Thursday - all 'Wowed' out at Singapore zoo and night safari!

Today we had decided to make the most of it being a week day and journeying to Singapore zoo and night safari before the hoards descended upon it at the weekend. 

After a quick bite to eat at the Lavendar food court (where we ate last night) with some delicious dim sum we caught the city express bus to the zoo.  As we arrived at the gates and purchased our tickets it was clear that this was going to be an amazing experience...rumoured to be one of, if not the best zoo in the world we were ready to be 'wowed'!  First stop was the aproboscis monkeys, otter and cotton top tamarin...however, by far our favourite (and Nicola's favourite overall) was the white tiger.  The huge enclousure housed 3 siblings, 1 brother, with 2 sisters...they were fascinating to watch and truly beautiful majestic animals!

As we wandered off around the zoo we soon realised that the enclosures were all huge, and each constructed in such a way that you really felt that you were up close and personal with the animals.  There was no thick fences and glass barriers, and the information boards gave you an insight into their lives and habitats.

Next stop was a family of pygmy hippos, cute (in their own special way) and again they were not shy with coming forward, as Nicola found out!

We explored the 'Australian experience', although did not linger here as we will be getting a taste for real next Monday when we fly to Oz!  After walking through the hamagryas baboon enclosure, nubian ibex, mongoose and elephant enclosures we happened across the free roaming Bornean orang utan area...wow, wow, wow!!  As we looked up the stunning and graceful animals were swinging above our heads, families swung happily away seemingly oblivious to us humans wandering around beneath them!

A couple of hours later, and countless more animals, almost too many to mention and feature photos here we went to watch the polar bear feeding.  A mother and son were beautiful and it felt a real privilege to watch this taking place.

As we took stock of time and realised that we were one hour away from the park closing we picked up the pace and walked though the African section, and up to the 'endangered rainforest' open enclosure that we could actually walk through with the animals living around us.  With mousedeer, parrots, sloth and lemur wandering around next to us we once again wow, wow, wowed!  As you can see, by this stage Nicola had really turned into Doctor Dolittle, warning a friendly lemur that a mousedeer was hiding under a nearby bush!!

Once the park had closed we grabbed a quick bite to eat whilst waiting for the night safari to open; the night safari, winner of several big awards, and the first of its kind in the world was the only zoo where you could wander around the enclosures at night and see the animals in their natural habitats in the dark.  Both of us were more than excited about this experience, and especially after the zoo we knew the night safari would not disapoint!

Firstly we took in the creatures of the night show, where we watched as the animals came out into the amphitheater from above our heads, under our seats and along side the stage...at one point they insinuated that Nicola had a snake under her seat...instead it was under an unsuspecting group of Japanese tourists!  Phew!

Next were the walking tours, partially lit so you could see the path we happened across enclosure after enclosure with animals that are generally asleep when you visit a zoo awake and busy in their own environments.


By far the best experience in the night safari has to be the 2 open enclosures; first was the giant flying squirrel enclosure, with the huge animals swooshing above our heads, and next and far more spookier was the mangrove walk with giant fruit bats swooping and ducking around our heads...close enough to feel the air move! 


Sadly, as the light was so weak throughout the whole park we have very few pictures to show for our 4 hours there...but once again we were all wowed out!!


Bedtime was 1am after our action packed, animal filled day!!