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| "Baby" panda |
We woke up to pouring rain and it continued for the whole day. Our planned activity for the day was a visit to the Mandai Wildlife Reserve. We were picked up at 2:00 PM and it was a 30-40 minute drive to the wildlife reserve. There are three parts to the reserve...the Singapore Zoo, River Wonders and a Night Safari. Our tour included tickets to the River Wonders and the Night Safari.
The River Wonders is a great aquarium which you view via pathways with sections representing different parts of the world and different bodies of water. There is also a river cruise which was shutdown because of the lightning storms in the area. They had three pandas, a mom, dad and baby, although not so small snow. They also had red pandas which we really enjoyed seeing. |
| Red Panda |
We attended a wildlife show in the river area with lots of cute animals as well as emphasizing the hazards of single use plastic bottles. The river otter would pick up the bottles and deposit them in the trash can.
After dinner we went to the Night Safari area which also had a wildlife show with different animals and then a 40 minute tram ride in the dark to see night animals. Unfortunately it was pouring rain the whole time, so even with plastic covers on the side of the tram, we still got wet. And, because of the giant puddles, the trails in the night area were not open.
But the whole experience there is dedicated to conservation and the protection of wildlife so overall, despite the weather, we were glad we went.
For those of you not getting Chris's email...this was his commentary about Singapore:
...on this southern Malay Peninsula island (actually one main island and 63 islets), geographically the size of New York City with nearly 6 million residents mostly (75%) of Chinese descent, while I will simply point out how amazed I am at the contrast between Malay’s capital and most sophisticated city, Kuala Lumpur, and what’s been accomplished here in Singapore in less than 60 years.
It’s really hard to believe that after WWII, Singapore was officially part of federated Malaysia and wanted to remain so, but in mid-1960s Singapore was literally “kicked out” of the Malay federation because: i) they insisted on being a secular (not officially Muslim) state, and ii) because it’s growing Chinese population was “deluting out” the power of ruling Malay Peninsula Muslims. Starting only with the original 19th century colonial plans of Sir Thomas Raffles and then building on the advice of a single UN economic expert plus a negotiated 100 year lease for water from mainland Malaysia, the “rejected” Singapore city islanders, with no natural resources or on site manufacturing to speak of, over the next 60 years grew to became the New York City of SE Asia, today # 1 among the world’s shipping ports and #2 in the world’s financial markets. Like Switzerland (but without Alps) it’s an incredibly clean, vibrant, and glitzy city maze of high rises and architectural wonders (such that your phone gps is usually incorrect), with great rapid transit and filled with all kinds of electronic wizardry including colorful light and water shows each night that attract both tourists and businesses from worldwide . Of course it’s also very much home to (and the movie site of) “Crazy Rich Asians” — but having left the rest of Malaysia far in its rear view development window, you have to wonder whether Malaysia today regrets its expulsion decision 6 decades ago?
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