It’s a Jungle in Here

12/9/09: Singapore

One of these pictures doesn’t belong. Can you tell which one it is?

The misfit picture was taken in Africa, but to the untrained eye it may be harder to spot than it seems. Why? Because today we went to the Singapore Zoo, hands down the best zoo in the city/country known as Singapore.

Zhou and I were both a bit leery of visiting a zoo after touring the Masai Mara and Serengeti in Africa. It felt like we were being demoted from hanging with Albert Pujols in the Big Leagues to Chuck Knoblauch in Single A. Upon arrival though, we were surprised to see that Chuck Knoblauch could still play some ball.

The Singapore Zoo feels less like a zoo of confined animals and more like a meet-and-greet with orangutans, pygmy hippos, penguins and kangaroos, among other domesticated wild animals. We attended three fun, free shows in the morning and followed the afternoon feeding trail where we watched pampered tigers, lions and polar bears dine on big slabs of raw meat thrown at their feet. (Just as my family’s own cats would never survive on their own, neither would these “Kings of the Jungle Gym.”)

Because I feel a little bad about taking up three minutes of your day with pictures from a zoo, I’ll cut the post short here, but if it helps please think about it as a foreign tropical paradise that you’ll probably never visit since not many people really go to Singapore.

[The correct answer to the question above is: Picture 6, the one of the cheetahs.]
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Thought of the Day: I would like to start a hotel in Vegas where room rates fluctuate inversely with the performance of the Dow on the following day. I don’t know how this would work (other than the hotel would have a bunch of money invested in the DJI), but I think it would be fun.
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Picture of the Day: Zhou pulled a “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” so she could take a look at Mr. Turtle’s recurring toothache.

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Sentosa and Singapore

12/8/09: Singapore

I’m a bit reluctant to tell you what we spent today doing, lest you think we’re really dorky people, but then I remembered, hey, we keep a spreadsheet listing every single expense on this trip, and Kevin is still keeping track of how many showers we take (40 and 51 since the beginning of the trip). Really, how much dorkier could it get?

No really, how much dorkier?

Actually, this is really fun. If only the ride were a bit longer.

This above pictures are from the luge ride on Sentosa Island, a kind of theme park/beach area/place for tourists to bleed money. Sentosa itself is actually pretty cool with lots of different activities, it’s just that we chose to do the dorkiest things. Naturally.

Yep, really, tandem bike riding. I warned you about the dorkiness.

No hands!

K: Is riding a tandem bike around Singapore a really Asian thing to do?
Z: Yeah, but it’s ok. Because we’re in Asia.

Out of pride or stubbornness or some combination of the two, I insisted that I spend some time riding on the front of the tandem bike and not in the back. Oh boy. Ladies, I have to tell you, it is really difficult to drive a tandem bike when you have an over-6-foot man sitting in the back attempting to steer even though you’ve told him not to because that throws off your balance. And then he keeps insisting, “I promise, I’m not trying to move the handlebars. You’re oversteering!” Oversteering my foot! Once Kevin finally trusted me enough to stop trying to steer the bike from the back end, we got along swimmingly.

See how happy he looks?

After a full day on Sentosa, we had dinner with my parents’ college friends (whom we also stayed with). We went to this place where you buy fresh (i.e. ALIVE) seafood and then take it to the restaurant, which cooks it for you. They had mussels, all kinds of fish, lots of different varieties of clams, eel, and lots and lots of other things.

Ribbit.

It was a bit weird thinking that your food was alive thirty minutes before you ate it, but Kevin and I got over that hurdle pretty quickly. What can I say? We’re open-minded people.

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Thought of the Day: Live scallops aren’t long white tubes – they’re just big shells! Bummer.
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Picture of the Day: Lured by the sign, we of course had to visit “the southernmost point in continental Asia.” Whatever that means.

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