Saturday, June 29, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
Thanks!
Thanks everybody for being interested in and supportive of my little adventure! Thanks for reading, for commenting, and for all the invaluable recommendations I got that formed the core of what I did while here. Having people interested along the way made this a heck of a lot more fun and motivated me to stay bold, cover a lot of ground, and do interesting things.
Reflections on a spontaneous trip
Overall, this trip worked out as good as I possibly could have hoped. I truly surprised myself with my choice of destination, as it was not somewhere I mentally thought I had a chance of winding up, and I booked it with hardly any thought other than a safety and immigration sanity check, and so got the adrenaline rush of doing something truly spontaneous.
My packing strategy worked out largely as planned. I used most of what I brought, and my shorts, tshirts, polos, and flip-flops got me through the week without me needing to buy anything. My khakis and button-up were indeed necessary to make the dress code for my meal at Iggy's, and later for a rooftop bar. I used most of what I packed, other than the two sweaters, extra pair jeans of jeans, raincoat, and my running clothes (which I probably would have attempted to use if not for the crippling smog). Bringing the external battery was incredibly valuable, I was relying on my phone quite a bit to the point where it was certainly not going to last a full day, but while out and about I'd just plug it into the battery and stick it in my camera bag, and by the time I got to the next place it was nearly full again.
I did forget to pack a few things, notably, sunglasses, an umbrella, and sleep mask. Sunglasses would have been nice, and smart for any summer trip, but I went the first day without them ok so decided not to buy a cheap pair while here. The umbrella was a foolish mistake, but fortunately it did not rain here, and my second hotel had provided me one in my room. The lack of a sleep mask was a big problem on my first flight, since I was only two rows behind the big overhead video screen, which was 13.5 hours of bright, flashing light which made sleeping a lot harder. I was going to buy one for the way back, but fortunately I got one when I got upgraded on the second flight leg.
Speaking of being upgraded, going with United, the carrier I happen to have miles on, worked out in the end, as did my brother's suggestion to travel on off days like Tuesday or Sunday to avoid the glut of bussiness travelers on Monday and Friday. I was upgraded for the Hong Kong <--> Singapore legs both times, a nice bit of comfort to have when spending over 17 hours in the air.
My hotel choices worked out quite well. I'm glad I changed midway through, as I like the second hotel quite a bit better, plus it's even cheaper, but that means my strategy of starting with 2 nights to settle in and then reevaluating worked as intended. My friend's family has apparently tried to stay here at the Scarlet Hotel before, hearing very good things about it, but had never succeeded in getting before, so I got extremely lucky, apparently. Even in trips that I've planned far in advance, it's hard to know if the hotel choice makes sense location-wise, only once you get there and get the lay of the land do you understand the kinds of things you to which you actually want to have proximity. I think the only thing I would have done differently with more preparation would have been to look at alternatives to hotels, like Airbnb or actual B&Bs, to have a more interesting experience than the standard hotel stay.
Getting recommendations provided the basis for most of what I did, and with it being so easy to solicit recs and hear back about them, this worked just fine at the last minute. It helped that I wound up in a place where several of my friends had been to though. The main disadvantage of getting recs at the last minute was that I spent trip time plotting them on the map and figuring out logistics rather than doing this in advance, but that only cost a few hours. I also got recs from my expat dining companions while here which also proved really useful, and that's a general strategy that works quite well too: arrive and immediately try to find a local and pick their brain for what to do.
This trip was particularly feasible in the smartphone era, since I relied on both reliable hotel internet to do research, but also on having internet while on the go for maps, directions, opening hours, and general research. Plus I needed mobile internet in the airport in the first place to find the initial flight. I think this kind of trip would have been significantly more difficult without internet and smartphone access, and that means also that not all destinations are equal for a spontaneous trip. I happened to wind up in one of the most connected countries on the planet, so that certainly helped.
That said, another hiccup from a lack of research is that I blew it on my prepaid mobile plan the first few days. It was trivial to get a prepaid sim card, it seems they sell them at virtually every convenience store, and those are on every block. In Asia, convenience stores truly are convenient, offering valuable services like ATMs and mobile phone support and even decent snacks, and aren't just places full of disgusting food like they are in the US. But within about 2 hours, I ran out of credit on my phone. So I bought a S$20 top-up card, but quickly ran out of that too. I finally figured out that the standard top-up gives you primarily voice credits, and only comes with about 5MB of data, after which you start burning through your voice credits when consuming data, at an absurd rate. I think an S$20 card gets you about 10MB of data total before you're out. It turns out you just need to text a particular number to initiate the process of converting your raw dollar credits to a particular plan. I wound up buying a 3-day 6GB data plan for S$15, which is incredibly cheap, and I've barely made a dent in it, even with making a video call. This text-to-select-a-plan thing is pretty standard in Asia, and I should have known better had I done research up front, but the nice thing about Singapore is that all this texting is done in English, whereas say in China, you have no such option for English and deciphering the options is impossible without help.
And lastly, in addition to a smartphone, this kind of trip would absolutely not be possible without Google Maps and GPS. Having maps of everything at your fingertips, plus GPS, means you're basically never lost, even when you're in a foreign country and haven't planned anything. I could always find my next destination while out and about, and felt safe just wandering between destinations because I could always find my way. Plus my main way of traveling is to plot locations onto a custom map using My Maps and then opening this on the phone, so you can tell which places are in clusters and visit them efficiently. And most importantly, the accuracy is key. I've found Google Maps to be extremely accurate not just with streets but also with the locations of even the smallest restaurants even in less-developed countries. This is really important because if locations are wrong, at best you've wasted a bunch of time and effort, and at worst you've wound up somewhere truly unsafe. I have occasionally been led astray, but I'd say locations are at least 95% accurate even in places like China and Southeast Asia. So I don't think without Google Maps I would have had a comfortable, efficient, and safe experience, and this goes for both planned and unplanned travel.
Overall, I had a really incredible time, and given that we have sufficient technology and information these days, I would say this is a totally fun and viable way to travel. At least for this trip, I don't think I missed out on anything that I would have been able to do with advanced planning, and my only major setback was some time lost doing logistics. I think I will almost certainly attempt this again in the future!
My packing strategy worked out largely as planned. I used most of what I brought, and my shorts, tshirts, polos, and flip-flops got me through the week without me needing to buy anything. My khakis and button-up were indeed necessary to make the dress code for my meal at Iggy's, and later for a rooftop bar. I used most of what I packed, other than the two sweaters, extra pair jeans of jeans, raincoat, and my running clothes (which I probably would have attempted to use if not for the crippling smog). Bringing the external battery was incredibly valuable, I was relying on my phone quite a bit to the point where it was certainly not going to last a full day, but while out and about I'd just plug it into the battery and stick it in my camera bag, and by the time I got to the next place it was nearly full again.
I did forget to pack a few things, notably, sunglasses, an umbrella, and sleep mask. Sunglasses would have been nice, and smart for any summer trip, but I went the first day without them ok so decided not to buy a cheap pair while here. The umbrella was a foolish mistake, but fortunately it did not rain here, and my second hotel had provided me one in my room. The lack of a sleep mask was a big problem on my first flight, since I was only two rows behind the big overhead video screen, which was 13.5 hours of bright, flashing light which made sleeping a lot harder. I was going to buy one for the way back, but fortunately I got one when I got upgraded on the second flight leg.
Speaking of being upgraded, going with United, the carrier I happen to have miles on, worked out in the end, as did my brother's suggestion to travel on off days like Tuesday or Sunday to avoid the glut of bussiness travelers on Monday and Friday. I was upgraded for the Hong Kong <--> Singapore legs both times, a nice bit of comfort to have when spending over 17 hours in the air.
My hotel choices worked out quite well. I'm glad I changed midway through, as I like the second hotel quite a bit better, plus it's even cheaper, but that means my strategy of starting with 2 nights to settle in and then reevaluating worked as intended. My friend's family has apparently tried to stay here at the Scarlet Hotel before, hearing very good things about it, but had never succeeded in getting before, so I got extremely lucky, apparently. Even in trips that I've planned far in advance, it's hard to know if the hotel choice makes sense location-wise, only once you get there and get the lay of the land do you understand the kinds of things you to which you actually want to have proximity. I think the only thing I would have done differently with more preparation would have been to look at alternatives to hotels, like Airbnb or actual B&Bs, to have a more interesting experience than the standard hotel stay.
Getting recommendations provided the basis for most of what I did, and with it being so easy to solicit recs and hear back about them, this worked just fine at the last minute. It helped that I wound up in a place where several of my friends had been to though. The main disadvantage of getting recs at the last minute was that I spent trip time plotting them on the map and figuring out logistics rather than doing this in advance, but that only cost a few hours. I also got recs from my expat dining companions while here which also proved really useful, and that's a general strategy that works quite well too: arrive and immediately try to find a local and pick their brain for what to do.
This trip was particularly feasible in the smartphone era, since I relied on both reliable hotel internet to do research, but also on having internet while on the go for maps, directions, opening hours, and general research. Plus I needed mobile internet in the airport in the first place to find the initial flight. I think this kind of trip would have been significantly more difficult without internet and smartphone access, and that means also that not all destinations are equal for a spontaneous trip. I happened to wind up in one of the most connected countries on the planet, so that certainly helped.
That said, another hiccup from a lack of research is that I blew it on my prepaid mobile plan the first few days. It was trivial to get a prepaid sim card, it seems they sell them at virtually every convenience store, and those are on every block. In Asia, convenience stores truly are convenient, offering valuable services like ATMs and mobile phone support and even decent snacks, and aren't just places full of disgusting food like they are in the US. But within about 2 hours, I ran out of credit on my phone. So I bought a S$20 top-up card, but quickly ran out of that too. I finally figured out that the standard top-up gives you primarily voice credits, and only comes with about 5MB of data, after which you start burning through your voice credits when consuming data, at an absurd rate. I think an S$20 card gets you about 10MB of data total before you're out. It turns out you just need to text a particular number to initiate the process of converting your raw dollar credits to a particular plan. I wound up buying a 3-day 6GB data plan for S$15, which is incredibly cheap, and I've barely made a dent in it, even with making a video call. This text-to-select-a-plan thing is pretty standard in Asia, and I should have known better had I done research up front, but the nice thing about Singapore is that all this texting is done in English, whereas say in China, you have no such option for English and deciphering the options is impossible without help.
And lastly, in addition to a smartphone, this kind of trip would absolutely not be possible without Google Maps and GPS. Having maps of everything at your fingertips, plus GPS, means you're basically never lost, even when you're in a foreign country and haven't planned anything. I could always find my next destination while out and about, and felt safe just wandering between destinations because I could always find my way. Plus my main way of traveling is to plot locations onto a custom map using My Maps and then opening this on the phone, so you can tell which places are in clusters and visit them efficiently. And most importantly, the accuracy is key. I've found Google Maps to be extremely accurate not just with streets but also with the locations of even the smallest restaurants even in less-developed countries. This is really important because if locations are wrong, at best you've wasted a bunch of time and effort, and at worst you've wound up somewhere truly unsafe. I have occasionally been led astray, but I'd say locations are at least 95% accurate even in places like China and Southeast Asia. So I don't think without Google Maps I would have had a comfortable, efficient, and safe experience, and this goes for both planned and unplanned travel.
Overall, I had a really incredible time, and given that we have sufficient technology and information these days, I would say this is a totally fun and viable way to travel. At least for this trip, I don't think I missed out on anything that I would have been able to do with advanced planning, and my only major setback was some time lost doing logistics. I think I will almost certainly attempt this again in the future!
Final thoughts on Singapore as a destination
This turned out to be a really great place for a last-minute trip, and a great destination in Asia in general. In fact, it's such a comfortable place to travel it hardly made this spontaneous trip much of a challenge.
With a vibrant economy, standards are high and facilities and infrastructure are impressive. The MRT is clean, efficient, and incredibly cheap, using a distance-based system with most of my rides costing less than a dollar, and even taxis are cheap. The island is compact so you can get everywhere and see everything in a comfortable amount of time. Cell service and mobile internet is cheap, fast, reliable, and coverage of the area is 100%.
English is one of the national languages and all signs and documentation are in English, so it's about as easy as a foreign country could possibly be. This is particularly interesting for Asia, as a language barrier typically poses at least some inconveniences, from communicating with your cab driver to accessing the most interesting of street food. Even in Japan, probably the most developed and accessible country in Asia, cabbies don't speak English and you need to come prepared with where you're going in writing. But here, it's so simple, cabbies all speak English, and even the food hawkers do too and their offerings are posted in English too. So it's been a breeze.
Also, the cleanliness and hygiene standards are incredibly high, so it seems safe to eat street food from almost anywhere. I've been subsisting on mostly hawker food and fresh juices on ice, and everything looks cleanly prepared in front of you, and I haven't had any illness problems. The streets and subways are all very clean, due of course in no small part to Singapore's hard-line attitude to things like chewing gum, graffiti, and littering. And also due to strict standards, people are honest and you don't need to be on your toes about getting scammed.
So given all this I would perhaps actually recommend Singapore as people's first destination in Asia, because it's so easy to get around and experience things, yet it still offers so much of what makes Asia interesting, while being safe and hygenic.
The food has been incredible, there's about as much variety here as in any city I've been to, with Chinese, Southeast Asian, Indian, Muslim, Malay, Indonesian, and western options and various fusions of these, at both the high end and the low end.
There's plenty to do, with extravagant tourist destinations and resorts, the aquarium, the zoo, casinos and horse racing, extensive nightlife, parks and beaches, and of course, food. Really happy I wound up here and had enough time to see what the place is all about, I highly recommend it.
With a vibrant economy, standards are high and facilities and infrastructure are impressive. The MRT is clean, efficient, and incredibly cheap, using a distance-based system with most of my rides costing less than a dollar, and even taxis are cheap. The island is compact so you can get everywhere and see everything in a comfortable amount of time. Cell service and mobile internet is cheap, fast, reliable, and coverage of the area is 100%.
English is one of the national languages and all signs and documentation are in English, so it's about as easy as a foreign country could possibly be. This is particularly interesting for Asia, as a language barrier typically poses at least some inconveniences, from communicating with your cab driver to accessing the most interesting of street food. Even in Japan, probably the most developed and accessible country in Asia, cabbies don't speak English and you need to come prepared with where you're going in writing. But here, it's so simple, cabbies all speak English, and even the food hawkers do too and their offerings are posted in English too. So it's been a breeze.
Also, the cleanliness and hygiene standards are incredibly high, so it seems safe to eat street food from almost anywhere. I've been subsisting on mostly hawker food and fresh juices on ice, and everything looks cleanly prepared in front of you, and I haven't had any illness problems. The streets and subways are all very clean, due of course in no small part to Singapore's hard-line attitude to things like chewing gum, graffiti, and littering. And also due to strict standards, people are honest and you don't need to be on your toes about getting scammed.
So given all this I would perhaps actually recommend Singapore as people's first destination in Asia, because it's so easy to get around and experience things, yet it still offers so much of what makes Asia interesting, while being safe and hygenic.
The food has been incredible, there's about as much variety here as in any city I've been to, with Chinese, Southeast Asian, Indian, Muslim, Malay, Indonesian, and western options and various fusions of these, at both the high end and the low end.
There's plenty to do, with extravagant tourist destinations and resorts, the aquarium, the zoo, casinos and horse racing, extensive nightlife, parks and beaches, and of course, food. Really happy I wound up here and had enough time to see what the place is all about, I highly recommend it.
Fifth day food round-up, and trip wrap-up
The intent today was to cover the remaining foods I was curious about but hadn't gotten around to yet. I mostly did that, but had some hiccups with out of date listing and closed buildings that cost me a few hours and left me unable to visit a few places, but overall I didn't wind up missing out on anything I wanted to try.
I started with a guava and sour plum juice to hydrate, and it hit the spot. Then I warmed up with a chicken curry puff and a Singaporean diamond-shaped egg tart from a Chinese bakery, but good but nothing to go out of your way for. These can't hold a candle to the Portuguese egg tarts either.
I then tried to to find the nearby outlet of a notable dessert place, Annie Peanut Ice Kachang, but alas the food court in which it was supposedly had no mention of it at all. No matter, it was time to head out to the burbs again to reputable locations for prata. I went to the Roti Prata House and ordered a prata with egg and onion, which also comes with a little curry sauce for dipping. This is buttery deep-fried heart-clogging stuff, and boy is it good. Buttery, flaky flatbread filled with scrambled eggs. I also ordered a lime juice, which is made fresh from calamansi limes and cane sugar, and that too was extremely good and refreshing, so I ordered a second.
Now it was back into town to try to found an outlet of a place know for ayam penyet, or "flattened" fried chicken, which is mallet-smashed before being marinated. Alas, this place had moved far away, and I had failed to understand this when I had checked their website this morning, so I had so far struck out twice today.
I was heading south so continued further south as part of my contingency to find the main location of Annie Peanut Ice Kachang. I went to where the placemark on the map was and wandered around a shopping plaza at that place, but couldn't find it. I did pop into a grocery store and discovered to my deligh bags of both Malaysian mangosteen and Malaysian passionfruit, which I will attempt to bring home tomorrow, crossing my fingers that this will not be a problem when trying to re-enter California. Then I walked half a block up the street and noticed a construction site and a sign that informed me that the food plaza I was looking for was being reconstructed and would not open until 2014. Damn you Annie, I spent over an hour trying to find you and your ice kachang in not one but TWO locations, and you failed me.
But I had a contingency for this too, and I walked just a few blocks up the very scenic colonial Tanjong Pagar road back to my home base, the Maxwell Food Centre. There I recharged first with a straight-up passionfruit shake, which was about the best thing I've had in liquid form this year. I also got more popiah because it's addictive and amazing, it's basically the love child of a spring roll and mu shu, so how could it not be good. And then I got a mango ice kachang from a place I'd spotted on the first day, ensuring I wouldn't be deprived of this. It's a shaved ice with sweet mango sauce, as well as about 3 other sweet sauces, with red beans and jellies hidden beneath the ice. It's totally delicious and perfect for hot weather, and at only S$2 seems criminally cheap.
At this point it was time for happy hour so I was going to try out a Japanese rooftop bar at Marina Bay that potentially had good views. I ordered a Spicy Hachimitshu, a vodka-based cocktail with cucumber, honey, lemon, and wasabi gomme. I should have known better to order wasabi in a beverage. Needless to say, I was unimpressed with the cocktail, as well as the bar, the views, and the price.
It was sunset, so I wandered along Marina Bay again to get those pastcard-ready views, which were particularly nice because the smog had cleared back down to about 66 today, which is merely in the "moderate" range, compared to the "hazardous" 401 from Friday. On my way home I found another impressive hawker food court in the business district, and the second stall I saw had none other than ayam penyet, the smashed fried chicken, so I got to try it after all. It's not that unique from other fried chicken, but it's tender and falling off the bone, and still delicious. Plus hidden under the chicken was an omelette, and you can hardly complain about that. Not wanting my last night to end, I grabbed a nyonya dumpling, glutinous rice filled with bbq pork, as well as a final passionfruit banana shake, and that's going to have to end the show, unless there's anything notable at the airport at 4:30 am tomorrow.
In kind of a poetic ending to this unplanned trip, while I was not fully aware that there is a public laser light show, it so happened that I was down at Marina Bay at the perfect time as well as at a perfect place, as the 8pm nightly light show at the Marina Bay Sands began right as I was looking out from a roof terrace with a sweeping view of the area, as if the travel gods were smiling upon me for my spontaneity one last time.
I started with a guava and sour plum juice to hydrate, and it hit the spot. Then I warmed up with a chicken curry puff and a Singaporean diamond-shaped egg tart from a Chinese bakery, but good but nothing to go out of your way for. These can't hold a candle to the Portuguese egg tarts either.
I then tried to to find the nearby outlet of a notable dessert place, Annie Peanut Ice Kachang, but alas the food court in which it was supposedly had no mention of it at all. No matter, it was time to head out to the burbs again to reputable locations for prata. I went to the Roti Prata House and ordered a prata with egg and onion, which also comes with a little curry sauce for dipping. This is buttery deep-fried heart-clogging stuff, and boy is it good. Buttery, flaky flatbread filled with scrambled eggs. I also ordered a lime juice, which is made fresh from calamansi limes and cane sugar, and that too was extremely good and refreshing, so I ordered a second.
Now it was back into town to try to found an outlet of a place know for ayam penyet, or "flattened" fried chicken, which is mallet-smashed before being marinated. Alas, this place had moved far away, and I had failed to understand this when I had checked their website this morning, so I had so far struck out twice today.
I was heading south so continued further south as part of my contingency to find the main location of Annie Peanut Ice Kachang. I went to where the placemark on the map was and wandered around a shopping plaza at that place, but couldn't find it. I did pop into a grocery store and discovered to my deligh bags of both Malaysian mangosteen and Malaysian passionfruit, which I will attempt to bring home tomorrow, crossing my fingers that this will not be a problem when trying to re-enter California. Then I walked half a block up the street and noticed a construction site and a sign that informed me that the food plaza I was looking for was being reconstructed and would not open until 2014. Damn you Annie, I spent over an hour trying to find you and your ice kachang in not one but TWO locations, and you failed me.
But I had a contingency for this too, and I walked just a few blocks up the very scenic colonial Tanjong Pagar road back to my home base, the Maxwell Food Centre. There I recharged first with a straight-up passionfruit shake, which was about the best thing I've had in liquid form this year. I also got more popiah because it's addictive and amazing, it's basically the love child of a spring roll and mu shu, so how could it not be good. And then I got a mango ice kachang from a place I'd spotted on the first day, ensuring I wouldn't be deprived of this. It's a shaved ice with sweet mango sauce, as well as about 3 other sweet sauces, with red beans and jellies hidden beneath the ice. It's totally delicious and perfect for hot weather, and at only S$2 seems criminally cheap.
At this point it was time for happy hour so I was going to try out a Japanese rooftop bar at Marina Bay that potentially had good views. I ordered a Spicy Hachimitshu, a vodka-based cocktail with cucumber, honey, lemon, and wasabi gomme. I should have known better to order wasabi in a beverage. Needless to say, I was unimpressed with the cocktail, as well as the bar, the views, and the price.
It was sunset, so I wandered along Marina Bay again to get those pastcard-ready views, which were particularly nice because the smog had cleared back down to about 66 today, which is merely in the "moderate" range, compared to the "hazardous" 401 from Friday. On my way home I found another impressive hawker food court in the business district, and the second stall I saw had none other than ayam penyet, the smashed fried chicken, so I got to try it after all. It's not that unique from other fried chicken, but it's tender and falling off the bone, and still delicious. Plus hidden under the chicken was an omelette, and you can hardly complain about that. Not wanting my last night to end, I grabbed a nyonya dumpling, glutinous rice filled with bbq pork, as well as a final passionfruit banana shake, and that's going to have to end the show, unless there's anything notable at the airport at 4:30 am tomorrow.
In kind of a poetic ending to this unplanned trip, while I was not fully aware that there is a public laser light show, it so happened that I was down at Marina Bay at the perfect time as well as at a perfect place, as the 8pm nightly light show at the Marina Bay Sands began right as I was looking out from a roof terrace with a sweeping view of the area, as if the travel gods were smiling upon me for my spontaneity one last time.
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| Guava and sour plum juice. |
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| Chicken curry puff. |
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| Singaporean egg tart. |
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| Roti prata with egg and onion. |
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| Calamansi lime juice with cane sugar. |
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| Mangosteen and passionfruit from the supermarket. |
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| Passionfruit shake. |
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| Popiah station. |
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| Popiah. |
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| Mango ice kachang. |
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| Ayam penyet (smashed fried chicken) with green beans and rice, with an omelette hiding underneath. |
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| Nyonya dumpling (glutinous rice filled with bbq pork). |
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| Passionfruit and banana shake. |
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Night Safari
The Singapore Zoo has a Night Safari attraction, which is essentially a full zoo containing only nocturnal animals, that opens only at night, from 7:30 until midnight. It features a 40-minute tram ride with narration that shows off the major animals, and then 4 walking trails of about 20 minutes each where you can see even more animals, and much closer, at your own leisure.
Overall, it's really impressive. It's very safe, sanitized, and Disney-esque, but done in a way that hides all that. The animals are not really in pens, for dangerous animals they use trenches to contain them, but position the trenches and vegetation so that you can't really see that there are trenches, so it feels like the animals are right there and could even come at you. The safe animals, like wallabies and deer, and not in pens at all and are free-roaming, you can walk right up to them and they can walk right up to the tram, and they use vented cattle crossings in the road to prevent each animal from wandering to another section.
This puts you face to face with a lot of interesting animals, like hyenas, leopards, lions, giraffes, elephants, and some exotic Southeast Asian animals. The bat section was particularly cool, it's an open-air pen (with a net about 40 feet up) full of bats that you can wander through and walk right up to and do everything but touch the bats. I've always found bats to be pretty adorable up close, and this was no exception, but it is a little unnerving that they're right there and could fly at you if provoked.
This was an usual and recommended experience. Unfortunately, given that it is a dimly-lit night attraction and flash is understandably completely prohibited, taking photographs with standard equipment is pretty difficult, so I apologize in advance that my photos suck.
Overall, it's really impressive. It's very safe, sanitized, and Disney-esque, but done in a way that hides all that. The animals are not really in pens, for dangerous animals they use trenches to contain them, but position the trenches and vegetation so that you can't really see that there are trenches, so it feels like the animals are right there and could even come at you. The safe animals, like wallabies and deer, and not in pens at all and are free-roaming, you can walk right up to them and they can walk right up to the tram, and they use vented cattle crossings in the road to prevent each animal from wandering to another section.
This puts you face to face with a lot of interesting animals, like hyenas, leopards, lions, giraffes, elephants, and some exotic Southeast Asian animals. The bat section was particularly cool, it's an open-air pen (with a net about 40 feet up) full of bats that you can wander through and walk right up to and do everything but touch the bats. I've always found bats to be pretty adorable up close, and this was no exception, but it is a little unnerving that they're right there and could fly at you if provoked.
This was an usual and recommended experience. Unfortunately, given that it is a dimly-lit night attraction and flash is understandably completely prohibited, taking photographs with standard equipment is pretty difficult, so I apologize in advance that my photos suck.
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| Remy the rat. Ok not the most interesting animal, but the best lit. |
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| Wallaby. |
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| Suspension bridge. |
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| Walking path. |
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| Giraffes. |
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| The bat enclosure. |
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| Pelicans. |
Wandering
Yesterday I wanted to get back to eating, and so wanted to do a lot of walking, both to access some new places as well as work up an appetite. I had some places in mind, and with GPS I felt comfortable just getting lost in the areas in between.
I started by walking to the waterfront around Marina Bay to get some sweeping views over downtown and most of the central parts of the city, now that the smog is starting to clear up. It did not disappoint, this part of town is very well laid out, and you can look in any direction to get a great view.
I then wanted to head out along East Coast Road, where there's a section with some notable food places, and then a few miles farther is East Coast Park which houses a seafood centre and a hawker food court. Unfortunately East Coast Road is not easily accessible, I think there are some direct but slow bus lines that head out there, and then the MRT parallels East Coast Road but is as much as a mile north of where the food is. Undeterred, I thought it would be a good opportunity to wander, so I took the MRT and then just got myself lost in side streets.
It worked out great. This part of town appeared to be relatively affluent suburbs, with nice houses, quiet streets, and little corner parks. It was a really interesting contrast to the bustle of downtown. Then the food section along East Coast Road was terrific, as mentioned in the previous post. Then I set out for the multi-mile walk to East Coast Park, which was similarly interesting, discovering quieter parts of the island, although walking in the 95-degree heat was quite painful.
East Coast Park was very scenic, a beautiful setting on the beach looking out over the ships, and bustling with walkers, joggers, cyclists, and families, and of course, full of delicious food. It also features a lagoon with an automated wakeboarding tow-line system, which I found very impressive.
It was an awesome day of exploring and eating, tiring but well worth it.
I started by walking to the waterfront around Marina Bay to get some sweeping views over downtown and most of the central parts of the city, now that the smog is starting to clear up. It did not disappoint, this part of town is very well laid out, and you can look in any direction to get a great view.
I then wanted to head out along East Coast Road, where there's a section with some notable food places, and then a few miles farther is East Coast Park which houses a seafood centre and a hawker food court. Unfortunately East Coast Road is not easily accessible, I think there are some direct but slow bus lines that head out there, and then the MRT parallels East Coast Road but is as much as a mile north of where the food is. Undeterred, I thought it would be a good opportunity to wander, so I took the MRT and then just got myself lost in side streets.
It worked out great. This part of town appeared to be relatively affluent suburbs, with nice houses, quiet streets, and little corner parks. It was a really interesting contrast to the bustle of downtown. Then the food section along East Coast Road was terrific, as mentioned in the previous post. Then I set out for the multi-mile walk to East Coast Park, which was similarly interesting, discovering quieter parts of the island, although walking in the 95-degree heat was quite painful.
East Coast Park was very scenic, a beautiful setting on the beach looking out over the ships, and bustling with walkers, joggers, cyclists, and families, and of course, full of delicious food. It also features a lagoon with an automated wakeboarding tow-line system, which I found very impressive.
It was an awesome day of exploring and eating, tiring but well worth it.
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