We took the subway then the bus to get there. We were disappointed to learn that the bird park wasn't as close to the zoo as we initially thought so we couldn't go, but we got tickets for the zoo and the night zoo also. The first thing we did was pull on a tamarind's tail! It was awesome! We watched feedings ALL day. Polar bears, cheetahs, hunting dogs, lions, giraffes, a king cobra, Komodo dragons, baboons, elephants, crocodiles, and so much more! We loved watching them eat! We especially enjoyed watching the cheetahs and baboons. The lions seemed uninterested in dead chunks of meat - you could tell they wanted to hunt. The baboons were very amusing, and there were so many! While the polar bear, cobra, and crocodiles were interesting to watch, the rude and pushy crowds took away from the experiences.
We saw all the exhibits and really enjoyed meandering through the lush, jungle-esque park. We liked the expansive views of the reservoir and all the gigantic trees. It drizzled for most of the day but it was still nice out, we FINALLY had a relief from the sticky heat!
We ate lunch at the zoo and were most pleased with the outcome - chicken curry with yellow long grain rice, a chickpea curry, raijta, and pappa dam (crispy flat bread that is almost like a giant spicy potato chip). It was a decent amount and quite tasty.
Our favorite exhibit was the white tigers' home. We adored watching them lounge, lick themselves, and pace back and forth. They are really beautiful animals. Again, we also really enjoyed the baboons, as well as the goats. We liked watching the family dynamics of the two types of animals. It was very comical - especially when it was feeding time. :)
We finished the regular zoo at about six, and had about an hour to kill before the night safari began at seven. We went through our photos and wrote in our journal before meandering over to the night zoo. We decided to do the walking tour individually, instead of taking a guided tour full of people. We saw some great animals - tigers, hyenas, hippos, and more. We brought the tripod for some low-light photos, but unfortunately very few animals cooperated by staying still for us. There weren't many photos to be had. Even more unfortunately, we realized pretty early on that our bug spray was depleted and I was getting eaten alive. We ended up speeding up our tour to try and see everything and keep the damage down.
One exception was the bat cage. Free flying bats - extra cool. We walked into the humongous exhibit to big bats, little bats, bats everywhere flying all around us! They were dangling, flapping, munching on fruit, and were not at all bothered by our presence! It was quite fun. After that, we made a hasty getaway for the bug-free confines of the bus and subway back to Chinatown.
After returning to our hotel for a brief moment to drop off the tripod and our bag, it was back to Maxwell Center for more fantastic food! I got wonton mee, which is spicy, tender pork with a chili shrimp paste for dipping. The pork was laid on top of some great, soft noodles with greens that had crunchy stems. It also came with wonton soup. It was completely satisfying. Nick had fried fish soup for dinner. It had a wonderful broth, with several big chunks of flaky fried fish, greens, white noodles, and tofu. It was absolutely delicious! Another successful day! We have one more day in Singapore, and then it is off to Kolkata!
