sign above the entrance relieved the happy moments I had at the zoo during my younger days. I recalled the days my Godfather used to bring my brother and I here during the school holidays when we were in primary school. Not much has changed since my last visit, except an additional sign beside the zoo which reads "River Safari", a park recently opened and it houses the pandas, I shall pay a visit in the future but not too soon. Upon entering, the childlike excitement surfaced just like the good ol' days and I had one goal in mind, complete the park without missing any exhibits.
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| Was lucky to capture this shot |
We roughly spent 10 minutes in each exhibit observing the animals (with me on the camera lol), I wasted a little time figuring out the best settings on my DSLR Nikon D5100 to get a splendid picture. Ray and Sandra went with the flow while I was the "leader of the pack", couldn't forget the two of them trying to hide from me while I was distracted with the pictures, I usually caught them in the act but they succeeded a few attempts (=.=!!!). The hardest picture to take was probably the cheetah as it just couldn't keep still, the easiest were probably the crocodiles and the komodo dragon as they were stationary (no effort needed :P). We managed to catch a show on the way called "Rainforest Fights Back" which educated the audience on preserving the wildlife, after which we headed for lunch at KFC which is the cheapest dine-in at the zoo (Still prefer the old KFC layout to the current one). The skies were dark for a period of time and rain finally started showering down, fortunately we have arrived at the restaurant, otherwise we would have looked like we just came out from the shower as it was raining cats and dogs.
By the time we had lunch which was about 3pm, we had covered half of the zoo, popular animals such as the white tigers and orangutan had been covered, but the lions and the giraffes weren't. There was an elephant ride at one of the attractions on the way but paying $8 for a one small round which probably lasted less than 15 minutes didn't justify the worthiness of the ride. It may be fun for the little ones, but not us adults as we are the ones who faces the butterfly flying out of our wallets. One of my favourites was the reptile garden which houses various species of snakes such as the king cobra and python. The fragile forest we visited near the reptile garden lets the animals such as the lemurs roam free
and they are harmless anyway, though I received a little pinch from one of the birds (
couldn't remember what bird it was) after allowing it to climb onto my hands (
naughty bird using it's beak to pinch). Overall, it was a pleasant day at the zoo spending time with a good friend of mine and my girlfriend. The only disappointment I had was that the polar bear exhibit was under construction at the time and that was one of the iconic attraction. The weather was also something we took note. As Singapore is a tropical country, it will be humid so we didn't expect to leave the zoo
dry (
if you know what I mean) and our expectations were right.
I would certainly visit the zoo some time in the future, my next destination to visit will be the River Safari. Just hoping that the entrance fee of $35 will be worth my money. In my opinion, Night Safari was a disappointment as I could barely see the animals and majority of the time was spent riding a tram.
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| Friendly lemurs |
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| Somehow the statue got bigger in 2013 |
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| Back in 2009 |
and they are harmless anyway, though I received a little pinch from one of the birds (couldn't remember what bird it was) after allowing it to climb onto my hands (naughty bird using it's beak to pinch). Overall, it was a pleasant day at the zoo spending time with a good friend of mine and my girlfriend. The only disappointment I had was that the polar bear exhibit was under construction at the time and that was one of the iconic attraction. The weather was also something we took note. As Singapore is a tropical country, it will be humid so we didn't expect to leave the zoo dry (if you know what I mean) and our expectations were right.
