Shopping in the centre, River Safari and dinner in Tiong Bahru food court

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Had a slightly later start today and caught a taxi to North Bridge Road just after 09.30H. Did a lot of bartering for a new mobile phone which took a couple of hours. The vendors don't seem at all flexible on price so had to push quite hard for a half-decent deal. As always seems to be the case, we eventually went back to the very first store and bought there.

Caught another taxi back to Wangz and got ready for the 'River Safari'. We were collected by mini-bus at 1.30pm and taken to Temple Street in Chinatown where we registered on the tour. They then kept us hanging around for over an hour whilst chaos reigned. Eventually 8 of us were put on a mini-bus and taken to the Zoo.

The River Safari is a brand new exhibition featuring the world's great river systems and we were allocated a two hour time slot to visit the exhibition. It is an addition to the world-class zoo and night safari attractions. On our last visit we were lucky enough to do the night safari and we were really looking forward to the river safari. Of the seven people on the minibus, only four did the river safari - so we were indeed a select few! Perhaps it was due to being a week-day or perhaps the thunder storm raging to the north, but we almost had the place to ourselves. The entire route was covered so we did not get wet.

The exhibition covered to Mississippi, Ganges, Mekong, Murray, Nile and Amazon - no European rivers but I guess they are all either too short or too dull to have been included. Each section comprised interpretation boards, aquaria and terrania and animal runs. The basic themes were faunal diversity and environmental dangers.

One of our taxi drivers had asked if we were going to see the pandas at the zoo. I had replied that the pandas were of little interest as we had some in Edinburgh Zoo. However as part of the river safari, the route took us through a panda display area. Initially we were underwhelmed by the first panda going through a repetitive and bored pacing routine but the second panda was a real star. Our timing could not have been better and the panda put on an amazing performance of eating bamboo right in front of us and just a few metres away. I took a lot of video and some stills. When I have time I'll edit the video and put it onto Youtube with a link from this blog.

We spent ages in the panda enclosure and were really charmed by the experience. Then it was on to the spider monkey enclosure where again, we had an amazing and close-up encounter with these little fellows. They live in a large family group and we got there in time for their afternoon feeding session. Rather than looking into a cage, we went inside the enclosure and they were all around us. They were lively and highly animated. Another amazing experience.

Next up was the Amazon dugong aquarium where again it was feeding time. These elegant and graceful animals are enormous yet extremely gentle. As our time was fast expiring, we had to cut short on this exhibit and head back to catch the mini-bus. Overall a really wonderful afternoon out - a big thanks to Iain and Mieke for giving us this opportunity.

We had decided to 'go native' and have a meal of pork and noodles at the local Tiong Bahru food court. Like Newton Circus, it comprised a bewildering array of small stalls and kitchens, each offing a speciality such as 'pigs organs', 'deep fried shark nuggets' etc We had visited the food court a couple of days earlier and it seemed much less for tourists and more for locals.

As it turned out, the famous pork and noodle stall had closed when we arrived but we found a nice Thai stall where Hazel ordered fried chicken and I had a noodle dish. We tried a couple of bottles of Lao beer which was drinkable but was not as good as Tiger. We were the only non-Asians in the place and it felt wonderful. The cost was less than $25 (UK£12) and we ate well. By comparison, the Banana Leaf was $67. We spoke to several of the locals who suggested several desserts, including durian fruit. It certainly did not smell as bad as we have been expecting but as we had already eaten, we postponed the experience for another day.

On our way back to the hotel we got chatting to an older local, Simon (82) who lived in Hoon Eng street. Like all Singaporeans we have met, he was a totally wonderful man and we talked in the street for over 20 minutes. Before retirement at 45, he had been an official in the Education Ministry responsible for examination standards. He invited us to visit him in his home and have some Chinese tea and a chat but we were tired and needed to go sleep.

Everyone we have met here has been polite, considerate and so helpful. The hotel staff treat us like royalty, nothing is too much trouble and they pass us tips on attractions, transport and shopping. At breakfast this morning, we selected our table in the dining room and went up to the buffet to collect some fruit and juice. Whilst we were away from the table our napkins were removed by a member of staff because we had unfolded them. A while later, the hotel group manageress came over to speak to us and pointed out that I had crumbs on my chin!!! How incredibly caring of her and how incredibly humiliating for me 😊

On our way back to the hotel, we explored several of the side streets and found a lively range of restaurants and eating place very close by. On returning to the hotel, Hazel lay down on the bed and instantly fell asleep.

Navigation in Singapore has been achieved using a superb app on my I-pod that shows us exactly where we are. And yes, we have got lost on several occasions but only briefly. We could never have managed without this useful app and it is a lot better than struggling with printed maps.

Need to close now but more adventures tomorrow will include our Raffles trip and hopefully a couple of Singapore Slings in the long bar.

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