North West Community Development Council

Another big day! We started off walking the jubilee walk along the old river front. It was great to see the old buildings which are part of Singapore’s history as a free harbor. There were boats crossing the river but we stayed on the promenade and admired the contrasting views of old buildings and ships vs. skyscrapers. And we also saw the famous Merlion Singapore’s mascot animal half lion, half fish.

As the heat and sun started the burn down on us, we went for shelter in an ice-cold Starbucks with a Matcha Frappuccino :-)

We then went into another mall for some Yoga clothes shopping (Anna needs to be prepared for Indonesia) and then met with Lara, a friend from Munich, to go visit Singapore Zoo. The bus ride there was already an adventure as the bus was filled with pet animals :-)

The visit started out great with free-roaming monkeys 🐒 in the trees, a herd of white rhinos 🦏🦏 , giraffe 🦒 feeding. The latter was - in true Singapore style - available as an upgrade and for “only 5$ you can feed the giraffe yourself”. Everything is for sale here.

We then continued to a large territory for birds and flying foxes which look a bit like bats but are cuter and bigger. Unfortunately, it soon started to rain ☔️ and it did not stop for 1.5 hours ;-/ We could not make use of our - also dearly paid for - tram tickets as the tram was always full with people and once we got in, the thunderstorm was in full bloom. The craziest thing was a lightning striking next to us with electric buzzing audible seconds before :-O

We still had the highlight of the day coming, though: we also booking tickets for the night safari and loved it. First comes a 40-minuted tram ride - with commentary on the animals that one sees but overall too noisy and loud. We were especially sorry for the animals at this point but maybe they were already accustomed? They did not seem too mind too much, especially the smaller ones. A great opportunity was that one can additionally tour the night zoo on foot and it was great to see so many nocturnal animals minding their business: hippos, bats, flying foxes, lions, tigers, various smaller cat-like creatures on trees, porcupines... really cool!Read more