Singapore Zoo, River Safari, Night Safari

I had the opportunity to visit Singapore for a few days during my vacation last year. My friend and I had chosen Singapore without much of an idea of what to do. We had originally planned on visiting Thailand, but unfortunately timing didn't work out as the protests were occurring around the same time we were planning to visit. It was a last minute change to our itinerary, and as a result we didn't have a lot of time to research extensively on what we wanted to see and do in the city-state. Every travel guide that we looked at all pointed us to the same thing -- the Singapore Zoo. So we went. And man, it was easily the highlight of the trip. Thinking back, there was so much to see that I can't possibly try to condense it all into a blog post. I'll try my best to be concise.

Singapore Zoo is made out of 4 parks: Singapore Zoo, River Safari, Jurong Bird Park, and the Night Safari. We arrived early (9am?) bought a 3 park park-hopper ticket for 69SGD to get into the Zoo, and the River and Night Safaris, opting out of the bird park, knowing that we'd be going to Kuala Lumpur Bird Park next week.

Zoo My first thought upon walking into the park was, "It's so open... Wait, where are the fences?"

They had a few free roaming animals (mainly monkeys) which I saw hanging out on the trees around the walkways. All the parks do a really good job designing their animal habitats to look like very natural, open exhibits. I was able to get really close to many of the animals. Since we arrived so early in the morning, we also avoided most of the crowds:

In enclosed walk-able exhibits such as the Fragile Forest, smaller animals (bats, birds, lemurs, etc,.) were able to wander about on their own accord. I think it's a given that we as guests should not attempt to pet the animals (as close as they might be), but that didn't stop a fellow guest from ruffling up the fur of a sloth he saw feasting on fruit. The sloth remained unfazed.

I was really happy to see that all the animals seemed genuinely satisfied with their home and most were very active, unlike most zoos I've been to. In addition, the view surrounding the zoo proved to be a very pleasant and relaxing walk:

River Safari

Although there was a lot to see in the River Safari, one of my favorite exhibits is the Amazon Flooded Forest. A huge freshwater tank that can be viewed from multiple levels, it gives the guests various unique views of aquatic life. We got lucky and arrived during manatee feeding time. I could've watched the tank for hours, but we had to move on.

Getting close to the animals:

The River Safari's main attraction is the Amazon River Quest, a boat ride featuring animals native to the Amazon River. It's an underwhelming 10 minute ride for an attraction that costed extra to get on, on top of the long wait time. Although the ride was unique and we got to see a variety of animals during the short ride, it didn't have that WOW factor I was expecting. That aside, it's worth it to go even if you decide not to do the River Quest.

Night Safari The main event! There are two ways to explore the Night Safari, and I recommend you do both:

Take the Tram (45 minutes long)
Go through the self-guided walking trails (pictured below)

We started off with the Tram, and 5 minutes in I already knew I had to give up on getting good shots. They keep the lighting to a minimum. I had no idea what to expect on the tram ride, but I was blown away by how close we got to the animals and how active they were. The water buffaloes were grazing so close to the path, I could have reached out and touched them. A very memorable moment was when we were driving by the elephant area -- just as the tram tour guide mentioned us to look to our right, we saw the elephant standing at the top of a hill, flapping its ears. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. It was dark enough and far away so my friend and I said to one another,

"Are... are these elephants even real?"

I'm sure they were, but at that moment everything had seemed too perfect. This happened with many other animals, such as when we passed the hyenas (which were across a small moat in plain view) as they paced back and forth, looking at our tram.

After our tram ride, we went through all the walking trails. These trails are not accessible by the trams (though tram pathways do intersect the walking trails) so we were able to get a closer look at the smaller critters, like the wallabys and the fishing cat, to name a few. We stopped and stared at this otter for 5 minutes, wondering if it was real. It never moved.

After hitting up all the trails we arrived early at the amphitheatre to get seats for the "Creatures of the Night" show. A fun show in English showcasing cool nocturnal animals and funny jokes. Do check it out if time permits. We hit up the gift shop and prepared to leave afterwards.

Considering that we spent the whole day exploring through the 3 parks at a fair, brisk pace, I'd say the hefty price was worth it. The only times we stopped moving was when we were eating and when we waited for the River Quest. I don't have any plans to visit Singapore again in the foreseeable future. But while there were many other things I did in Singapore during stay there, if I were to ever come back, I know it'd be for the Singapore Zoo.

This is also a short show you can watch while you eat dinner:

Transportation: We took a cab from our hostel near Singapore's Chinatown, for the sake of saving time in the morning. We took a bus back. Hours: Zoo: 8am-6pm River Safari: 9am-6pm Night Safari: 7:30pm-12am

Featured Photo: Amazon Flooded Forest, Jan 2014.

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Singapore Zoo, River Safari, Night Safari