Singapore Zoo

I think the Singapore Zoo kicks the Toronto Zoo's ass! It has this "open concept" in which the animals live in lush landscapes resembling their native habitat. When I walked in I felt like I was walking into Jurassic Park, minus the dinosaurs. But it was an overwhelming feeling of walking into nature. You don't exactly feel like you're looking at animals, but witnessing them in their natural state. You can get very close to them as well, and there are few visual obstructions. The only barrier between us and the lions was a moat filled with water. It was pretty spectacular. We saw pretty much all of the typical zoo animals: lions, jaguars, puma, chimps, orangutans, elephants, giraffes (they were boring), turtles, alligators, hippos, even raccoons! There were these striped little animals, kind of a cross between a porcupine and a groundhog. They loved the colour red, so when we opened our red umbrella, they all came flocking towards it and sniffing in the air. It was cute!!! I took a video of it as well. We also saw these miniature deer, called mouse deer. They would run across the pathway right in front of the legs of visitors. And animals like lemurs were conditioned such that they could freely roam within certain areas while people were walking through.

The zoo had a separate park called the Night Safari in which nocturnal animals could be viewed. I got to see the slow loris, a small primate in which I was looking forward to seeing. It was everything I expected! Cute, little furry guy eating fruits and grasping objects very slowly and deliberately. Other favourites included the bushbaby and the tree kangaroo. As an animal lover, I have to say that this was one of the best parts of my entire trip to Malaysia/Singapore.

**A few other notables about Singapore: It's very clean and urban. We went to Halia Restaurant in the Botanic Gardens which was quite good eats albeit Western food. We also went to a Japanese "buffet" in which sushi is brought out along a conveyor belt which snakes all throughout the restaurant. You basically choose what you want off the belt as it rides by. Shopping along Orchard Rd. area was absolutely amazing. There is no way I could have left empty-handed. There are these two spiky domed structures that are known as the Esplanade. I hear that it's like a shopping mall/place for dining but we never went there. People say they either look like fly eyes or durian. We walked through Chijmes (sounds like "chimes", what's with the J?) which has several restaurants and boutiques and bars. Everything was closed when we went there. If I'm not mistaken it used to be a convent. Go figure.