Singapore Day 1 March 3, 2016

---

We returned to Singapore in the late afternoon and headed for wifi before continuing on to the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo.

More being kept in the dark by the ship. We got online at Starbucks to find messages and news stories flying back and forth. We had skirted yet another natural disaster, an earthquake fifteen miles deep in the ocean, four hundred miles south of Sumatra. At that time, we were in the northern channel, protected from the potential tsunami by Java and by Sumatra itself.

In any case, the automatic tsunami warning was quickly rescinded by those who would have been in its path, had one occurred. Our son Devon had the presence of mind to a) look at a map, and b) call the cruise line, who relayed that no distress had been reported. He was able to reassure the family that even had there been a tsunami, we were well out of its way. Emails, IMs and FB posts by us confirmed that it had been a non-event.

Our only remaining worries are other natural disasters, random terrorists, pirates near Africa and Yemen, and an invasion of central Jordan, all unlikely events. We will more probably get hit by a taxi in Southampton.

Returning to Singapore had a comfortable familiarity about it. We had arranged to meet poker buddy Sharon and her husband John at the Starbuck's next to the terminal. They went looking for us at the other Starbuck's in the mall attached to the terminal. I did not know that there was another Starbuck's. We figured out the problem at the same time and Sharon and I spotted each other as we each went looking for the other Starbuck's.

Such a civilized, orderly place. Clear signage points to taxi ranks, where attendants invite you to line up, inquire as to your destination and the number in your party, and then provide you a suitable vehicle in turn.

Sharon and John are very well travelled folks presently living in the Northwest US but have lived all over from time to time. They are a font of experience and recommendations, and once Sharon realised that we are first-timers to all these ports she has had no end of suggestions.

After a long haul on the Singapore freeways, the cab dropped us at the Singapore zoo.

The Night Safari is billed as the world's first wildlife exhibit designed to be viewed at night. Over 100 species of nocturnal animals, as well as lots more diurnal ones, can be viewed from a tram ride through the park. One can disembark and reboard at specific points through the park where there are walking trails dedicated to particular ecosystems and wildlife types. The zoo is divided into 7 geographic areas, such as the Indian Subcontinent, the Asian River Forest, all lit with low-key illumination simulating moonlight. No flash means you need a very sensitive camera to collect the light and deliver an unblurred picture. All our cameras failed this test, so no photos survived the Safari.

Sharon and John were not enjoying the heat and waved us on, saying they'd wait for us at the bar and for us to take our time. We should have told them to just head on back and we would make our own way. We took the walking paths at a good pace, but still I'm afraid they waited much longer than they had counted on, and the beer was $13 Singapore dollars for a local brew. Singapore dollars are close to par with Canadian.

A pacing, grumpy Malaysian tiger, wolves and wallabies and water buffalo, ocelots, barking deer, mouse deer, hippos and rhinos and elephants, giant flying squirrels, several kinds of leopards, and of course, lions and tigers and bears oh my.

We spotted a fisher cat washing up after a freshly caught meal from the stream flowing through the enclosure; a pair of leopards at feeding time, the female batting the male away and taking possession of the fresh chicken; the huge porcupines facing off, their thicker rear quills fanning out like the tail of a deadly peacock. A variety of wild hogs, hyenas and tapirs.

And a treasure of this trip, a pangolin. These odd, harmless little beauties are being collected to extinction for their scales. The only scaled mammal, eastern cltures believe these scales have unproven, thus magical, healing or theraputic properties. These beliefs, like many other eastern traditional superstitions, seem to have been simply pulled out of the ass of some shaman once upon a time. They persist due only to the vast market of stupid people who swallow such nonsense. A pangolin's scales are made from the same substance as our fingernails, a commodity singularly lacking in medicinal benefit.

I feel guilty just seeing one in captivity.

I came to the conclusion long ago that most zoos are a crime against nature. Comparing the Singapore Zoo with animal-friendly, world-renowned zoos like the San Diego or the Toronto, I must admit that as zoos go, this one is well laid out and caters well to the animals in providing an excellent reproduction of the animal's natural habitat.

But. It's still a zoo. The world is not a better place for our encroachments on animals' habitat.

We collected Sharon and John with apologies for having made them wait so long, and they were gracious about their own forced captivity at the Singapore Zoo.

---