Today started with a visit to the Singapore Zoo, which I had been wanting to visit since I was here back in 2007.
Last time I was in Singapore, as I only had a couple of days here as a stopover, I decided to go for the Night Safari part of the Zoo rather than the main Zoo to maximise my time in the city. The night safari was great, but it’s only one small part of the whole complex and there are so many things to see in the other parts.
Travelling to Singapore Zoo
To save time we decided to order a Grab from the hotel, which only took 30 minutes, and which dropped us right at the main car park which was only a few minutes’ walk from the entrance.
As soon as we bought tickets around 500 school children arrived in a big group so we decided to grab a coffee and wait for them to go in, so that we weren’t right behind them the whole time. This was wise from a crowd point of view, but unfortunately that 20 minute delay meant that it started raining the second we went through the ticket barriers.
Singapore Zoo in the rain
The first section of the Zoo is under a covered walkway so it was fine for us, although the animals looked a little bit miserable with how heavy the rain was. You would have thought that they would have got used to it by now, though, being in Singapore.
Due to the rain we decided to get the free shuttle up to the next section of the zoo, which was also undercover meaning that we didn’t get wet. The shuttle kept us dry but, with the humidity, the covers were constantly fogged up so I’m glad that the rain stopped after about an hour, just after we had taken it to the next section of the park.
Exploring the rest of Singapore Zoo
Due to the pauses caused by the rain, and a few times where we spent a long time watching some of the animals, we spent just over 5 hours in the Zoo which was longer than I was expecting but there were so many things to see.
Just a few of the animals we saw were Otter, Giant Tortoise, Komodo Dragon, Lion, Elephant, Cheetah, Giraffe, Lemur, Sloth, Zebra, and a range of other lesser-known animals that I hadn’t seen in an other zoos that I had visited before.
The two highlights of the zoo for me, however, were the Chimpanzee and the Orangutan. We spent quite a while watching both of them – the Chimpanzee because we were fascinated by how territorial they were after being let back out into their enclosure following some maintenance, and the Orangutan because they’re such graceful animals that I love but had never seen in person before.
We must have easily spent 15-20 minutes watching the Chimpanzee and 30 watching the Orangutan. Luckily, there were benches to sit at both locations, and we really enjoyed just relaxing there and watching the animals – including the otter that had decided to set up home in the Orangutan enclosure but which were scared of the Orangutan.
The Singapore Zoo is definitely worth a visit if you’re in Singapore, and you’re into zoos. They have several other zoos in the complex including an aquatic area, a bird park, and the night safari so you could easily spend a couple of days there if you wanted to see everything.
Between 5 and 6 hours was enough for us, however, so at this point we made our way back to the entrance to catch the bus back towards the centre of Singapore.
National Museum of Singapore
I wasn’t feeling that well at this point so rather than continuing the day straight away we decided to head back to the hotel to relax for a little bit before heading back out to our next stop of the day – the National Museum of Singapore.
One of the main museums in the city, the National Museum of Singapore charts the history of the country from a small fishing village to the metropolis that it is today. It has a lot of artefacts from the entire history and it shows you how the city developed over time, outlining the key points in history that had a defining moment on the city.
I found the museum really interesting but, unfortunately, at the moment half of the building is closed for refurbishment so we could only see half of what there is to see there. This was a shame, but after even a short time there I feel like I understand the history of Singapore a lot more.
It was a bit early for dinner so after the museum we headed to Raffles City shopping centre, which was only a short walk away, to grab some coffee in the air conditioning.
I’m a big coffee drinker anyway but with the long days, and the humidity, I find myself needing to take a break with an iced coffee a lot more than I normally do.
Visiting a Hawker Centre
One of the quintessential Singapore experiences is visiting a Hawker Centre, which is a giant courtyard filled with small vendors selling all sorts of hot food and drinks, with communal tables that everybody sits at.
We had wanted to visit one during our time in Singapore but some of them have very mixed reviews. One that stood out for having better reviews was the Maxwell Food Centre and so we jumped on the bus to head there for dinner.
The place was packed, mostly with locals which shows that it’s one of the better ones, and even though there were only two of us we struggled to find a seat. In the end we sat down with an elderly Chinese man who was happy for us to share the table with him while we ate the Thai Green Curry that we had decided to go for.
Taking the last seat on the table was a member of cabin crew for British Airways who told us that he always tries to visit this hawker centre when he’s in Singapore as he likes the food there.
We didn’t spend long there – just enough to eat our food while chatting to the elderly man and the cabin crew person – because it was so busy that people were constantly looking for food and we didn’t want to overstay our welcome there. Plus, the conversation with the elderly man started getting a bit political and we were keen to move on before it got heated.
Returning to our hotel in Geylang
After leaving the hawker centre we slowly made our way back to the hotel, with the usual stop at the shops to grab some snacks and drinks, getting back to the hotel at around 10pm.
Geylang might be a bit gritty, as I mentioned in an earlier entry, and it does have a reputation for being where the red light district used to be. Indeed it’s not as polished as the centre of Singapore, which everybody sees in the photos, but the good thing about it being a local area is that there are shops and restaurants open 24/7 and no matter what time we arrived back we have never had a problem finding snacks and a drink on our way back to the hotel.
I’m still not feeling great so I’m going to head straight to bed now – luckily we have a slightly later start tomorrow so I should be able to get a good amount of rest tonight.