Out with Virginie and gang

Just a little note before the start of the entry: I realise that I'm taking longer and longer to complete each entry. All the symptoms of a procrastinator are returning back to me.

It must have been at least a decade since I last went to the zoo.

My memory of the zoo was so vague that even if it hasn't undergone any renovations at all, I wouldn't have been able to remember how it used to look like. Actually going to the zoo is not that bad, just that a significant proportion of Singaporeans don't fancy a visit to the place. I guess it's because some of us don't appreciate animals, some of us find it too childish, etc etc...

Or maybe as Virginie said, "Because you're locals, that's why you don't do what the tourists do."

Perhaps she's right about that.

Anyway, we (Yvonne, Dexin and I) brought Virginie to the zoo and Night Safari on Sunday, while Yvonne's sis and nephew tagged along. The full day event started at 9 am, supposedly. We had agreed to meet at the entrance of the zoo at 9 am, but 'some people' had to be late... No finger pointing, no hints either. I was the only one who was punctual (现在的年轻人真是越来越不象话了).

Timing was important because Virginie (most of all) wanted to catch the feeding of the animals. The feeding times were staggered such that at any time some animals were being fed at some part of the zoo. Being late meant our plans were disrupted.

As a result, the first animal feeding we managed to catch was this:




Feeding of the birthday animal.


It's Yvonne's birthday! Happy Birthday! Very nice Black Forest cake courtesy of Virginie. We managed to finish the cake among the 6 of us. Could have finished a bigger one with ease, the cake was just too nice.

Right after we've entered the zoo, the very first signboard we saw was this



Click to enlarge



And Dexin had to start the morning with a hail-storm of a cold joke.


Dexin: 这只动物真可怜。

Me: 为什么？

Dexin: 因为它又瞎 (sia) 又盲 (mang)。

Me: *several drops of cold sweat trickled down my head*


I spent the entire day defrosting all thanks to him.

Shall not go into the nitty gritty bits of every detail encountered at the zoo, because I don't wish to put anyone reading this to sleep. Pictures (click here to view them) speak a thousand words and I shall let them do all the work for me.


--------A little digression here--------

The part of the zoo visit that puts me off is not the animals, but the visitors to the zoo, especially at the night safari. Visitors are warned time and again not to use flash or lights on the animals, which is very much common sense since animals in the night safari are nocturnal.

Unfortunately, there are too many people, local and otherwise, that are either

1. unable to understand spoken English
2. completely ignorant regarding what a flash is or how to disable it
3. so hard of hearing that they should have just told others they're deaf

A most classic example was that while we took a tram ride to tour the Night Safari, we passed by a lone bull elephant. The guide on the tram was explaining that the elephant was isolated from the rest because it had a particularly bad temper and should MOST DEFINITELY NOT be flashed at, but just as she finished her sentence, a camera flash went off right at the enormous creature. I tensed as I readied myself for the impact of the elephant running down the tram.

For those who have not been to the Night Safari before, most of the 'enclosures' there are actually just a ring of bushes and the animals are allowed to roam the confines of the Night Safari freely, though they seldom wander far.

Maybe someone was sent down to test the safety standards of the Singapore Night Safari (as well as the patience and tolerance of the staff working there). Never thought I'd say this but some people deserve to be trampled to death by a rampaging elephant.

Such incidents never stopped recurring throughout our visit

--------end of digression--------


We walked our legs off that day, tramping through every nook and cranny of the two attractions.






Dexin, however, wasn't satisfied until he proved a point.


Virginie made up a list of must-dos and the next one was to take a riverboat ride at the Singapore River. By accompanying her there (on Tuesday night), she said that we got to do something that we would not have done by ourselves. Personally, I don't really care about never having taken the ride before, but Virginie seemed quite happy to have the ride and our company, and that was all that mattered.

Most of the time when we were out, Virginie would ask us questions relating to Singapore's history. Her questions made me realise that I've forgotten much of our history and am still ignorant of quite a significant chunk of it. In fact, there are some things mentioned in the travel guide, which Virginie brought from France, that I didn't even know of.

Shame on me.

I shall test her on the history of France when I meet her over there, even though it's unfair that France has a history that's probably a hundred times longer than Singapore's. I don't care. REVENGE!