Singapore - Mandai Wildlife Reserve (Singapore Zoo)

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There were thunderstorms overnight and 22mm of rain however, the weather is fine again this morning, but very, very humid! We continue to be very lucky indeed with the weather on this holiday. We are also lucky to not be at home in Melbourne where it has been wet, wet, wet!

This morning the plan was to purchase three day tourist passes to use Singapore’s public transport system (Mass Rapid Transport - MRT). Hmmn, Bernie’s research suggested that we could buy these tourist tickets at Cheers convenience stores. We purchased water, Coke and beer at a Cheers store near the hotel yesterday afternoon so we headed back there this morning to ask about the MRT ticket for tourists. All she had to offer us there was some sort of parking ticket.

Undeterred we headed off to Bugis Station planning to buy our tickets there. We used the lift to descend to the Ticket Concourse thinking that sounded like a place where you would buy tickets. How wrong can you be? That would be the area where you can only access the platform IF you already have the ticket!!! The attendant on the platform directed us back to the Underpass level and told us we would have to venture around to the front of the station to find the ticket office.

Off we all trouped and eventually we found a customer service office. Despite being staffed and despite not being AT ALL busy there was a sign up to say that tourist passes have to be purchased from their agent … a chemist … that doesn’t open until 10.00am, when it was only nine o’clock in the morning. How positively FRUSTRATING! OK, we can use our debit/credit cards to use the MRT, we’ll do that … with some trepidation not knowing how much extra it will cost us after our banks apply an international transaction fee??

And then the MRT gate accepted my card, Cathy’s card, Steve’s card, but did not like Bernie’s Mastercard for some reason. Fortunately Bernie had another debit card and that worked just fine.

Finally, with all four of us on the platform we were on our way. We caught the Downtown (Blue) Line to Bayfront Station where we alighted to make our way to Gardens by the Bay. OMG, it’s really not our morning! We arrived at the gardens to discover that the Flower Dome is closed for maintenance. When we asked how long the dome is closed for maintenance we were told just today. OK, maybe we should come back tomorrow when there is more open to see?? Let’s go to the zoo today instead.

We traipsed back to the MRT where we caught the train to an interchange station where we could change to the North South (Red) Line that would take us almost to the zoo. Fortunately there is a shuttle that runs from Khatib Station to Mandai Wildlife Reserve/Singapore Zoo. Our luck had taken a turn for the better with a shuttle arriving very quickly rather than us facing an up to 20 minute wait for the bus.

Zoo tickets purchased we were finally doing something with our day … other than ride the MRT! One of the first exhibits inside the gates was the Asian small-clawed otters. One of my favourites, so I was happy. Other animals included: the Hamadryas Baboons, Komodo dragon, Pygmy hippo, Black and White Ruffed Lemurs, White rhinos, Zebras, Red River hog and some free-ranging Orangutans.

We finished our visit with delicious New Zealand Natural ice-creams. Finally we are in a country where we feel like it is safe to eat ice-cream. Our luck was holding with a shuttle bus ready and waiting for us when we headed out of the zoo after finishing our ice-creams. We re-traced our journey of earlier leaving the train at City Hall Station for a short walk back to the hotel for a much needed dip in the pool.

We thought about eating teppanyaki for dinner tonight but, when we viewed the menu, we were a bit alarmed at the prices. After the price of food and drink in Vietnam and Cambodia the prices in Singapore come as a bit of shock! We stuck with the Japanese idea, but tried Tonkatsu Ma Maison instead. We all ordered ‘sets’ that came with rice, white cabbage, pickled vegetables, a sort of vegetable miso soup called ‘tonjiro’ and some dipping sauces. Steve opted for the pork and eel set and rest of us went for pork and prawns.



Steps for the day: 13,080 (8.35km)

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