Here’s Snookums with a seriously rare animal called the bongo. It’s a sort of antelope with really cool striped markings and spiral horns. We saw one at the Night Safari too, and every time anyone would say “bongo” I’d have to imitate Boss Nass from Star Wars Episode 1 and drawl: “Weesa give you una bongo…” Yes, I’m a nerd.

Snookums was really excited about this exhibit – the polar bear tank. The big female in there, Sasha, would wave to the crowd and dive under to swoop up near the glass. At one point the keeper tossed a live fish in so we could watch her chase it. The hot day was obviously getting to her though (or else the fish was just a really good swimmer), because she eventually gave up and went back to the coconuts generously provided. (Whoever would’ve thought that polar bears like tropical foods??)

This might be my favorite picture of me from the entire trip. No particular reason – just that camels are inherently funny and I look pretty funny here too. *grin*

So I’m sitting on a bench with my back to some bushes, minding my own business, when I suddenly become aware of something behind me. I turn around, and there sat a golden lion tamarin (I think). They let the things run loose and this one was just watchin’ me. It was pretty cool. Some little brat saw me taking the photo though, and ran up to see what I was looking at. When he saw the tamarin, he pulled out his little toy gun and acted like he was gonna shoot it. I yelled at him.

The tiger area, as you might guess, was bordered by a much larger moat than some of the other animals’. Most of them were sleeping in the shade, but the one Snookums is looking at was seriously stalking us. He’d walk all around the perimeter of the enclosure watching us the whole way. Then he’d get in the moat and swim past the tourists looking down at him. When he got to the other side he’d climb back up and repeat the entire process. Carnivores can be scary.

You’re probably wondering, “Um, where the hell is the Australia part?” Never fear, our time in Singapore was drawing to a close. After the zoo we hurried back to the hotel and caught a cab to the airport. We boarded our flight to Sydney and settled in for the eight hour flight.

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