Singapore – Zoo, River Safari & Night Safari - Day 1 - March 7

On our final approach to Singapore we had various Westerly courses through the Singapore Strait. Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore is a global city in Southeast Asia and is the world’s only island city-state.

We had a 10:00 arrival time today, so we had some of the morning on the ship. I used this time to talk to Dad and Scott. His procedure is scheduled for Wednesday. (their Wednesday, not ours) He is still in good spirits and I am relieved he is doing better emotionally as well as stabilized and feeling a bit better before he gets it done. The recovery should be much “easier” than if he had the open heart. I am so glad that Scott & Sonya could be there in our absence. 

This is our second time in Singapore, but we only had 1 day here last time. We were able to see the Botanical Gardens and do walking tours of all of the various neighborhoods. (China, India, Muslim Quarters) 

This time we were looking to do something entirely different. We got a 2 day 4 park pass to the Singapore Zoo, River Safari, Night Zoo and the Jurong Bird Park. Plus, a new attraction called Gardens in the Bay was being built, but was not open last time. http://www.zoo.com.sg/index.html

 sail in 

Once the ship was cleared we grabbed a taxi to the zoo which is about 30 minutes away on the outskirts of town. (we have used the trains before, but the zoo isn’t really easy to get to with that when you are in a hurry, so a taxi made the most sense.)

 year of the rooster display

 arrival at the zoo

It really is a pretty nice zoo. All natural settings with plenty of room for the animals. It is laid out very well so there is little to no backtracking making it easy to navigate. Most all of the animals were active and out and about. We grabbed lunch there and it was quite good. (Indian Food) 

 frog looks like a leaf

After we finished the zoo we headed to the second park called River Safari. We stopped for gelato before moving on!

 Red Panda 

We were more impressed with this than we expected. There were 2 boat rides and quite a few walking trails. Again, it was laid out well so you just followed the paths to easily see everything.

 the firsts boat ride

 the second boat ride

In the early evening we went to the Night Safari which is a separate park. We had dinner at Ulu Ulu a huge buffet with lots of choices. Then, we lined up to enter the Night Safari area. It started to rain. Since there was no cover, the workers let us in under a covered walkway to wait there. We lined up to take the tram around. Most all of the animals were visible, despite the rain. The rain pretty much quit so we walked out to see the Thumbuakar Fire show and then walked trails to see the animals better. It was getting late so we had some gelato and grabbed a cab back to the port.

 this was a light in the bathroom

 the night show

back at the ship

We were very pleased with our day and the parks exceeded our expectations, including the night safari which most people don’t seem to like at that well. We saw a lot, so we enjoyed it. 

It’ll be a short night so we can get up early to get a jump on the day for our second day here.