A VISIT TO SINGAPORE ZOO

Finally, the plan to visit the Singapore Zoo was executed. There were only 9 people in the group including me as a few pulled out last minute. The moral of the story: always take the deposit from the tour member before going. We started as early as 7:00 a.m. driven by a rented van and we were lucky enough there was no traffic jam both at the Causeway and Immigration counters.

As I had been e-mailing the Zoo staff for information, so we managed to get the special school students price for the tickets which cost us S$16.50 (originally S$27).












So we started to roam around the Zoo on foot, observing the animals there such as the lions, giraffes, rhinoceros, variety of monkeys and zebras, just to name a few.

We managed to watch one animal show which involved a seal. We almost missed it while waiting for the orangutan feeding session and luckily we heard the sounds of the person emceeing from the loud speakers and loud clapping that filled the air. The show was brilliant and we were deeply engrossed with the seal's brilliant acts.

We stopped for a short bites of the food (or rather snacks) brought from home. One reason, food was much more expensive here (because of the currency exchange rate) and the other reason, we were not that confident of the status of the food, whether it was halal or not.

Another session where you could get to see the animal real close was the feeding orangutan session. You had to pay S$5 if you want to have yourself being photographed with the apes. Too bad, no holding or cuddling was allowed.







There were many stations designed for different species of animals (and plants). Eventually, you would not be able to categorize them, there were just too many to look at.

One of the animals that roamed freely in a sanctuary was the black and white furry creature. It looked tame like a cat but we had doubt whether we could pet and touch it, just in case it would bite and someone would end up in the hospital.

With the S$16.50 ticket, we had also the chance to take the unlimited tram rides around the zoo (if you do not choose walking) and a ride on the boat on the lake/reservoir.

There was one spot called Kidz World, especially for kids. There were a small swimming pool, a carousel, pony ride and grooming, and other activities for small children.

And at 3:00 p.m. there was a heavy downpour. I did remind the kids to bring their umbrellas along so it was worth the effort. And because of that, we could not continue our walk in the zoo. Nevertheless, we had covered most of the zoo area and we definitely needed more time just to do that. It was such a large place.

With not much time remaining, we spent the time in the souvenir shop, trying to get some affordable souvenirs to bring home.

So we went out of the zoo just a few minutes before 4:00 p.m. before the van arrived to pick us up. We were there for almost 7 hours but we had so much fun and there were still places left not visited. I will not hesitate to organize another trip to the Singapore Zoo with other batch of students in the future.

Puan Arba'iyah Ahmad, Mohd. Faiz, Mohd. Afiq, Mohd. Syafig, Ng Ching Kai, Dineshwar Ganesh, Lim Xue Ting and Soo Ming Huey, hope that you will all remember the good time we had at the zoo.

By the way, do expect a series of postings related to the zoo which consist of animal pictures and videos coming soon.I would love to show what I have seen with you.