Stephen and I took advantage of the holiday to fly to Singapore. We have reached a phase where the noise, pollution and controlled chaos of the third world city we call home, wears on us more than it did early on. A brief trip away is a welcome repreive. Our holiday in Singapore was wonderful in every respect!
Flights from Cambodia to Singapore are quick and inexpensive, an awesome advantage of living in Phnom Penh. And purchasing hotels from the Asian market means we get better deals than purchasing from the US. Stephen booked us a room at the BIG hotel and I think it's probably my favorite hotel yet. Awesome design and attention to detail. A wonderfully soft bed with light-as-air duvet and perfect pillows.
A rain showerhead in the tiled shower. The overall space had clean lines and a bright warm feel, very feng shui. And just outside our door a chilled and hot water dispenser with an ice machine right next to it. Living in Phnom Penh makes these perhaps "standard" immenities feel, to us, like pure luxury.
In Phnom Penh, we tend to stay indoors more than not to avoid the discomfort of heat and limit our risk of exposure to disease, pollution, traffic accidents... So we were both eager to be out and about in relatively safe and clean Singapore. But to get started we needed to first find a great restaurant and eat some delicious food!
A wonderful ramen noodle house fit the bill. Yum!
There is a small island off the mainland of Singapore called Sentosa Island. It's a big resort area with spectacular theme parks. We hadn't planned to go over to Sentosa but when we went to purchase tickets for the cable car to take us to the trails on the South Ridges of Mt. Faber park, the tickets included looping down to Sentosa Island. I am not a fan of heights so leaving the platform was a bit scary but the view of the city was so cool, I soon got over my fear.
So this trip we finally made our way out to the Singapore zoo. And it was so worth the long subway ride plus long bus ride to get there. I had read about the new "River Safari" and was so eager to see and photograph the animals we might see from the boat. Unfortunately the "Amazon River" section and the boat ride were not yet open. So I didn't my leopard photos I was hoping for! Maybe next time. We did get to walk through the other exhibits organized by rivers of the world.
An ALLIGATOR SNAPPING TURTLE found in the Mississippi River.
A RED PANDA found along the Yangtze River in China.
A GIANT PANDA also found along the Yangtze River.
These were the cool River Safari bathrooms: you get to look out at a garden while you wash your hands.
This giant tank was called The Amazon Flooded Forest. We were there when divers were feeding the manatee. I was so impressed by this and other wonderfully expansive habitats. I'm glad the animals have so much space to more around in.
In the evening we went to the Night Safari. Though it was pretty hard to get any decent pictures it was really fun to see the animals active at night.
The highlight of the evening was watching a flying squirrel glide from the top of the enclosure down past this other flying squirrel sitting on the branch.
The next day it was back to Jurong Bird Park to see the exhibits we missed last time.
Toucans have such beautiful bright colors.
Ostrich legs do look like dinosaurs don't they?!
I could get quite close to these Sun Parakeets.
This is one of the shots I was hoping to get. :) Emus are also "dinosaur descendants".
How crazy looking is this Shoebill? It was standing completely still.
The following day it was out to the zoo for a second day. I went straight to the tiger habitat. :)
And then to the polar bear.
And then to the cheetahs.
Stephen is not actually touching this lemur's tail but we were that close.
Singapore does a great job with their animal parks. They are beautiful places for people to visit and it feels to me that a good deal of planning and maintenance goes into the care of the animals and their habitats. One more reason we love Singapore.
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