Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Day 7 in Singapore: Singapore Zoo, Silly Americans, Marina Bay at night and the Chocolate Bar

Alright folks, the Singapore saga continues! Today we got up early and took a taxi to the Singapore Zoo. This was actually one of the things on our itinerary that I was super excited about because I am absolutely obsessed with animals. I love going to zoos, Sea World, any type of animal watching is good with me! Singapore has a really nice zoo, with a lot of different kinds of animals. It is set up really well too, with lots of tree coverage so you don't get too much sun while you are out there. The thing I enjoyed most about the zoo was just how open it was and how close you could get to the animals. Many of the animal areas were right up against the walking area with a low fence so you were literally feet away from the animals themselves. Of course there are exceptions like with the lions and tigers... can't imagine why they would put big moats between those guys and you... ;0) It was super fun though, and the animals were all very active today and not hiding and asleep like they are in Houston most of the time! We made special reservations today to go the orangutan breakfast, which was a huge buffet breakfast and then an up close encounter with some of their orangutans! I was so fun!



Silly Monkeys!
Lemur that was super close to us, just hanging out by the signs!
This little guy had a little man face! Again, just hanging out feet away from us on the sign!


An Meng was one of the original orangutans of the Singapore zoo. She was here about 36 years or so before she died.
She was very famous, had a great personality and had lots of baby orangutans!
Our breakfast helpers! (Not the real live orangutans Dad! hehe)
Breakfast - Yum!
Enjoying our Breakfast!
Once breakfast was over, the trainers called for the orangutans and they all came out of the zoo area and jumped or swung across the vines down to us in the eating area. It was really neat to watch them come over and a couple of them had little babies with them! 



Who's excited about this?!?! I am!!!!!!
Little monkey guy hanging out :0)
The next pictures are of the orangutans that were perched in front of our tables. They just sat there eating their little snacks and playing with each other while we walked around them and took pictures. We weren't allowed to pet them, but we definitely were able to walk right up to them and stand in front of them. It was really one of the coolest things I've ever been able to do with animals like this! Some of my favorite pictures are of one of the little babies that was there with his mommy.

One of the adults was named Anita!


The whole gang it here looking for snacks!


LOVED this little one! Amazing!
Such a little cutie!






The rest of the morning and early afternoon we spent walking around the rest of the park. We saw a lot of different animals like I said earlier and luckily they were all really active today. We also took a little tram ride around part of the zoo and then a hydropowered boat ride across the water reservoir back to the main entrance of the zoo.


Baboons - they had TONS of these guys!
Can't wait to see more kangas next month!
We went to a little Sea Lion show - very cute as always - Still dreaming about my sea lion training job :0)
Asian Elephants preparing for their show today.
And yes, this elephant is a talented painter!
Tram Ride around the zoo.
Rhino - You can see how close we are, I barely zoomed in at all!
Cheetah!
Zebras - Love them!
PUMBA!!!!!!!! Hakuna Matata!!!
LOVE THESE GUYS! Giraffes! So pretty!



Patrice was pretty excited about the AC because it was hot today! As usual!
Komodo Dragon
Tortoise




Mouse Deer - And no I'm not kidding!
Porcupine - HUGE
Boarding the boat!
White Tiger
Loved this - a Pandalephant! The best of both worlds! Kacey and I loved this because the panda is my favorite animal and the elephant is hers! Really cute figures, they had elephants decorated all in different ways in the gift shop.
So after the zoo, we were pretty worn out from the heat and walking around, so we came home and showered and then had a little "American" snack - Queso, Fritos and Coke Light! Of course our American snack had to be accompanied by cheesy silly American reality TV!



Silly Americans!
This evening, we got to meet some of Patrice's friends that she has made here in Singapore. All of the Exxon wives get together on this network here and meet up for dinner or to do different things together like shopping or museums. It's really neat the way their network is set up because they can easily give advice to each other on the best ways to do things here, the best deals on grocery items or just to communicated meeting ideas. They were all super nice and very welcoming. I was happy for her that she has had a great support group here. One thing I wanted to point out about my ice tea is the sweetener that they have here. It is usually a clear liquid and is super yummy! One of my favorite things here!



After meeting Patrice's friends, we headed back down to Marina Bay to go up into the ship of the Marina Bay Sans Hotel. We went all the way up to the top, the 57th floor to eat at the Chocoloate Bar. The elevator was super fast in this place! Once we got to the top, we walked along the deck and took pictures of the Singapore skyline at night, although the pictures really don't do it justice. It was absolutely beautiful, breathtaking views! You were so high up off the ground too, it was just amazing! You could look off one side and see the Singapore financial district, another side and see tons of HDB housing and on the other side you could see the ships coming into port. It was a really neat experience and a different view of the city.










This picture is finny because it looks like we are in front of a green screen but we're actually not! It's real I promise! haha
You can see the infinity pool really well in this picture. It was really neat, people could swim up to the edge and look over at the skyline or down below.



So the Chocolate Bar is basically what it says it is. A huge buffet of chocolate desserts and treats. They had really yummy combinations of things, and it was so fun being able to look out on the city below as we enjoyed our chocolate.




One side of the chocolate bar...
Other chocolate bar
These were yummy, as all things cheesecake are!
Yeah... I ate pretty much all of it haha...
Couldn't pass these little guys up! You know my weaknesses!
Couple more pictures on the way out!
Inside the hotel
Our taxi driver home tonight was hysterical! He had so many opinions about Singapore and was very willing to share them! We talked about the crazy labeling system around here, how all of the roads are abbreviated letters like the PIE, BKE or the KPE (it gets super confusing!) rather than numbers like I-45 or I-10. He talked about everything from HDB addresses to medical insurance and hospitals. He even said Singapore was "arrogant" and like to "show off" haha! It was just funny to hear opinions like that from a local! He was super nice and very entertaining, so we asked to take a picture with him once we got home.
Our favorite Taxi Driver!
Well that is all for tonight! Tomorrow is a trip down to Little India! We are almost through with our trip, only two days left in town and then we will be flying back home! It has been a crazy but exciting trip! I hope you have enjoyed the post for today!

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