Singapore Zoo

Part of the zoo greeting committee

Today was Sunday, so B had time to go on a fun family outing. The weather cooperated (unlike last week), so we were off to the Singapore Zoo.

Asian elephants

The zoo here is absolutely incredible: I have been to a LOT of zoos because I love seeing the animals, and it is one of the very nicest I have ever visited, only matched by the one in San Diego. It's enormous, beautifully landscaped, and the animals are obviously very well cared for. The zoo is based around a "cage free" concept, so most of the animals seem to be in natural settings, with no obvious bars or other enclosures. Some of them are actually free-ranging, so you are greeted on your entrance by a band of tamarind monkeys, and later by lemurs, both freely moving through the tropical foliage over your head. It's amazing.

One of the white tigers: tigers are big!

Near the zoo entrance are several reasonably priced restaurants serving Western and Singaporean food. We ate Nonya chicken curry (spicy peanut and coconut chicken curry served with French bread), laksa (very typical Singaporean dish of spicy coconut curry with shrimp, fish, tofu, bean sprouts and noodles), kaya toast (white toast with the crusts cut off, with butter and coconut-egg-pandan leaf spread), and half-boiled eggs (just what they sound like, to be eaten with the toast). It was quite good. B also got a chocolate milkshake from Ben and Jerry's, while I got Teh-O (really strong sweetened black tea, no milk).

Little R enjoying kaya toast

After we ate, we ventured off to see animals. We saw monkeys, crocodiles, tapirs, white tigers, pygmy hippopotami, baboons, and elephants, among others.

Little R is enthralled by the animals

Watching the pygmy hippo swim

Little R viewing the baboon troop

Little R had a great time and especially enjoyed the pygmy hippopotamus enclosure because her eye level allowed her to look directly into the tank. As usual, she was a tourist attraction in herself.

Little R posing with part of her fan club

My favorite part was seeing the Asian elephants. Did you know that they can dance? This female was rocking out to the beat (a show had just ended in the nearby amphitheatre), all by herself (unfortunately you can't really hear the music in the video). Totally funny.