8th December - Trip to Zoo and River Safari

We had planned a trip to the Zoo and River safari on the 8th of December, mid-way into their school holidays.

We reached the Mandai at about 930am and decided to start with the Zoo first (River Safari opens at 10am officially). Given that it has been raining in the mid afternoons for the past week, I have planned to finish covering the Zoo before 1pm (lunch inclusive) and move on to River Safari (hoping to finish before 3pm).

It has been a while since we last came (I think at least 4 years back), but the boys seemed to remember most parts of the Zoo and their shows too (there wasn't much changes to the content of the shows after all these years!). We saw many breeds of the orang utans and chimpanzees, which kept us quite amused.

(I can't remember what animal is this.. )

These lions were awake (most of the times, they were sleeping during the day!)


The baby giraffe (centre) was born in August 2015 (so it's about 4 months old now) and he was born 1.9m!



 

At the Polar bear enclosure, Frozen Tundra (this is a new exhibit area, but we can't see the Polar...). This place is very cold, and they have also built an igloo to let you experience that it's actually warm and cosy if you are in the igloo.

Only children can fit in the igloo. Both boys are enjoying their time in this igloo.

Koalas in the Australian Outback section

We managed to catch the following shows:
1) Rainforest fights back
2) Splash Safari
and had our lunch at Ah Meng restaurant. Thankfully we made it back to the entrance of Zoo just before the heavy downpour. Ethan happily went to pick up one soft toy to replace his tiger. By this time, we (adults) were rather exhausted from the heat and the walking..

River Safari:
It was much cooler after the rain and the tour in this park was more pleasant. Given that most of the pathways are sheltered, we were rather happy with the layout and enjoyed the walk better. The boys saw the River Quest boat ride and asked to take them to experience the other parts of the park. This boat ride is definitely the highlight of the park besides Jia Jia and Kai Kai I must say (don't take the cruise)

 

Possibly the rain was just gone, we couldn't see Brazilian Tapir and  Giant Anteater. Some animals we saw during the River Quest ride

At the Touch Pool:

There was starfish, stingray and crabs for the children to touch..

Some big alligator..

At Giant Panda Forest where Jia Jia and Kai Kai are (this place is really very very cold!):

 

Kai Kai

Jia Jia

The red panda

The River Safari reminds me of SEA Aquarium, given that there are so many sea creatures for viewing and there was a big indoor aquarium as well (so many parts of this theme park were air-conditioned). Generally I think it's worth making a visit, but this park also reminds me of Hong Kong's Ocean Park. Least we kept them happy and fully occupied with this day trip