Singapore Zoo and Night Safari

We are spending our 3 days in Singapore mainly resting up but yesterday we ventured out to the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. Through the internet--once again I can't emphasize what a lifesaver having the laptop has been--we found out about an express bus which goes directly to the zoo and back from the night safari. We headed out to the zoo about 1pm and got there just before 2. As this was the first day of the Chinese New Year the place was absolutely PACKED with people especially families with lots of little kids. In hindsight this was not a good day to go to the zoo but we didn't really have a choice as our few days here coincides with CNY. We walked around looking at the animals and by about 4pm got to the far end of the zoo where the children's water park and play area is. We remembered this from our last visit and this time had brought the kids bathing suits with us so they could play in the water park. The water park has as its central feature a stairs and multiple slide feature with a large bucket of water which continuously fills up and periodically dumps its load. This is very similar to a feature in one of the pools at Wet n Wild on the Gold Coast, Queensland except that there are warning bells as this bucket fills up so the kids all gather below it for the dump. In Qld there was no warning and the water (in April anyway) was quite cold so getting dumped on was not a pleasant experience. Here the water is warm and the kids love it when the bucket dumps on them. Other than this feature there are all manner of water fountains/squirting devices and the kids all rush from one to the other. The majority of the kids we saw yesterday were pre-school and primary school aged. I don't know where the families with older children were--probably visiting relatives.

The kids area has greatly expanded since we were last here 7 years ago. There is now a carousel, small petting farm, pony rides and other attractions we didn't fully explore. The zoo also seems bigger but I can't put my finger exactly on what changes have been made. The eating area at the entrance to the zoo certainly has expanded with more eateries & seating. There was very very little last time.

The zoo closes at 6 and at that time we walked about 3 minutes over to the Night Safari entrance to eat dinner. The Night Safari also seems to have expanded over the past 7 years and there are more eateries and gift shops there. The Night Safari is supposed to open at 7:30 for tours and by 6:30 we were dismayed to see the waiting line to get on the safari trams extending all through the eating area. We thought it would take an hour or more to clear. But then the line moved and soon everyone was gone. I'm guessing that special early trams were put on for tour busses and that everyone in the line was from booked tours. Thank goodness for that! We got in line for the safari tram just after 7 and were surprised to find that the trams were already operating. It didn't take us long to get on one. The safari trams are an easy and educational way to see the Night Safari. The route that the trams take is a long one and there is one stop where you can get off and walk along a trail to view some of the smaller animals. We saw sugar gliders, badgers, leopards including a clouded leopard, Asian lions, various sorts of deer, bats, hippos, giraffes and many other sorts of animals. There was an emphasis on SE Asian animals but there were plenty of African and South American animals as well. At the end of our tour we boarded the express bus for a quick and inexpensive trip back to our hotel.