The Zoo and the NIght Safari
for Monday, July 29th
by Rachel
The morning was a slower morning. I went to my lab at NUS (National University of Singapore). It is a great university with very nice people. My only complaint is that the engineering buildings are the most impossible things ever to find your way around in. The engineering section includes several buildings that are all conected through various walkways. It is great to never have to leave a covering especially when it is really sunny or raining, but it can be difficult to figure out what building I am in. It doesn't help that all the buildings are names things like E5, EW2 anf E4A. I work in E1, not to be confused with E1A, which is a different building. The walkways all connect on different floors though. For example, floor 7 of EA connects with floor 4 of E1A. The bathrooms alternate which floor they are on. One floor has a men's bathroom and the next one has a women's bathroom. There isn't a women's bathroom on the floor I work on, so I have to go down a staircase and I end up getting lost everytime. If it wasn't for the signs labeling everything, I would be completely lost all the time. I do love the university, it is very nice - I just get lost very easily.
I ate lunch with my dad at a canteen. The canteens are cafeterias full of small restaurants. The food is a lot better than the food at BYU in my opinion. They have several different types of Asian food, and it is relatively cheap. I enjoyed eating Phad Thai for lunch and chocolate ice cream for desert.
We left for the zoo right after lunch. The Singapore Zoo is considered one of the best zoos in the world, so of course our visit in Singapore wouldn't be complete without a visit to the zoo. The first thing I noticed was how large the zoo was. It was huge. We spent over 5 hours at the zoo and we didn't even see all of it. We all loved the zoo. Singapore is a jungle and walking through the zoo felt like walking through a jungle instead of a zoo in the middle of a city. The zoo was designed so that the animals look as if they are not in cages. It is supposed to feel like you are right there with the lions or zebras. This was accomplished by having moats around the exhibits instead of fences and disguising what barriers there were with bushes and trees. The monkeys were free-range, so they weren't even in any enclosure. Lots of the apes seemed to enjoy showing off for the crowd that watched them. One ape in particular enjoyed swinging from tree branches and then would stop and pose for pictures.
One of my favorite exhibits was the exhibit with the flying fox exhibit. The flying fox is a type of bat and the exhibit was full of free range animals. There was a sloth that was so close that I could have reached out and touched him if I wanted. There were lots of interesting birds. Christian almost tripped over a spotted deer mouse.
We left as the zoo closed and then we headed to the night safari after dinner. The night safari is similar to a zoo, except in the dark with nocturnal animals. We started by watching a show where people dance with fire and then headed to an animal show called "Creatures of the Night." They showed several different nocturnal animals including a fennec fox, a hyena and a snake. They also had two otters demonstrate sorting recycling items and they talked about the importance of recycling.
by Rachel
The morning was a slower morning. I went to my lab at NUS (National University of Singapore). It is a great university with very nice people. My only complaint is that the engineering buildings are the most impossible things ever to find your way around in. The engineering section includes several buildings that are all conected through various walkways. It is great to never have to leave a covering especially when it is really sunny or raining, but it can be difficult to figure out what building I am in. It doesn't help that all the buildings are names things like E5, EW2 anf E4A. I work in E1, not to be confused with E1A, which is a different building. The walkways all connect on different floors though. For example, floor 7 of EA connects with floor 4 of E1A. The bathrooms alternate which floor they are on. One floor has a men's bathroom and the next one has a women's bathroom. There isn't a women's bathroom on the floor I work on, so I have to go down a staircase and I end up getting lost everytime. If it wasn't for the signs labeling everything, I would be completely lost all the time. I do love the university, it is very nice - I just get lost very easily.
I ate lunch with my dad at a canteen. The canteens are cafeterias full of small restaurants. The food is a lot better than the food at BYU in my opinion. They have several different types of Asian food, and it is relatively cheap. I enjoyed eating Phad Thai for lunch and chocolate ice cream for desert.
We left for the zoo right after lunch. The Singapore Zoo is considered one of the best zoos in the world, so of course our visit in Singapore wouldn't be complete without a visit to the zoo. The first thing I noticed was how large the zoo was. It was huge. We spent over 5 hours at the zoo and we didn't even see all of it. We all loved the zoo. Singapore is a jungle and walking through the zoo felt like walking through a jungle instead of a zoo in the middle of a city. The zoo was designed so that the animals look as if they are not in cages. It is supposed to feel like you are right there with the lions or zebras. This was accomplished by having moats around the exhibits instead of fences and disguising what barriers there were with bushes and trees. The monkeys were free-range, so they weren't even in any enclosure. Lots of the apes seemed to enjoy showing off for the crowd that watched them. One ape in particular enjoyed swinging from tree branches and then would stop and pose for pictures.
monkeys at the Singapore Zoo
One of my favorite exhibits was the exhibit with the flying fox exhibit. The flying fox is a type of bat and the exhibit was full of free range animals. There was a sloth that was so close that I could have reached out and touched him if I wanted. There were lots of interesting birds. Christian almost tripped over a spotted deer mouse.
Can you see the sloth handing on the branch just inches from Christian?
We left as the zoo closed and then we headed to the night safari after dinner. The night safari is similar to a zoo, except in the dark with nocturnal animals. We started by watching a show where people dance with fire and then headed to an animal show called "Creatures of the Night." They showed several different nocturnal animals including a fennec fox, a hyena and a snake. They also had two otters demonstrate sorting recycling items and they talked about the importance of recycling.
the fire show at the night safari
Next we headed down some of the walking trails. Once again it felt like we were in the jungle. The paths were dimly lit so we could see where we were going, but it was dark. We saw a fishing cat, some bats, a slow loris (which was very cute and adorable, but also venomous), and many more. Once we finished walking around, we stood in line to go on the tram. We were very grateful that we had done the walking first because the line was a lot shorter for the tram by that point. The Night Safari is very popular, so people are let in once an hour. We had the earliest slot at 7:15, but everyone heads straight for the tram so the line gets crazy long. However since we did the show and the walking first, we only had a 30 minute wait in line. The tram was a guided tour through more of the Night Safari and we got to see sloth bears, tigers, and lions.
the tram ride through the dark jungle!
It was such a fun day! We were exhausted by the end of it though since we didn't get home until 11! I fell right asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow.
How nice Rachel. I don't know if Grandma and I would enjoy the night safari, but we'd definitely want to visit the zoo in the daytime. Maybe in the morning, before the heat of the afternoon.
ReplyDeleteThe buildings in your part of the university sound super confusing! The zoo sounds amazing! Glad everyone loved it and thanks for the nice post. Love always, Grandma Huber
ReplyDeleteGrandma Albrecht Sounds like an incredible day. Were you ever concerned that the animals might get out and eat you? haha I would love to see the fire show. That looks really cool. Hey why do we seldom see pictures of your mom? I'm guessing she is taking the pictures. Tell her to take a selfie!
ReplyDelete