We Took a River boat to India and then went on Safari

Looking back on it, our full day in Singapore was a long one. No wonder Grandma and I got so tired every day!

We started the day off with a river boat cruise. It was quite nice and helped us get a feel for the layout of the city. The concierge at our hotel told us to go all the way down to the harbour to catch the river boat, but when we were on the cruise we realized that there was a river boat stop right across from our hotel. We could have walked right down to it! Our concierge was a little odd...the people that worked at the hotel didn't seem to know much about the city and thought it was strange when we asked them questions, but isn't that their job?

One interesting thing about Singapore is the presence of the merlion. It is the symbol of Singapore, and there seemed to be statues of it in every tourist spot, and we were supposed to take pictures of them. It was a little bit strange I thought. It sort of reminded me of when a person tries to give themself a nick name, and wants everyone to call them that. It just doesn't work. (This could just be me....maybe other people are very excited about the merlion statues?)

After the river boat cruise we went over to Little India for some food. We ate at the Banana Leaf Apolo Restaurant, at the suggestion of our taxi driver. It turned out to be one of our most expensive meals, but that is good, cause it wasn't very expensive at all! (At least compared to Hong Kong.) After that, we browsed through the shops and made it over to the food market, where I hunted for my beloved Roti Chennai. We found something similar, but it wasn't as good as I had before and so I was disappointed. Grandma said, "No expectations, no disappointment." I think that is so true, I seem to love everything so much when I have no expectations of what it should be like.

We decided not to go to the Singapore Zoo (since we are from San Diego, home of the World Famous San Diego Zoo) and we went instead to the Night Safari. It was really fun! The park is beautifully done. When we first got there we went on a walking trail and the sign said, "Watch for bats swooping and lemurs swinging from the branches." We took that very seriously, and inched down the path very carefully and silently. We kept whispering to eachother that we had seen something, only to realize after intense scrutiny that what we were looking at was actually a leaf or a branch or something of the sort. We were the only ones on the trail and we must have looked so funny! Only later did we realize that it wasn't like we were actually on safari...the animals would be lit up and visible. I did have one exciting moment though...I was walking ahead of Grandma and I rounded the corner and walked staight into a hyena, and it was starig straight at me with it's ears pricked up. I squealed and ran back to Grandma. (Not that running back to her would have done much good in case of wild hyena attack...) Then I came to my senses and remembered that the hyena was separated from us by a discrete but effective moat or trench like thing. Haha! It startled me pretty good! That was the first animal we saw.

They had alot of animals there...another cool thing was a bat cave that we went into. I have seen bats before in Asia, but these were crazy. They were huge and we were right next to them. You can see how legends like dracula and vampires would come about. These bats were downright spooky looking. We also went on a tram ride with a very strange guy narrating for us...he said everything very slowly and dramatically, even mundane facts. He would say things like, "And pandas eat......(dramatic silence here).....baaaaaaaammmmmmmbooooooo!" It was hysterical. We were in open air trams and it was pretty cool because alot of animals were just roaming around. An anteater strolled right by the tram, oblivious to us, and also there was a herd of deer and some cows and stuff. When we finished the tram ride at around 11, Grandma was so tired that she laid her head down on the tram seat in front of us! Looking back on all the stuff we did that day, no wonder she was so tired!


Grandma with the Merlion 


Meagan in front of the harbour 


Grandma on our Riverboat Cruise 


Grandma Eating at the Banana Leaf Restaurant 


Meagan at the Night Safari 


Grandma at the Night Safari