So what are we up to? Monday night? After traipsing around the Fountain, we headed back to the hotel for a swim and dinner. Then it was off to the Night Safari, the world’s “first wildlife park built to be viewed at night.” It was awesome… We took a tram ride through the darkness and got to view all sorts of nocturnal animals (most of them are, you know) being active in ways you don’t see at normal zoos. It was a bit spooky though, like being at Jurassic Park. I kept expecting us to come up on the T-Rex paddock. Anyway, this blurry shot is supposed to be a group of giraffes at a water hole.

Another dark shot of Snookums and I before the Night Safari map. (It’s not my camera’s fault, I swear. It was the damn tourist that stood too far away.) In addition to the tram ride, they had lots of paths you could take to see some of the smaller animals. Snookums’s favorite was the “Mangrove Walk”, which was this fenced-in gardenish-type area with giganic fruit bats the size of house cats dangling in front of your face. He thought they were cute. I, on the other hand, was cringing in a crouch position and whimpering for him to get me the hell out of there.

The next day we headed to the real Singapore Zoo to have tea with an orangutan. Seriously. Unfortunately it was an obscure public holiday so the event was cancelled. We did manage to get our picture taken with a chimpanzee though. Isn’t she adorable? The photographer seated us on the log and she just climbed right up into my lap and put her arms around us. What a sweetie.

In another of the photo areas, a big mama orangutan was getting her picture taken with some people. Her baby was playing on the ground in front of us, hiding in a cardboard box and peeking out at the tourists. It crawled right up to us here, less than 4 feet away. My maternal impulses are getting quite disgusting – I was cooing at it like an idiot. *grin*

Singapore Zoo is cool because it’s open-plan, meaning that the animals aren’t contained in cages or anything like that. They all have their little areas separated from the paths by a moat or barrier of some kind. You really get the feeling that you’re viewing them in a normal habitat (or at last more normal than most zoos offer). In this area several elephants were giving visitors rides. This smaller one, though, was just showing off for the tourists. He took a big dump right in front of us, and then proceeded to suck up a bunch of water and spray it at an Asian family. It was pretty funny.

In yet another photo area, you could get your picture taken with a python. (No, thank you.) This brave mother was biting her lip to keep from screaming as she allowed herself to be draped with this gigantic snake, much to the amusement of her little boys.

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