Singapore Zoo

We took Friday off to take our children to Singapore Zoo. And when I said Singapore Zoo I meant Singapore Zoo only because after we left the zoo we went straight to our hotel in JB… he he. We were advised that we have to come in after 9 am and leave before 4 pm to beat the massive jam and so we did. We didn’t even visit the whole zoo in our quest to beat the traffic. Oh well, we can always go again and go again is what I intend to do.

Because the zoo was superb.

It was wonderful.

Words my friends, could not describe it.

You will be enthralled at the very beginning. When you buy the tickets, you will have a glimpse of what the zoo promises by the many, many trees surrounding it. It looked peaceful and very… well… natural ?








This lovely siamang was the first to greet us.








When you walk, you will feel like walking in a nice, clean jungle, very much like my beloved Bukit Cherakah used to look like before they commercialise it. I love the lush trees and vegetations surrounding the animals. The sound of the forests.. well it was wow !!







If you look carefully you can see a hippo peacefully sleeping right next to to the monkey clad in blue ( but this monkey I get to take home with me ).






You can hear the birds, the roars of the tigers and many, many more. It was really soothing. The ambiance was great as the trees absorbed the heat and made it cool. And it was so clean. The surrounding was clean and the animals looked like the were well look after. They even have air-conditioning houses for you to cool yourself down if the weather got too hot for you.






Imagine our delight when we found out that the lone male white tiger is called Omar.

But imagine our consternation when the lioness on the right is called Elsa !! Patut le anak - anak si Babah ni bengkeng - bengkeng belaka... But, I named them so my fault he he..... However, Abang is named after Khulafa Ar-Rashidin.. who well garangnya boleh tahan... and Adik is named after the lioness in Joy Fielding's Born Free but it also means Devoted to Allah.... But lions are garang.. so... Hmm.........




We took our time admiring and looking at the animals and enjoying the ambiance. So much so when we looked at the time, it was already 2pm and we were only halfway through. But since we have to leave for JB before 4pm, we decided we have to stop at that. We have to come next time to explore the other half of the fantastic zoo.

My favourite ? Watching them feed the animals especially Innuka the Polar Bear. He was graceful and oh so cute. If you look closely, you can see Innuka's outline just next to Adik. Unfortunatley he was looking the other way when I snapped this picture.

It rained a bit as we were leaving and Babah covered Adik's head with a small towel. As we were walking briskly to shelter, we heard a few mat salleh's voices excuse me-ing us. We stopped. Adik had dropped her towel. Babah asked Adik why didn't she tell us about the towel and my indignant daughter answered, " I did !! ". Babah said, " I didn't hear you. " and my little lioness said, " I said 'Oh man, oh man' ! " Ha ha.. those mat sallehs also laughed delightedly.

We ate at the zoo. We went to this wonderful pizza place and we had mushroom pizza. It was the best mushroom pizza ever. The place was clean, the gift shop was excellent and well designed and the gifts they offered were various and interesting.

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How I wish I could sing the praises of our very own Zoo Ulu Kelang. The Singapore Zoo is just next door. Nip over there and learn. Please !!!

The boring bits ? My daughter was more interested with the map of the zoo and her books then the animals. I swear she will out read me when she finally learned to read.

Hmmm..................

Going there was easy. We took a blue cab from JB and was sent straight to the zoo. It took us like 20 minutes without the jam. From the friendly driver we understood that only blue cabs could cross the causeway. So Babah and I planned that we will take a blue cab from the zoo and therefore could go straight back to JB from there.

The line at the taxi stand was long. We gave up one taxi when our turn came because it was not the right colour. When a blue one finally came it couldn't take us to JB because it didn't have a Malaysian road tax !!

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Okay, okay. Babah then asked the chatty driver to take us to the taxi terminal. He took us to a terminal all right but when we asked him where we can get a taxi, he was surprised. Taxi ? he asked. He was flustered when he told us to take up the flight of stairs that was visible from where he stopped and just follow the crowd. O-kay...

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So we followed the crowd and the sign boards. It was quite a long walk but since it was covered and was not hot we gamely marched on. Until we saw immigration counters. What ? It was behind glass sliding doors but when I tried to enter I couldn't. Apparently it was for people coming from JB to Singapore.

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Babah and I sweated a bit. " Where are we going actually Babah ? " I asked. He was quiet as he walked on dragging Adik before he answered, " Mummy, we have walked in most European countries and we survived Bangkok and Jakarta... we are seasoned travellers. No need to get panicky now. "

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Well yeah, but I panicked all the same. Then we arrived at another immigration checkpoint. O - oh... we are the taxis ? Luckily there was an information counter. The nice policeman said there are buses waiting after the immigration check point. I even asked where could we get the tickets ? He looked at me oddly. " Kat bawah lah cik. " O-kay.

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When we got down, there was a normal bus waiting and a few people were clambering in. I looked for a bus pesiaran but none was visible. I approached the bus conductor and asked if that was the bus to JB and he said yes. I was obsessed with bus tickets at that point and asked where coiuld I get them. He said in the bus itself. So, it was a normal bus. We got on the now full bus and 1 guy offered his seat for me and Adik. Another offered one for Abang. Problem arose.

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Abang : I don't want to sit there...

Babah : Why ?

Abang : I dont want to get lost...

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Adik at that time was restless on my lap. She was whining but I couldn't understand what she wanted. Abang was insisting to stand with Babah as he was sure he would get lost from his Babah if he remain seated. Suddenly Adik turned around, saw her brother and calmed down. Oh she was looking for her Abang.

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The bus moved forward and not even 2 minutes after that the bus stopped and everybody got down. Babah and I looked at each other and climbed down the bus as well. Oh, Malaysian immigration checkpoint. After we passed immigration, we were bewildered to find ourselves in JB again.

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" What ? "

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A man offered us taxi and we gratefully accepted.

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So, we walked accros the causeway just now ? Really ?

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Well then, that is easier than taking a cab isn't it ? No jam, no nothing.

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We walked accorss the causeway ? Wow !! That was easy... Ha ha...