2/22/10 - 2/23/10 - Hello Singapore! Goodbye Singapore!

Doughnuts and packs in hand, we caught our China Air flight to Singapore. We checked into our first dorm style hostel of the trip, at 98sg. Bunk beds with bright coordinated bed sets. I felt like a freshman checking into the college dorms all over again - it was fun.

We woke up the next morning with a clear game plan:

Quickly stop by the cheap electronics mall, buy a cheap camera, take a train to the zoo, spend the day, and maybe even make it back for dinner in little India.

Singapore - land of great deals on electronics = lie. The cameras were just as, if not more, expensive than they were back in the US. We drowned our sorrows in a fancy sit-down Pizza Hut. It was very comforting, it felt like the cheese was giving us a hug. A review of the Amazon.com return policy, and a call to Canon later, we decided to bite a big expensive bullet, and buy the Olympus Tough underwater camera to replace the broken Canon. We didn't want to do it, but we didn't want to not take photos on our amazing once in a lifetime Asia quest even less. We danced through the streets with our new camera, taking pictures of everything.

(editors note: we originally weren't going to get a refund from amazon for the old camera. After a pleading email explaining the situation, they agreed to refund the money - go Amazon!)

Our glee was slightly decreased once we realized it took so long to get a new camera that we weren't going to have time for the Singapore humane zoo. Sad faces. However, Singapore is one of the only zoos that also offer a night safari to see all the nocturnal animals. Happy faces!

The one good thing about wandering about Singapore all afternoon was it gave us a chance to see the city. I must say, we were super impressed. We would have loved to have spent more time there if we had more time, and more money (it's quite expensive in comparison to the rest of our trip.) Singapore is like a futuristic city plan come to life. It was extremely efficient and clean. The subway station (which,again, was extremely clean and well organized) had a sign that said "No Durians." it's a common fruit in Asia, but apparently smells bad. There is no spitting, gum chewing, or jay walking.

Megan: Wow look at the construction workers! They're wearing shoes!
Steffany: and hats! And they're using metal!
Megan: rather than all bamboo? Weird.

We were sure to be like ms. molly manners during our stay. I was afraid we might get jail time for not showering enough.

Side note: speaking of showering, we had the first hot water shower since we left the US. Singapore could have been awful, and that shower would have been worth the trip.

Apple slurpees in hand, we waited for our bus to take us to the Night Safari.

And waited...

And waited some more.

We double checked the bus schedule. The bus we needed didn't run during week days.

"Is it a weekday?"
"I have no idea."

It was.

"That's ok, we can walk it!"

No we couldn't.

"I think it's this way!"

No it wasn't.

We ended up walking by a highway with the backup plan to hail a cab if we couldn't find the zoo. ::ahem::: hail a cab. On a highway. Going 50 miles per hour... Once it sunk in that this plan was impossible, fate smiled upon us and we were able to get a taxi BEFORE it got in the highway.

We made it to the night safari! We had some time to kill before the main park officially opened, so we went one on one with man eating fish! It was actually a tank of "doctor fish." these are bottom feeder fish that eat the dead skin off your feet. It tickled really... Really...Badly. There was no saving our pride as we squealed and giggled like little girls the entire 10 minutes. There are pictures and videos. Not good.

After a celebratory "yay we have a camera" drink (a Singapore Slinger), we hopped on the tram car for a tour around the park. It was so weird being in a modern city after three weeks in Indonesia. We kept saying it was like a day at Disney, and the tram car clinched it.

The night show proved to be an overload of precious. I don't think we stopped smiling. Animals climbed on ropes over our heads, a white wolf called to the moon, and miniature otters recycled bottles. One little otter just kept spinning the bottle round and round for fun, rather than dropping it in the bucket. Steff and my response to this "Eeeee! Hehehehe! ::claps hands::"

After the show we went on foot to see all the night critters. It was the first time either of us had seen some of these animals so active. It was so cool and fun. I could spend the next hour describing in great detail just how much we loved each animal we saw, but for the sake of time, your attention span, and my little typing fingers, I'll hit a few of our favorites:

Flying squirrel room: we passed through three air-lock style doors and entered a room with flying squirrels swooshing past us from high above.

Indian Wolves: walking down a dark path all alone... Suddenly, we are stopped in our tracks by the chilling sounds of a pack of wolves baying at the moon. Inch forward and we see that they are all gathered in a cute puppy pile atop a giant rock, howling at the moon, catching their breath, and continuing to howl. It was a scene straight out of the mysterious wolf t-shirts.

Bat room: similar to the flying squirrel room, but this time bats of all sizes were flying and hanging around (get it, hanging around? Ha!). We thought the bats were cute, other people in the room did not.

Big cats (lions, tigers, leopards): the crazy cat ladies within took over as we watched and cooed at these giant animals. They're always so much larger and more powerful than I remember. If a lion bumped into us, we would be crushed. We stood back and tried to be quiet so the leopards would come by the glass. It was a little magical when they did. The male was huge and seemed very protective of the pregnant female. Such beautiful animals. We watched them until we realized we were running out of time.

Yay amazing elephants and silly giraffes!

"That was so cool."
"SO cool!"

We had a very pleasant taxi ride home. Our driver chatted with us the whole way. He also informed us that out hostel was in a red light district. Of course it was.

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