Day 2 of the New Year

After strolling the ship this morning I had coffee and worked out while everyone else slept. It’s a bit odd to ride a stationary bike and look out to see water rapidly moving by, but I'll take it.

We hit the splash park after breakfast, had a great relaxing morning, then disembarked and checked back into our hotel. Singapore’s Night Safari was our agenda for the evening – a zoo open in the evenings that focuses on nocturnal animals.

The venue is relatively new, in a lovely lush, green area of Singapore near a military base and the regular zoo. (Funny, I just read today in the Delhi paper that plans are in the works for a night safari somewhere in India, modeled after Singapore’s attraction.)

Anyway, the venue was very busy – upon arrival we were led into an area full of shops, restaurants (Ben & Jerry’s, what fun!), etc. We took the 45 minute tram ride around the zoo first, riding in an open sided tram (decorated like a zebra) with guide pointing out animals and sharing info. re: habitat, numbers in the wild, etc.

In the low light we saw all kinds of creatures: a single huge bull elephant with long tusks standing majestically was a highlight, as were the prowling hyenas, a pair of birds renowned in the Asian culture for mating for life, a solitary bear w/ white markings, the world’s largest rats (Ava says they’re cute – maybe I just couldn’t get past the word “rat”).

Lovely surroundings – appeared to be very clean, natural – mix of plains, rain forest, caves and rock dwellings, tons of trees and foliage, bamboo, elephant grass, etc. The rhinos, too, were impressive – immense and so close (most of the animals were very near to the tram line – one even walked within two feet of the tram – we were told it’s known for spraying urine. Nice).

After the tram ride we queued up for the animal show, held in an outdoor amphitheatre. The host welcomed us all in various languages and asked for no flash photography (despite repeated requests and signs we saw plenty of flash – hello?!?).
She was very engaging, full of quips. The first animal on stage was a hyena wandering near the water, then 2 furry sloths climbed down the vine over the audience to look for treats in nests attached to it.

An owl came out and was supposed to land on a trainer’s arm but apparently wasn’t interested – he jumped ship to a tree behind stage. Another act involved an audience participant hiding a grape twice to demonstrate the animal’s keen sense of smell.

And another volunteer found himself holding a giant snake curled up around his privates. (The snake was found in the audience – huge – glad it wsn’t near us.)

Three otter-looking creatures (mongooses) demonstrated the importance of recycling –two put bottles in a recycling container, another cans.

We caught part of a fire-breathing/dance performance before leaving, and also saw some people getting the skin on their feet exfoliated by fish – not my thing.