Since Sunday wasn't a very "productive" day, we decided to make Monday a big day by visiting the Jurong Bird Park and the Chinese and Japanese Gardens.

Unlike getting to the zoo, we got to the bird park with no problem and were inside the gates by 11:30. It is built on pretty much the same principle as the zoo, only with more cages since birds are substantially more mobile than most other animals, but usually even the "cages" were large enclosed areas several tens or hundreds of feet tall. They also had trained falconers on hand to help exercise the large birds of prey, of which they had numerous species, ranging from the smallest kites and miniature hawks to bald eagles. But still, many birds were allowed mostly free range of the park including most of the pelicans, ducks, flamingos, herons, and storks. The flamingo pond was home to some 1000 birds! A huge stink, but really interesting to see a flock that large interact.

They also had this amazing Waterfall area housing the largest man-made waterfall, cascading some 100 feet high, with the net probably another 50-100 feet above that. It housed numerous birds, mostly tropicals. There was constuction being done on the upper pathways, so we could only go so high among the trees, but it was enough to get a lovely view, and see quite a few birds.

Looping back around, we had lunch overlooking the flamingo pond (inside looking through glass to keep our appetite from the smell), and then took in the rest of the park.

They had a miniature Rainforest set up to emulate the enviornment of East Asian rainforests, where, again lots of birds roamed/flew free. You had to be pretty careful here, as these birds were substantially more land based than in the waterfall area, and were prone to darting out of the bushes behind or in front of you, and then squawcking loudly if you got too close (dumb birds). One of the crowned pigeons evidently found Stephen on the offensive side, as it came up and bit him on the foot as he was standing there watching me take pictures of other birds in the wooded area. The next thing I knew he yelled and was doing a dance that was him halfway trying not to kick the offending bird and yet keep a safe distance. So we made a bee-line for the exit, as two of them now chased us. Fortunately our legs were longer, and they didn't try to fly so we made it out in one piece. Unfortunately, this experience has not done much to cure his habit of booting pigeons, and had this particular variety not been labelled endangered and there been many cameras around, that one would have gotten kicked as well. Stupid bird.

Moving on we came to a huge hummingbird exhibit (including their own enclosed large tentish thing), pelicans, toucans and horn bills. I didn't realize the latter two got so big!! Even with cages some 25-30 feet wide and 60-70 tall, they didn't have enough room to fly more than a few seconds worth. When they flapped their wings, it sounded like a helicopter getting started up. They had wingspans easily 6-8 feet wide. Beautiful birds, and the only ones that it really pained me to see caged up as all the others (including the largest of the birds of prey) got plenty of room to exercise at least once a day.

The last two exhibits were probably my favorites of all though: the parrots and the owls! The parrots were in a completely open area, and were awaiting their own netted tent to fly around in. As it was, they were free to roam the park during the day (for the most part), and then were caged at night. Very lively birds, it was fun to watch them play, and see all the normal items they turned into toys. In many ways, parrots seem to be the monkeys of the birds: higly intellegent and playful.

The owl exhibit was really neat, as it was almost completely dark, except for a very dim light in the color range that particular species of owl could not see. They had 10-12 different species of owl, including a Siberian variety more adapted to seeing and hunting during the day, since the Siberian summers experience almost 24 hours of light for several weeks on end. Beautiful, beautiful birds. They had other nocturnal birds as well, but they weren't nearly as impressive as the owls.

Then, still having a good bit of energy left (and daylight) in us (must have been the good sleep of the night before), we headed to the Oriental Gardens. Just a short walk from the metro, they had a sign announcing that the Japanese section of the gardens was under rennovations, and thus closed. Stephen was pretty dissapointed, but the Chinese gardens turned out to be plenty to explore on their own. First we came to the 7 story pagoda, that from afar looked decorated with many colored lanturns; however, when we got close they turned out to be umbrellas!! The whole park was decorated in colored lanturns and umbrellas and various paper figurines to celebrate the chinese New Year. So, a very good time for us to visit!!

We also found an extremely large bonsai garden, and got to watch one of the bonsai masters at work trimming some of the trees. Fascinating!! The large trees out front were over 250 years old, and many inside the garden of various sizes were aged near or older than 100 years. It's amazing to look at those works of art, and realize that it has taken numberous generations of masters to acheive the present state of beauty. Awe inspiring to say the least. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the Bonsai I had already filled up two picture cards and was on the third (yes, that's nearly 400 pictures in one day), so not many pictures of the gardens could be taken, but I have a feeling

Stephen is planning on going back while I'm at the spa on Wednesday morning.

So after exhausting our picture capacity, and staying right up until their closing time, we wandered through the rest of the gardens enjoying the festive decorations and holiday spirit. Then we hopped back on the MRT, and headed to Newton Circus for dinner.

Newton Circus is what is known has a "hawker" center, or a large open air food court with dozens upon dozens of vendors selling everything from the scarily familiar to the completely alien--all for really good prices. They are fantastic ways to sample the local cuisine without spending a fortune Since the day had been a hot, sticky one, even by Singapore standards (I will never complain about the humidity in Houston again), I opted for an Indian vegetarian dish that was part omelette, part fritter, and with lots of vegetables, foreign and familiar, served with this amazingly tasty spicy orange soupy sauce. Hit the spot! Stephen ordered beef satay and chomped his way through two portions. We both had two large glasses of lime juice topped off with kiwi and papaya for dessert. Now that's what I call a stellar meal, and all for less than S$30 I think hawker centers are going to be the staple of our dining from now on. Too good to pass up.

Tags: asia,singapore,zoo,birds,garden

Getting to the zoo was a bit of a challenge. The guidebook listed a couple of different was to get there, so using a detailed map we picked the one that looked the easiest, but when we got to that bus terminal there was a sign posted that said the bus we needed only ran on Sundays and public holidays. As this was a Saturday, we had to go to the next terminal, about a 10-12 minute metro ride away. Alas, we got there, got on the right bus, and were off to the zoo!!

At the zoo, we met these two really nice guys who had two extra free passes they got at school, and upon hearing that it was our honeymoon let us have them as a kind of a wedding present which was very very nice of them. I would have liked to have gotten to know these two guys a little bit better, but they went their own way after we got through the gates.

A few words about the zoo: there are very few cages as such, instead they rely on "natural" barriers, such as moats (with water and without), tree and brush lines, etc to keep the various animals in their little areas, and many are allowed

completely free reign of the park (some monkeys, most birds, some reptiles, etc). Also, usually, more than one type of animal exists in each area, giving it more of a biosphere feel. This concept does two things: 1) lets you get very close to the animals, but still stay safe; 2) Keeps the animals happier--even the big cats looked content. I absolutely fell in love with this zoo. Fabulous, fabulous place.

At this point, Stephen and I picked up a map of the zoo, and decided to pay the small fee (less than 2 USD) to ride the trolley, thinking it would give us some useful information on the zoo's inhabitants and allow us to see all of the exhibits. Not only did the trolley move too quickly for picture taking, but the information that it proported to provide was scanty to say the least; much more useful for getting around the zoo, rather than really seeing it. So we hopped off at the next stop, and footed it, which turned out to work really well.

I don't know that I can remember all of the animals that we saw, because this zoo is amazingly huge, but they had quite a few species that you don't typically see in American zoos (in my experience). The zoo "specializes" in primates, so they had three large areas dedicated to them: one specifically for Orangutans (no I didn't get to have breakfast with them), one for Baboons, and one large area that probably had 7-8 different species each in their own little sub-section. The Organutans were probably my favorite. There was this one in particular that had gotten a hold of a burlap sack and was throughly amused with it. Great thing to watch!! There were several baby orangutans as well, and although you could tell the animals were used to humans from a far, the mothers of the little ones got pretty anxious at one point and bundled them off to a secluded area. Another great thing about this zoo--the animals can "escape" if they get overwhelmed or scared. No wonder most of the animals seem healthier here than in almost any other zoo I've been to.

There was also this little area that was more enclosed (but still pretty big) that was called "The Fragile Forest" that simulated the edge of a rainforest. Inside they had lots of birds and a ton of butterflies!! Easily hundreds of them--enchanting really--like walking into a fairy tale. After breaking free of the trance of the butterflies, I noticed in the upper corner of the area there were these large fuzzy creatures that turned out to be giant bats!! These bats were easily the size of small house cats. But very tame, and mostly holding still as it was their feeding time. There were also several sloths and two tree kangaroos!! The tree kangaroos were quite cute, and just like regular kangas, except with long claws for climbing.

After seeing many more animals, we came to the center of the zoo that had some eateries, so we decided to stop for lunch. The nice thing is that unlike most zoos, the food was not over priced, and wow was it tasty!! They had this tandoori chef (Indian) that was amazing- he cooked everything to order (with a bit of pre-prep admittedly) and it was beyond good. Stephen and I split an order of chicken tikka (came with a cucumber type salad and mint chutney- mmmmm mint chutney), garlic nan, and vegetable curry. Stephen even went back for seconds!! (for those of you who know his typical appetite, know this is quite a statement) Even two days later he's commenting on how good it was.

So with full tummies and rehydrated we continued through the rest of the zoo. The zoo doesn't have a very large water exhibit, in fact it's the smallest setting with the fewest animals: dozen penguins, four sea lions, two manatees and various pelicans and other birds of that type. Being in a very humid and tropical climate, I can see how it would be difficult to maintain healthy animals that typically like cold wet weather.

Else where there were Pygmy Hippos (with a newborn), regular Kangaroos (I was surprised at how small they were), Babboons, Elephants (newest addition) and surrounding the largest Primate area there was this moat. Beside the moat there was a sign that said: "Please do not feed the fish. Bites can cause serious injury." So, Stephen scoffed a bit, doing his little rant thing, and then we noticed a zoo guy with a large bucket of fish and a stick coming up to the edge of the water. We thought maybe he was going to feed the monkeys, until he stuck a fish on the end of the stick, held it over the water and this huge splash occured that coincided with the disappearance of the fish. Turns out the moat is populated with 6 Giant Arapaimas that average 1.8 meters long (~6 feet), and about as big around as a decent sized tree (bigger around than most trees in NW Oklahoma). They are the largest fresh water fish in the world, typically found in the amazon river. They're also beautiful fish, with red streaks around the edges of their scales. Ugly faces though, but one is allowed to be less than pretty when you can devour most other species in a single bite. Now we know why they don't need fences in the primate complex, though I wonder how many monkeys they lost to the giant fish.

After wondering through the rest of the zoo, and getting most of the exhibits it was nearly 4:30, and we decided to head back to town to change for dinner. We had originally planned to visit an orchid farm on the way back, but decided instead to focus on the botanical gardens the next day, that had a huge orchid area. So we passed on the orchids in the near time.

We took a different bus back to the metro (different station too, but no worries), and this bus took us through the residential sections of Singapore, which were very interesting. There were obvious differences in housing, but it all seemed to be mixed together and none of the complexes seemed to be truly slum-like. They also had banners advertising all kinds of classes: English comprehension, Children's Robotics, etc. We also passed a *huge* library to rival in size most small universities. Very nice.

At the bus stop was a kind of shopping bazaar, and we got a soy-milk peanut honey snack, that was interesting. Still not sure if I liked it, but it hit the spot for the time being.

We decided to hit Boat Quay for dinner and drinks, supposedly a hot night spot right on the bay. It didn't take long after our arrival to find a tasty restaraunt for the famed local Black Pepper crab. The wait staff, while very attentive (I thought it was a bit of over-kill with the hovering and obsessive filling of our glasses after two sips, but Stephen found fabulous) didn't speak English as well as they could have, and I must have misunderstood something, because the next thing I knew the maitre-d was holding a live crab next to my ear! So after a bit of shock and stammering I got through to him that that particular specimin would be just fine for my dinner. I think he wanted me to touch the blasted thing, but the squirming mass of legs and unchecked claws were a bit of a hinderance. No groping of my pre-cooked dinner, thank you. Low-class probably, but hey, at least I have all my digits intact, though it probably should have been a clue that my social graces may not quite have been up to the task at hand.

When they served the fabulous concotion of legs, spices and meat, they also brought out a nut cracker too small to fit around most of the part needing cracking, chopsticks, a linen napkin and something resembling a cross between an escargot fork and a crowbar. It didn't take long for me to kindly request a fork and knife and ponder how I was going to get at the tastiness inside the shell without getting it all over the table cloth and my blouse. Stephen and I both commented that we had never before eaten crab at an establishment that did not also provide bibs. Yeah, this was going to be an experience. Soooooo, with a marked lack of grace and a bit of good ole American brashness I dived into the crab, which was possibly the best thing I had eaten in months. Just the right balance of spice and sweetness, my mouth still waters at the thought of it, though I'm sure the maitre-d still cringes at the sight of me with fingers, fork, cracker and escargot-fork-thing attacking his chef's culinary masterpiece. It got so bad that they eventually brought me a finger bowl, which was greatly appreciated, but none of the crab ended up on the tablecloth or my blouse!! (I consider that a great accomplishment, thank you) And I got as much of the meat out of the sucker as I could find--and it was worth all the work.

After tipping them well, and expressing our thanks we walked down the rest of Boat Quay (pronounced like "key") being accosted by various people wanting us to dine, dance or drink at the various clubs, bars and restaraunts. We eventually landed at a little coffee shop for dessert and coffee/tea. Very tasty, though I'm sure they made the cheesecake with soy rather than real milk products. Not the first time we've come across this either. Singaporians have a heavy dose of soy in their diets that's for sure. After eating and drinking and people-watching, we decided to take the short walk back to our hotel rather than the metro, and enjoy the lovely night.

The walk was pleasantly uneventful, as only it could be in Singapore at 11:30 at night, with only the sounds of traffic and construction breaking the night silence. It still amazes me how utterly clean even the gutters are here.

So arriving back at our hotel, we hit the sack to get ready for another fun filled day.

Tags: asia, singapore,zoo