Globetrotting

The only free day in between two six-day weeks of classes, last Sunday allowed for a little time to explore Singapore, specifically the Zoo and the adjacent Night Safari. Singapore Zoo is really amazing, a large area located on a peninsula within the Upper Selatar Reservoir, one of the large artificial lakes in which Singapore catches rain water to fulfil the fresh water demand (even though Singapore still has to import most of its fresh water from Indonesia or Malaysia). The Zoo has many animals, especially those from warmer regions such as Asia, Africa, Australia or South America. The animals are roughly grouped by their respective regions, and you can easily spend a few hours strolling among the different enclosures.

The Night Safari is located just next to the Zoo and is the first one of its kind world wide. Open from 19:30, it allows seeing animals in more natural surroundings. The animals aloso live in (quite spacy) enclosures, but they are only dimly lit by lanterns, providing an entirely different atmosphere than that of a Zoo. Visitors quietly wander through the tranquil park or take the tram ride which takes about 30 minutes and during which quite interesting information about the animals and their respective habitats is provided. Before entering the Night Safari, I was actually recruited – more or less voluntary – to take part in a fire show that was displayed for the visitors. Most of the time I did not really know what to do, someone gave me a flare and then took it away again, told me to stand here or kneel there, and in the end they pretended that I actually put out the flare with my mouth. It was good fun 🙂

But enough of the writing, better see for yourself! Some pictures from the Zoo follow, in the Night Safari it was too dark to take good pictures.