A Beast of Prey: Night Safari & Sentosa!

Tuesday July 4th

Night Safari!

After Clarisse dropped off from work, she rushed down to AMK MRT to meet the Sistas & I. We boarded the SBS bus and arrived at e Mandai Zoo & Night Safari at around 7.30.

Tribal instruments near the entrance of NS. They linked tribal performances and tribal stuff in general with the night safari, so people won't feel so bored after not being able to see much. But not being able to see much is a thing of the past - my last visit was about a month or two after it opened, and I was still in Primary School.

Then, we could see about 20% of the animals, while the rest were hiding. This time, we got to see 80% of the animals; possibly, the animals were still adapting to the environment when I first went, as it was just opened not long ago.

Before seeing dah animals, we went for the creatures of the night show. Lotsa stuff. Owls, Marsupials climbing past our heads, otters, civets, owls, a wolf (really powerful howling) and a cheetah (climbed a tree 4 stories high in 2 seconds).

Of course, we couldn't miss the big cats. The leopards were the absolutely closest we got to. It was like leaning against the glass we were looking through, with another leopard nearby. Those glass panels are like those in interrogation rooms, where no light is on the side we're standing on, and they can't see us. But I bet they can detect our smell; they stirred a few times when we went near.

The tigers and lions were less of a sight, because the vantage point was very very far away. And it was understandable that it had to be, as they are much more dangerous than leopards. We were told that the largest lion has a head to tail span of 3m, of which less than 1m belongs to the tail. Thus, if I lay flat, it would be longer than me. It's hard to imagine by looking at a distance, but when you manage to imagine it, it will send chills down your spine. The tigers weren't as big as the lions in the park, but big enough. But I still like the white tigers I saw with Clarisse half a year ago, at the daytime zoo.

Anyway, didn't have any pix of animals, cos there's no flash photography, and my cam can't take anything much without flash at night. Much less when all the lights are very very dim. So photos come only in places where I can rest my camera and keep it still, or where I can use flash.

This photo is fuzzy, but Tingting likes this pic anyway.
She took a pic with e ostrich egg cos that's her nickname, being the tallest in class.

The same eggs from the previous pic.
Ostrich -> Emu -> Swan (same size as chicken egg)

Really diabolical pic of a moose skull.

Tingting with an oxen skull.

Same oxen skull without flash, having the same diabolical glow.

End of the night.

Home to play with rocky!! Only managed to take pix cos he's in confinement, punishment for misbehaving. Note the cage around him.

Another nice pic.

Yup, I've been staying back in hougang for as long as my in-laws are around. Conan (Xwan's friend) thought that was unthinkable considering I am paying the rent for the place at Bishan. But somehow, I have the extreme opposite mentality, that asking them to stay at hotels is more unthinkable. I don't know. Anyway It's not too difficult for me, as I still have a room to myself in Hougang.

Except that it's become a PC spare parts scrapyard. Once in awhile, just for fun, I will assemble scrap parts with no resale value, to make custom PCs with specs such as this: P3 800mhz, 768mb ram, Nvidia GF 5500 256Mb video card, 4gb hdd. Those who understand computer stuff will know why that config is unusual. Anyway I really stray too far from the topic already.

Wednesday July 5th

Vivo+Sentosa!

Clarisse's off day. She has a total of 4 days of leave throughout her relatives visit, so Sentosa was one of the places she wanted to go. So just after lunch, we took the mert down to Harbourfront.

Vivo entrance.

Vivo roof outlook.

Vivo roof itself.

Vivo Roof from another pt of view.

Noteworthy is our trip to pet safari. Unlike the one at Simei, they haven't really got hamsters and small animals, but only dogs. But that's enought to make the girls really happy.

The girls at the entrance of Pet Safari.

Erm... I don't know what breed but this is the Sisters' fave.

A really really cute white American Eskimo puppy. I think.

The white one is one out of thousands that Clarisse isn't afraid of, and likes just as well. If I could afford the time to take care of a dog, I would have brought him home. Really cute. I waved and he actually looked at me (centre pic). And he's just adorable chewing that toy. Only 2 months old.

After pet Safari, was a train ride on the new rail system. We stopped at beach station. First stop after was Underwater World. Now they've got free internal buses, it's much easier to get around. Except that there's occassionally a human jam.

The new train.

Huge sea turtle at the entrance of UW. Head-tail length of 1.3m

Huge ray also at entrance. Torso diameter of 1m

I don't know what type of fish that is. but it's really pretty. And the camouflage isn't exactly that great thanks to the colour. They look like what, light pink and dark pink coloured rocks. There are 2 in the pic, I guess the colours make them obvious. Both heads are facing right in the pic.

A nice spotted ray. Wingspan of my hand, it's quite miniature compared to other rays.

Rainbow Crab.
I have no idea why it's called that.

Coconut Husk Crab.
I remember seeing this for sale at 奇怪海鲜 at Turf City.
Torso is the size of my head.

Japanese Spider Crab.
Torso slightly larger than my head,
outstretched legspan as tall as I am.
HUGE.

1.5m long Ancient Stone Grouper.
He got us all hungry. ^_^|||

Sharky about 2m long.
Many of them in the underwater gallery.

A clown fish aquarium.

Well it was a little small considering it's the most expensive of all the other points of interest we went to. However, it's got a huge range of different species of fishies, despite the limited space. Nevertheless, I can't forget the Marine Park in Penghuwan in Taiwan. As it's very spacious, it is also able to house huge species of fishes. One memorable one was the pool of Giant Manta Rays, with wingspans of 3-4m. The entire fleet of them swimming together in a football-field-sized pool was simply majestic.

After that was a visit to Dolphin Lagoon for the 5.30pm show, which was the last of the day. Now, we experienced the killer crowds. As it's the last show, there was a really long queue for the bus at UW. We set off as early as 4.30, but we were still caught by the crowd. But when we reached there, it was all worth it as we managed to get really good seats in the centre of the viewing gallery.

The Dolphin Lagoon before the show.

The dolphin and one of the 5 trainers.
erm... you only get to see his nose and head.

OK.... I'm sorry, but I was so engrossed with the show that I only took 1 photo before and 1 after the show... ^_^||| Anyway do try to catch it before the end of this year if you want to, cos their lease is up, and can't be renewed in order to make way for the IR. stupid IR... grr... poor dolphins have to be transported away back to the already overcrowded UW. And no more dolphin show thereafter. So catch it if you want to.

After the show, an even worse crowd gathered to leave the Lagoon. I flipped out the map, spent some time reading it, and brought everyone away from the crazy-long que. We walked our way to our next destination, Sakae Sushi. It wasn't that long a walk, around 15 min, but we stretched to half an hour cos 3rd uncle took lots of photos at the "Southern-most end of Continental Asia". I just took one for Clarisse.

Clarisse with the Southern-most tip in the background.

After Sakae Sushi, we headed on to the nearby Songs of the Sea performance. It starts at 7.30, and we were there by 6.45. Thus, great seats. I always plan ahead to get good seats, but downside is having to wait for some time. But in the end, the wait will all seem worth it.