Singapore Zoo - Breakfast with the Orangutans

On our second day in Singapore we headed to the zoo, I'd heard amazing things about the Singapore Zoo and they all came true :) I still have a conscious uneasiness when I think about zoos but I do feel the animals had a lot of love at this Zoo and on a completely selfish human level it's so amazing to see these animals up close. So a big thanks to all the animals who let us come and visit :)

We rocked up at the zoo on opening time, which was great, no people! I'd bought tickets online but since there were no queues it didn't really matter :p We took a taxi to the zoo, as there isnt a train station nearby and I was too lazy to look up buses. Taxi's are fairly reasonable, for around a 20 minute trip it cost us $22.

When we first arrived Ben and I raced around taking it all in before making our way to go have breakfast with the Orangutans (does anyone else want to spell Orangutan, with a g on the end? I'm pretty sure I say it with a g :p) Anyway, in my humble opinion...don't do the breakfast unless you like people and or buffets :p

You need to pre-book your jungle breakfast tickets and they will set you back $29 per adult. I really wish Ben and I had just spent this first hour exploring the zoo. There was nothing really wrong with the experience, I got to hold a snake, cool! We got to stand in front of the orangutans and have our picture taken, cool - we got to eat as much food as we wanted, cool but yeah you have to share this experience with a lot of people and since you can see the orangutans around the zoo anyway, I'd say eat your breakfast before you arrive :)

Before the Orangutans arrive they do offer you the chance to feed the elephants close by which really was a whole lot of fun. If you ever get the chance to go bring some $5 notes with you so you can partake! I don't believe you need to do the jungle breakfast to join as it's in a separate area :)

So after the elephants we went back to the restaurant area, tried to eat as much from the buffet as we could, it felt kind of rushed to me, but maybe we rocked up late *shrugs* and then the orangutans came out! We then lined up for a picture (don't line up, just wait till all the other idiots have lined up and then go get your picture!) They have a professional take your picture which you can buy but they'll also grab your camera and take a shot for you, which is nice. Unfortunately our shoot is of me saying to the camera guy "no need to zoom" and waving my arms in the air so it wasn't really a keeper, lol

After our picture I went to snap a picture of the other orangutans and I just had the chance to focus when one of the staff me members told us it was a non standing area. It felt a bit abrupt and not the fun experience I had anticipated. Though the orangutans were mighty cute, so maybe all can be forgiven!

After the breakfast it was onto exploring the rest of the zoo! I'm going to post my non animals photos and then do a super heavy image post with them, it's the zoo it's okay to go photo mad :)

I loved all the cute bins around the place :)

You can take the shuttle bus for a cost, even with my not-perfect ankle I was still super happy just to walk around :)

We watched one of the shows and when I say watched I mean we say down in an amphitheatre to rest and a show happened to be starting :p Good timing! This one was called 'Rainforest fights back' and was great if you want to sit down and rest :p lol

They have a bunch of animals come out and do minimal stunts, it was a nice way to escape the heat for 20 minutes, if nothing else :) Gosh I sound so hard to please but I'm really not, all the animals were beyond amazing :)

The have a Kampung(village) House, which is filled with things like giant cockroaches :p I do question whether a return to old times means an increase in bug size :p

Bumboats! I know all about these from another activity we did in Singapore which unfortunately didn't involved going on one but was still super awesome (stay tuned!)

Ahh Orangutans you sure are lovely creatures :)

P.S. I remember back in primary school my friend Alex going to Singapore zoo and the Orangutan literally had breakfast with you at a table, well, I think that's what happened.  Personally I would of been super okay to share my breakfast with these guys :)

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Cloud Forest Dome - Gardens by the Bay

Okay my photos simply cannot do justice to the Cloud Forest Dome. I read an online review about it being like entering one of Miyazaki's films and I don't believe a description could be more spot on. I think I said to Ben numerous times "I'm speechless" and I kind of got choked on emotion from the grand-ness and beauty.

 It's hard to describe but the gist is, you enter the dome and you're met with this huge structure covered in flowers and plants with a spiraling walkway, the largest indoor waterfall in the World and streams of mists that get burst out every 2 hours creating a cloud effect. I think it was the most amazing designs I've ever seen. I wonder if the old Fee (who got bored of plants) would of said the same but I have a suspicion it might have changed her view :p.

The flowers and colours were so incredible and as they covered the entire structure I was constantly going "oooh look at that"

Lots of orchids to spy :)

Normally I'm not good with heights but it was Ben this time who got unnerved on the walkway, I  think I was too distracted to think about the potential of plummeting to my death :p

I really need to buy everyone a plane ticket so they can experience it themselves :)

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Gardens by the Bay

After spending the morning at Haw Par Villa on our first full day, we then took the train to go explore Gardens by the Bay in the afternoon. BTW the train system is not only super cheap in Singapore (on average never more than a few dollars for a trip) but it's also super easy to navigate. It's similar to Japan but being a much smaller place makes Singapore more simple. We also bought ourselves a train card so we just needed to swipe it at each station :)

Gardens by the Bay opened in 2012 we took a big walk around and there were still some areas under construction but on a whole it was very much open and welcoming. Now there are a few ways to spend money at the gardens but this post is for the cheapskates! You see entry to the park is free and the gardens are really nice to go for a stroll in, so I'd say if money is super tight, bring a picnic lunch and have an hour or so stroll around :) If money is semi tight, I'd say...you must do the Cloud Forest Dome! If you're loaded with the cash then I say, do both domes, the sky walk, get a shuttle bus ride, eat at the fancy restaurants, buy lots of souvenirs, book yourself in at Marina Bay Sands...lol, lol, okay I'm being silly!

Onto the freebie photos!

You know what was sad about our trip? We missed the lantern festival :(
We did take these pictures of the floats being set up though which was a nice little glimpse! Maybe an excuse to go back to Singapore?

This is the view you see as you walk towards the gardens from the train station. See those tree structures? That's the supertree grove :) For a $5 fee you can walk around the structures on a skywalk (looked awesome!) but was unfortunately or fortunately (which ever way you look at it) it was shut due to bad weather, you know fear of lightning strikes!

This is one of the domes, there's two, which I'll post about next but as a spoiler alert, the Cloud Dome totally kicked the Flower dome's butt :p For a look into both domes it cost us $28 per adult.

How amazing does that skywalk look! Actually the trees were super impressive. I imagine once the creepers and plants on them have flourish it will be even more killer :)

Playing around with double exposures on my holga :) It was a definite fun photo trip for me :)

Marina Bay Sands in the background, a totally ritzy hotel which has the thing called an infinity pool on top, google it if you want to see one impressive pool!

Giant baby! This sculpture is a new feature to the park created by artist Marc Quinn

You know what I love about Singapore is how they use their space. This picture above, for example, was taken as we exited the train station to get to the Gardens. Mirrors and flower panels lined the hallway, really setting up our experience - I definitely appreciated that about Singapore :)

On another freebie note the gardens do a free light show at night, which from all the pictures I saw looks awesome.  We were knackered though from our day and decided we couldn't make it to 8pm !  Sad but true

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Haw Par Villa - Figurines

Back for round two of Haw Par Villa. These photos were all shot walking around the park, which surprisingly for once in Singapore was bigger than I had imagined :) Ben and I easily filled up three hours of exploring the grounds. Enjoy!

Don't look to closely, here is just one of the dioramas from inside the Ten Courts of Hell.  Which for me seemed to be all horrible ways in which you will be tortured for your crimes!

Oh hey just breast feeding an older lady...nothing to see here :p

 This guy was my favourite!

I loved this story, about a guy that had made friends with a turtle when he was younger and then in later life when his boat sunk, he was the only one rescued by his turtle friend. And kids that's why you always make friends with turtles!

I'll let you guys make up your own stories for the rest!

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