Dangerous Dave's Dlog

The Singapore Zoo has what it calls a Night Safari. You get on a tram, and get a tour of the zoo at night time. The tram stops and allows you to get off and have a walk around some of the exhibits you can't see from the tram, then you get on another tram and continue. They also had fire performers spinning fire and breathing fire (both of which, FYI, I can do ).

The next day we headed back into Singapore, to Sentosa Island. Basically Sentosa Island is one half golf resort, and one half tourist crap. They are building a Universal Studios theme park, but hadn't opened when we were there. Other attractions included Underwater World, Songs of the Sea, the Merlion, and Dolphin and Sealion shows.

Underwater World was an aquarium. They had a touch pool where you could feel some fish, stingrays, star fish, and other sea life. You could also pay to feed the sting rays, which feels like they are sucking the food up with a rather strong vacuum cleaner. The aquarium also has tanks with fish of every variety you can think of. Outside the Aquarium they had dolphin and sealion shows. I only saw the dolphin show, which was what you would expect of a dolphin show. Dolphins jumping through hoops, playing with balls, and spinning hoops on their noses. The only difference was that these dolphins were native to the area, and had a pink tinged skin.

The Merlion is the national mascot of Singapore, and Sentosa Island has a giant Merlion that you take a lift upthe inside to the top. You can stand on it's head or in it's mouth and look out at the sights. It also looks spectacular at night.

Lastly, was the Songs of the Sea. Probably the main attraction at Sentosa. At night, they do a performance that includes everything from real people, to holographic marine species, to awesome effects created using water, fire, and lighting. It's well worth seeing if you ever go.

The following day we got up early to have a Jungle Breakfast. This was a buffet breakfast in a cafe next to the orangutang enclosure. They lower a branch into the enclosure and the orangutangs climb over and sit on a branch next to you while you eat. They also had a snake and another thing that I'm not sure what it was.

After the breakfast we set out to explore the rest of the zoo. The Night Safari takes place in a different part of the zoo, so it's not like we were seeing everything twice. We went to a show where animals crawled (and monkeys swung) down on ropes just above our heads, and we went to another show with manatees, penguins, and sealions that did tricks. They got crowd members to throw a frisbee and the sealion would catch it. I also fed an elephant, and had a ride on one, as well as feeding and patting a Galapagos Giant Tortoise.

Singapore was very touristy, and very different from Malaysia. But all in all it was a good few days. The day after the zoo, we tracked down a room in a hotel in Singapore. Smack bang in the middle of Singapore's red light district, we were likely the only ones paying by the night rather than by the hour. But it was a bed, and we had to get up early the next morning for our flight out. An exciting trip over, and back to the real world.

Photos coming soon.

-Dave