Singapore Trip: Night Safari

The Night Safari is open from 7:30pm till midnight and you can come in anytime you wish during that time. There is no set schedule that you have to follow. It is up to you how long you wish to stay, whether you want to go on the walking trails, or whether you want to take the tram ride.

The combo tickets that we had bought at Jurong Bird Park were only good for the entrance. We had to pay extra to go on the 20 minute or so tram ride. I forget now how much that costs but I'll see if I can give you that information in the coming days. Anyway, we opted for the tram ride as we thought it was not a good idea to go around walking in the dark with 2 kids who were pooped from a whole day Bird Park outing. Us, adults were more than pooped too.

The tram ride was very good for us. It was comfortable and quite interesting, moving from forest to forest (e.g. Africa, Asia) and seeing the different animals from a safe distance, in what appears to be as close to their natural habitat as possible. We particularly enjoyed our commentator on the tram -- her voice was soothing and calming (in the darkness of the night) even as she read a script which was quite witty and interesting. Her delivery was not straightforward -- quite theatrical to me, if I may say, without trying too hard.

We saw lots of animals like elephants, rhinos, laughing hyenas (my kids' question: Why are they not laughing?), the biggest rats (I forget what they are called), lions, tigers, and giraffes, among others. Upon seeing the giraffe, Ali my daughter asked: "Why is it not yellow?" The power of TV, books, and animation...

We caught the last "Creatures of the Night" Show at 10pm, with the show running for about 30 minutes. It featured tricks by different animals like an owl, tigers, and bearcats. Most memorable for me were the mountain lion (which climbed a tree on stage); Meggie the python (which was hidden under some seat that some people in the audience were actually sitting on - yikes!) and the three cute otters who were intelligent enough to segregate their trash and put in the garbage in the right trash can.

We left the Night Safari at past 11pm. Before leaving, we enjoyed some ice cream from Ben and Jerry's where Daddy Manuel really enjoyed his Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream. He says it was nice and chunky, creamy, with just the right blend of bitterness and sweetness. As for me, I thought the mint chocolate chip could have used some more "mintiness" and sweetness though the chocolate chips were really chunky too. As for the kids, they were too busy enjoying their ice cream to say anything.

We only have a few photos from the Night Safari. (We shall put up the photos by the way in the next few days or weeks...please be patient.) All the time, while visiting, you will be reminded not to use flash photography as it may disturb the animals. Our camera (which also doubles as a video thing) does not do too well in low light (darkness, actually, in this case) so when visiting, you may want to bring a camera which can take good photos and video even without flash in a low light setting.

Tomorrow: Moving on from Singapore to KL