On a Midnight Prowl
Last Saturday was Safari day. Yup, Safari in the middle of the rat race called Singapore. After an uneventful Friday, I was really anticipating the promise of seeing oversize kitties in their man-made habitat. And the Safari delivers! Well, minus the damage cost of entry of S$28 per person *ouch!*
Peishan asked us on Thursday night regarding the trip and plus entertaining our German guest, Markus to the sights and sounds of Singapore. Now, the thing was I don't really know where the Safari thingy is held; never been there before, so I was just readily agree with them to meet at the Esplanade for dinner. At the begining, the chosen dining place was somewhere in Ang Mo Kio.
Esplanade is still one of my favorite spots in Singapore. It's just nice and beautiful and of course, the performing arts center. In a way I thought "The Durian" building gives a competition to Sydney's Opera House. It's Singapore's Broadway. While waiting for Gene to come and meet us, Jon, Markus, Peishan and I were taking pictures on the surrounding of Esplanade.
For some reason, as Jon's tour-guiding Markus, they were talking about whether the Merlion is a male or female. I added that it should be a dude lion not a chick, since it got mass o'hair, unlike the female lion. And I felt more stupendous, when Peishan gave a more easier and direct answer... "It's called the Merlion and not a Lioness..." I guess it's interesting to see how people answer a question in different angle. I'm more biological, perhaps, hehehe.
After the photo op, we went to the food stalls in search for a good but cheap dinner. We settled at the Esplanade's hawker center, which exotically called, "Makan Sutra" (if directly translated to Indonesian, it would mean: Eating Silk, hehehe. So I wonder what the Malay translation would be). Don't like the rest half of the name... "Gluttons Bay". Again Jon was ushering Markus to see what food they can get. Markus declined on the oyster scrambled egg, no matter how both Jon and I kinda hint that the menu is a good eat :). After following them a bit, I let Peishan took her tour of duty as the resident photojournalist and me keep guard with the bags.
The food were quite fulfilling. And the view and the weather were just nice, as the sky starting to get darker. As soon as Gene joined us, the five of us got to enjoy the view serenaded by the band that played that night. The free concert band was playing that U2 song that has the opening line, "Uno... Dos... Tres... Catorce!" (One, two, three... Fourteen, hehehe. One SNL comedian commented on the band's inability to count, as 14 comes after 3). I think the title is "Vertigo". From Esplanade, the 5 of us fit into a taxi to the Night Safari. Gene was entertaining Markus, Peishan and I were talking about nice locations for weddings (eh, what made us talk about weddings, huh?) and Jon was entertaining the taxi driver, hahaha. He got quite some information about the taxi driver. The uncle driver was actually a millionaire! Who would've thunk!
We got there about 8.40pm. I thought the surroundings reminded me of Disneyland's Indiana Jones' ride. It's like we're really in a touring mode. We're on vacation. The ticket price was dousing the excitement a bit, but soon forgotten, and three cameras started to take turn in recording memories.
We got to see a lot of animals from the cute one to the scary cute kind. The tram ride were nice, minus the nasally overdramatic tour guides' voices. Yes yes, we know, we got to conserve and save the Elephants! The lion was the only one from the cats family that's not behind the fiberglass cage. The tourguide said that Lion is the friendliest or tamest cat compared to the other big cats. Anyway, the Lion that we saw was sleeping, didn't bother to wake although his groupies (a.k.a. us, the visiting humans) were calling for him.
Then there's the striped Hyenas and the spotted Hyenas. The spotted ones were the ones that's more popular with the shrilling laugh (for reference, watch "The Lion King", hehehe). The Jackals and the small Wolfs were always cute for me, very much reminding me of my fave dog, the Huskies. Oh and there's this Bearcat. And they're just the cutest oversize furball. The tail can help them dangle from tree branches. Oh and there's the Babirusa (Deer-pig) and Markus said, "Schweine!" Or Swine/ Pig in German. He taught me how to say it right, hehehe. Das Schweine. Some of the Leopards skin 'design' had the Chameleon-like tendencies, as some can just blend with the tree trunk motifs and we couldn't even see them clearly until we see something moving and it happen to be their tails dangled in front of our faces. Behind the fiberglass mirror of course. We also watched the animal show, and the Otters were adorable. Peishan said that the emcee was speaking too fast and the show was less than expected. And we got to see the Racoons... Ah missed my own Racoons in US, hahaha... Considering that the two Racoons that make an appearance on the show have cousins in my backyard :D
The most memorable reaction to an animal would be when we, especially the girls, went into the batcage. We're not really scared of the Flying Squirell, even Gene want them to start flying. As soon as we entered the Bat cage, the shrill from some birds that also sharing the living space with the Bats added to the suspense in the atmosphere. These bats were just dangled from any thin leaf branches and sometimes you couldn't tell the difference because of the lack of light on the area. The three girls kind of huddled together, moving very slowly, fearing the bats. We stood in a row and when Peishan saw one of the bats flapped open its wings, she started screaming, followed like domino effect by me then Gene. We didn't really move until Jon helped ushered us out. And both of the boys had their laugh at our expense. (Alvin then commented about girls' reaction toward Batman. Hehehe, the screaming may be at the same level but the connotation will be different).
After a long night of screaming and walking, we got a nice ride back on a tram. We didn't really have a close encounter with a Giraffe aside from their nice behind, but we did pass a wondering Tapir. Before we leave, some were having some sugar-tooth. We raided Ben & Jerry's before we call it a night.
Again the five of us fit into the taxi heading home. Oh and if you would like to see the animals, I hope this will do, hehehe... Since during our trip there's the "No Flash Photography" policy being enforced. Check out the "Shiba Inu" (the big white dog, I think that's the breed name) too, on this clip. At least the two types of animals that I really like are represented here :P Motto Kawaii!
Peishan asked us on Thursday night regarding the trip and plus entertaining our German guest, Markus to the sights and sounds of Singapore. Now, the thing was I don't really know where the Safari thingy is held; never been there before, so I was just readily agree with them to meet at the Esplanade for dinner. At the begining, the chosen dining place was somewhere in Ang Mo Kio.
Esplanade is still one of my favorite spots in Singapore. It's just nice and beautiful and of course, the performing arts center. In a way I thought "The Durian" building gives a competition to Sydney's Opera House. It's Singapore's Broadway. While waiting for Gene to come and meet us, Jon, Markus, Peishan and I were taking pictures on the surrounding of Esplanade.
For some reason, as Jon's tour-guiding Markus, they were talking about whether the Merlion is a male or female. I added that it should be a dude lion not a chick, since it got mass o'hair, unlike the female lion. And I felt more stupendous, when Peishan gave a more easier and direct answer... "It's called the Merlion and not a Lioness..." I guess it's interesting to see how people answer a question in different angle. I'm more biological, perhaps, hehehe.
The dude is spitting water :P
My Winning Prize shot *Hmm... out of idea to write some funny caption for this candid. Anybody help?*
After the photo op, we went to the food stalls in search for a good but cheap dinner. We settled at the Esplanade's hawker center, which exotically called, "Makan Sutra" (if directly translated to Indonesian, it would mean: Eating Silk, hehehe. So I wonder what the Malay translation would be). Don't like the rest half of the name... "Gluttons Bay". Again Jon was ushering Markus to see what food they can get. Markus declined on the oyster scrambled egg, no matter how both Jon and I kinda hint that the menu is a good eat :). After following them a bit, I let Peishan took her tour of duty as the resident photojournalist and me keep guard with the bags.
The local exchanges
The food were quite fulfilling. And the view and the weather were just nice, as the sky starting to get darker. As soon as Gene joined us, the five of us got to enjoy the view serenaded by the band that played that night. The free concert band was playing that U2 song that has the opening line, "Uno... Dos... Tres... Catorce!" (One, two, three... Fourteen, hehehe. One SNL comedian commented on the band's inability to count, as 14 comes after 3). I think the title is "Vertigo". From Esplanade, the 5 of us fit into a taxi to the Night Safari. Gene was entertaining Markus, Peishan and I were talking about nice locations for weddings (eh, what made us talk about weddings, huh?) and Jon was entertaining the taxi driver, hahaha. He got quite some information about the taxi driver. The uncle driver was actually a millionaire! Who would've thunk!
We got there about 8.40pm. I thought the surroundings reminded me of Disneyland's Indiana Jones' ride. It's like we're really in a touring mode. We're on vacation. The ticket price was dousing the excitement a bit, but soon forgotten, and three cameras started to take turn in recording memories.
We got to see a lot of animals from the cute one to the scary cute kind. The tram ride were nice, minus the nasally overdramatic tour guides' voices. Yes yes, we know, we got to conserve and save the Elephants! The lion was the only one from the cats family that's not behind the fiberglass cage. The tourguide said that Lion is the friendliest or tamest cat compared to the other big cats. Anyway, the Lion that we saw was sleeping, didn't bother to wake although his groupies (a.k.a. us, the visiting humans) were calling for him.
Then there's the striped Hyenas and the spotted Hyenas. The spotted ones were the ones that's more popular with the shrilling laugh (for reference, watch "The Lion King", hehehe). The Jackals and the small Wolfs were always cute for me, very much reminding me of my fave dog, the Huskies. Oh and there's this Bearcat. And they're just the cutest oversize furball. The tail can help them dangle from tree branches. Oh and there's the Babirusa (Deer-pig) and Markus said, "Schweine!" Or Swine/ Pig in German. He taught me how to say it right, hehehe. Das Schweine. Some of the Leopards skin 'design' had the Chameleon-like tendencies, as some can just blend with the tree trunk motifs and we couldn't even see them clearly until we see something moving and it happen to be their tails dangled in front of our faces. Behind the fiberglass mirror of course. We also watched the animal show, and the Otters were adorable. Peishan said that the emcee was speaking too fast and the show was less than expected. And we got to see the Racoons... Ah missed my own Racoons in US, hahaha... Considering that the two Racoons that make an appearance on the show have cousins in my backyard :D
The most memorable reaction to an animal would be when we, especially the girls, went into the batcage. We're not really scared of the Flying Squirell, even Gene want them to start flying. As soon as we entered the Bat cage, the shrill from some birds that also sharing the living space with the Bats added to the suspense in the atmosphere. These bats were just dangled from any thin leaf branches and sometimes you couldn't tell the difference because of the lack of light on the area. The three girls kind of huddled together, moving very slowly, fearing the bats. We stood in a row and when Peishan saw one of the bats flapped open its wings, she started screaming, followed like domino effect by me then Gene. We didn't really move until Jon helped ushered us out. And both of the boys had their laugh at our expense. (Alvin then commented about girls' reaction toward Batman. Hehehe, the screaming may be at the same level but the connotation will be different).
After a long night of screaming and walking, we got a nice ride back on a tram. We didn't really have a close encounter with a Giraffe aside from their nice behind, but we did pass a wondering Tapir. Before we leave, some were having some sugar-tooth. We raided Ben & Jerry's before we call it a night.
Again the five of us fit into the taxi heading home. Oh and if you would like to see the animals, I hope this will do, hehehe... Since during our trip there's the "No Flash Photography" policy being enforced. Check out the "Shiba Inu" (the big white dog, I think that's the breed name) too, on this clip. At least the two types of animals that I really like are represented here :P Motto Kawaii!
posted by God's Grace | 11:58 AM
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