Day three

Day Three: Jungle Exploration

Today we got up bright and early, for we had an important appointment. We boarded a very nice Mercedes “limocab” and drove most of the way across this little country. On our arrival we bought tickets, and ensured our seats were booked for our appointment. We enjoyed a decent buffet breakfast, and then the fun began. Audrey had booked us in for breakfast with the orangutans at the Singapore Zoo. This began with elephant showers, then a bald python joined by a gold handed tamarind. The stars arrived via a large log, 5 borneo and Sumatran orangutans, to squeals of delight by the collected tourists, and none squealed louder than our little Audrey.
For the rest of the day we checked out the zoo, which was really snazzy. Then we taxi’d to the Jurong Bird Park, so Audrey could continue her little heart attack and hyperventilation spree. The bird park was awesome, including a very spesh Owl exhibit, a huge ‘lory loft’ somewhat akin to standing in a tree with a huge swarm of our lorikeets demanding our sweet nectar. There were two more of these ‘lofts’, an African one with the largest man made waterfall (yay!) and a south east asian bird aviary, with some very sweet parrots.
Then we came home, and went shopping again! All up we were walking around from 8:30 till about 11, so our legs and feet are very very sore. Such is life? There are bakeries here that we need to get back in Perth. NEED.

First of all I have to say that the orangutans get better fruits than we do. Dragonfruit, sugar cane and other assorted tropical delights every morning? Yes please! I was tempted to steal some from their little bucket – I was definitely not content with the mere offering of pineapple in front of me. In addition to the shower we had that morning, we got splashed by bathing elephants and overzealous seals to accompany us with their own eau de toilette. The zoo is pretty spectacular and we were also greeted in the morning to the calls of extremely loud howler monkeys and gibbons attempting to steer us away from their turf.

After a solid 3 hours we made our way to the Bird Park. This place is definitely my favourite and the birds there are a delight to look at and feed. We sat through a great parrot show where all kinds of macaws and cockatoos solved some pretty mind boggling puzzles. Those guys are smart! Apparently they have the intelligence of a 4 year old. We managed to stay for another 3 hours until the final and most awesome show – The Birds of Prey. We were swooped by vultures and sea eagles while falconers catapulted meat into the air for kites to catch and dive at. They truly have magnificent wing spans and terrifyingly impressive beaks. There was one resident comic King Vulture who went by the name of Gonzo. This guy was a real character. He had been hatched and bred in the Singapore Zoo and as a result was very familiar with all the falconers, so much so that he preferred to run instead of fly. There is a photo of him running with one of the falconers that we’ll put up in a second.

After a long and tiresome day we made our way home in another limocab that Christo had spotted, this time a Chrysler 300C. You could feel the testosterone coming from that vehicle…and the woman who was driving it! Rest was in order and after a few hours we made our way back to the malls to grab some dinner and do a little shopping, as a result my legs do not want to get up this morning.