Tag: photos

SG: Night Safari details/photos

I had heard mixed reviews from other backpackers, but I quite enjoyed it, as you get to see animals that are normally sleeping in the day and active at night. I give the Night Safari 2 thumbs up.
Unlike the zoo, these animals are in enclosures
Take the included tram for a good overview, and some ecological/environmental appeals (yeah), and then do the long loop walk to get up close and personal (includes some areas not covered by the tram)

Tip: go early, plan on enough time, and take the SAExp bus (at least back – much faster and it runs later; only S$4.50/US$3.60 each way; my trip back to Little India was only 25 minutes, as opposed to an hour and almost as much via MRT plus bus from Ang Mo Kio MRT station)
Tip: you can almost forget about photos, as no flash allowed (unless you have some serous camera equipment)

Besides the usual African animals there were also of interest:

  • An artificial cave with critters
  • Red & Brown Giant Flying Squirrel – it actually looked like a huge squirrel sitting on a tree branch (the size of a small-to-medium dog!). He didn’t fly while I was there, but still…
  • Asian Small Clawed Otter – 3 of them, all obviously looking at me, making quite the whining sounds
  • Mouse Deer – super tiny deer-like things (the size of a cat)
  • Malaysian Flying Fox (bats) – in a walk-in aviary where they hang 2m away from you and fly right by you, feasting on fruit (strung up by the staff) – do they really eat watermelon in the wild? (the bats are harmless but they warn people afraid of bats to maybe not enter)
  • Several species of civet (a type of wild cat) – their scent is used in perfumes (in diluted form)
  • Slow Loris – small mammal that produces venom! (because it’s so slow?)
  • Asian golden cat – sleeping on a tree branch, with legs hanging off either side (much like Susan’s cats do on her arm!)
  • Striped Hyena (spotted ones as well)
  • Lesser Mousedeer – the smallest hoofed animal
  • Barking Deer (sound like dogs) – though they didn’t bark while I was there
  • Pangolin – looks like an albino armadillo, but unrelated. They were sleeping though
    Aside: I still think that the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay building looks more like pangolins than durians
  • Various rhinos – unlike the ones I saw in Africa, these ones looked like they were wearing 4 pieces of plate mail armour
  • Fishing Cat – I saw them standing by the water staring intently, but unfortunately did not see them jump in to catch fish. Although one of them did walk belly-deep in water a few times!
  • fyi: Lions and tigers can interbreed but the offspring are sterile. The hybrid of a male tiger and female lion is called a tigon, and the reverse is known as a liger
  • Also, they have a cool lit bursting fountain in the courtyard off to the side

Remember you can click on photos to see the full-size version:

SG: Day 6/Tue Summary

In a nutshell:

This is my last day in Singapore (and this trip), heading home on an early morning flight tomorrow. I decided not to pop over to an Indonesian island after all.

  • Went to Pulau Ubin, a rustic island in the northeast, which still has old kampong (village) life. There is a nature reserve (Chek Jawa Wetlands) with a mangrove and coastal boardwalk on the eastern tip of the island. To get there, you take the MTR, a bus, a bumboat which only leaves when it has 12 passengers (no set schedule) and rent a bike for the 3.5 km sweaty ride. Unfortunately it was exactly high tide when I went so I saw fewer sea critters than expected.
    Definitely worth going though!
  • And it was partly sunny to boot. I couldn’t find my sunscreen in my knapsack while I was out, but sure enough I found it accidentally once I got back to the hostel, while reaching in for something else. I have quite the farmer’s tan going now :-(
  • I also ate a baby squid lunch on the island – tasty, but not quite what i was expecting (there were only a handful of restos, and all but one seemed closed at the time)
  • About to head out for the Night Safari next door to the Singapore Zoo (it’s a separate entrance/facility). The zoo, btw, is world-leading and has a lot of free ranging animals as opposed to small concrete enclosures.

SG: Day 3/Sat Summary

(more details and photos to come)

Well, the 3rd full day, i.e. Saturday, ignoring the 3 days/2 nights in Penang:

  • Went back to Mustafa dept store to look for a specific gift and discovered their grocery store upstairs so I bought some funky food items and ate a slice of Indian pizza
  • Checked out the Sim Lim Square electronics mall (just off the edge of Little India), to see if I could get my phone fixed (I’d rather reformat it when I get home than have a stranger do it – there wasn’t a quick fix) and to peek at new phones (like the HTC One X but it doesn’t come with an NFC chip here)
    I did end up buying a little mobile phone recharger (S$20/US$16; it has a micro USB plug to stick into your phone – this would have been super handy on this trip, at least before my phone died) and a USB cigarette lighter adapter (S$/6/U$5).
  • Enjoyed a Cuttlefish Hang Kong Bee Hoon (S$3/US$2.40) at the Bugis St Hawker Center
  • Walked through the crowded Bugis St Market, where I enjoyed a large cup of wheatgrass juice for S$1/US$0.80 (other fruit juices available, mostly at that price, some at a premium)
  • Walked around Kampong Glam (kampong = village, glam = a particular tree), including Arab St and Haji Lane (better seen at night when it’s busy, esp the shisha places), and the cafe-and-Turkish-resto-lined pedestrian road leading to the Sultan Mosque (which of course had just closed to visitors for the day).
  • Stopped in Chinatown to search for something I saw the other day but of course couldn’t find it :-)
  • Took the MRT to Pasir Panjang to do the 4km Southern Ridges 10km trail walk back to Mt Faber. I ended up eating some cockles (S$5/US$4 for a small plate which was too much food for one person) at the hawker market next to the MRT (pretty much every neighbourhood has a hawker market, usually close to the MRT station).
  • By this time it was getting towards sunset, so I decided to hop one MRT station closer (Labrador Park) to Mt Faber to shorten my hike. This is at the west end of a golf course, and I could see an HP building (augghh!) across the road.
  • I ended up walking through what must be a middle class neighbourhood, peaceful wide boulevards with large canopy trees, singing birds, and lots of apartment buildings that aren’t squeezed tightly together.
  • After about 15 minutes I made it to the south park system, having seen some sunset colour between the buildings. Oops.
  • At this point it was getting dark, but I decided to go into the park anyways, as there were still people around and some lights on the paved trail.
  • Crossed the Henderson Wave Bridge (turns out Telok Blangah MRT station was close to that – had I gone there, I would have had a great sunset!), which is a funky curvilinear bridge with wood-strip decking, curved bench/shade areas, and the biggest collection of people-with-cameras-on-tripods I’ve ever seen.
  • Continued up the hill to Mt Faber, with great views of the city lit up at night, past the Jewel Box (the name of the gondola station, which heads to HarbourFront and Sentosa Island), then down the dark steps with my mini keychain flashlight (along with an Estonian guy I met on the trail) – the sign did warn that this path wasn’t lit and to take the road, but I’m sure that would have taken a few minutes longer :-)
  • Stopped at Clarke Quay before going home

Aside: I saw 2 Maseratis and 1 Ferrari today…

SG: Day 4/Sun Summary

(more details and photos to come)

Sunday in Singapore:

  • Returned to Clarke Quay to see it in the daytime – uninteresting and deserted
  • Firestation museum (?)
  • Armenian Church – it’s round! And was commissioned over a hundred years ago when there were only a dozen Armenian families in Singapore
  • Decided to skip the Peranakan Museum since I went to one in Penang
  • Latte and blogging (free wi-fi) at SoHo Cafe (see my other blog entry) as it started raining, hard!
  • Singapore Art Museum (SAM) with modern art exhibits
  • Walked back through Bugis St area – surprising how walkably close these neighbourhoods are in central
  • Peeked in the Goddess of Mercy Hindu temple (no photos allowed)
  • Bought 2 little gadgets at Sim Lim Square electronics mall: a cigarette lighter USB adapter (S$6/US$5) and a phone recharger (S$20/US$16 – you can charge it with a USB cable, then you recharge your phone via the micro-USB plug; the latter one would have come in very handy earlier this trip when my smart phone battery died in the middle of the day!)
  • Enjoyed a seafood dinner at an outdoor hawker centre at the Esplanade on Marina Bay with Sue and her friends

SG: Day 5/Mon Summary

In a nutshell:

  • Walked along Orchard Road (2.7km long!), the big fancy shopping street (inc. all the major international brands). Unless you’re high end shopping, meh
    It’s called Orchard Road because there used to be orchards and plantations here, including nutmeg trees
    Tip: Check out the views from (and funky artwork on) the rooftop garden/terrace of Orchard Central mall (near the Somerset MRT); take the outdoor escalators up and the elevator back down.
  • Walked through the Singapore Botanic Gardens – excellent and highly recommended!
    It’s quite large – 1.8km long, stretching between the far end of Orchard Road and the aptly named Botanic Gardens MRT.
    I didn’t realize bananas were in the same family as ginger!
  • Took the monorail to Sentosa Island (from HarbourFront) and went to the “southernmost point of continental Asia” – which ironically is on a little island reached by a hanging foot-bridge. How is that part of the continent exactly? And it’s not quite off the southern tip of Sentosa Island either. But hey, that’s where the self-proclaiming signboard is…
  • Was invited into Sue’s home (from dinner previous night) to see what a local government subsidized apartment/condo looks like. Surprisingly large and quite nice
  • Neighbourhood was great too, and Sue explained about how these things work.
  • Met Ellen for dinner at Newton Circus – the hawker stall near Newton MRT – where amongst other things I had the chilli crab
  • Hopped in a taxi to Little India to buy an alarm clock at Mustafa, since I have a very early flight on Wed morning

Tip: check out gothere.sg for directions between any 2 places in Singapore: it gives you options including time and cost for bus, train+bus and taxi (and car driving directions too).
The taxi fare option was quite handy, though it doesn’t take the many surcharges into account (like certain time-of-day). Fancy website with map or smart phone version too.

SG: finally had chilli crab

This is one of the “must do signature dishes.”

Sorry, totally overrated and overpriced. Don’t bother.

This guy cost me S$34/US$27 (it’s priced per kilo, generally S$50/kg = US$40/kg)

fyi, these crabs come from Sri Lanka. Actually most of the (sea)food is imported here.

Update: those are tourist prices. Apparently the place to go is small neighbourhood “coffee shops” that are known for crab (not necessarily chilli version).

SG: Maifest in Singapore (Clarke Quay)

Last night I checked out Clarke Quay, which is a popular, modern resto/bar area on the Singapore River. Expensive food and drinks, although Happy Hour helps a bit. S$10/US$8 for a beer bottle, really?

And do we really need a Hooters there (an “American Concept Restaurant”) according to the info map of Clarke Quay. This is wrong on several levels 😉

Picture a square with an X drawn between the corners (i.e. divided into four triangles). Two of the outer sides of the square are on the river, and in the middle of the square is a big courtyard. Along all the lines are restos and bars. That’s Clarke Quay. Also a funky reverse bungee jump thingee, with a 3-person seat that slings out over the river.

Anyways, It happened to be the second of two nights of Maifest, a German spring celebration, complete with dirndl-wearing Asian hostesses, a band (doing American rock n roll) and, to their credit, signs explaining about this tradition. This was in the centre courtyard of the Clarke Quay complex.

SG: it is hot and humid

As in high of 32 C, feels like 42C. Low of 27 C !!!
(that’s hi 89 F feels like 107 F, low of 80 F for the Celsius-challenged)

Wow. Even in the evening – it doesn’t cool off nor get less humid (esp. compared to NYC/Toronto in the summer). thought it wouldn’t bother me, but wow.
A/C never felt so good. Especially after slogging up and down Mt Faber well, Mt is an exaggeration – really it’s a hill).

Today it was a little sunny this morning, which made it feel hotter (if not in the shade). And very humid. Then a nice refreshing pre-storm breeze kicked up and it was like god (little ‘g’) turned on the A/C – both the temp and humidity improved, even while it was pouring down. So I ducked into a cafe for this flavourful and colourful latte (and a little snack), and bonus, they had wi-fi. Yes, I did have my netbook with me – for all my complaints about it being slow, it is small and light, barely noticeable if I’m carrying a knapsack anyways.

Matcha Tea Latte at SoHo Coffee in the Colonial District

SG: back in Singapore, lazy morning

Did a little bit of blogging, eating and shopping this morning. Well, it’s 2pm now, how did that happen. I’d better get sightseeing…

In Mustafa, the huge 24-hour Indian department (mega-)store in Little India, they have funky imported foods (I bought some snacks and an Indian pizza slice), and random things like 3 rows of suits for 4-year-old boys (I’m guessing the age – i.e. they’re really small).

On the street I saw a “Remittance Kiosk” for Indian Overseas Bank, which clearly states it is not an ATM but only for remittances back home to India.

And I saw some serious laundry lines (poles?) on the apartment building above Tekka Centre, which houses a wet market (fresh fruit/veggie/meat/fish) and hawker stalls right next to Little India MRT.

While eating at the food court, I began to notice the Malaysian menu items, having just come back from Penang and learned a teeny bit of Malay (esp. food items). Ironically I saw the two items I was trying to find the previous day, teh narik (milk tea) and nasi lemak (rice in a coconut sauce with toppings).
Note: Malay is the largest ethnic group in Malaysia, and Malaysian is one of the 4 official languages (the others being English, Mandarin and Tamil).

Penang: Georgetown street scenes

Some random shots while walking around Georgetown: