Phase 2HA: Two by Two at the Zoo & River Safari

The last time we visited the Zoo was before the Littlest Girl was born, hence I've been wanting to take her on her first visit to the Singapore Zoo. 

My organisation has a corporate pass for the Zoo/River Safari that I've been trying to ballot for the last few months. After many failed attempts, I finally managed to secure 2 corporate passes for 8 persons! 🥳

Alas, the day we had planned to go turned out to be the first day of Phase 2 Hightened Alert! The government announced that there will be tightened measures which included not being able to dine in and group sizes reduced to 2. I checked the WRS website again and again but there was no indication that group sizes larger than 2 would be turned away (we are a family of 6). Hence, we decided to go ahead with the visit and hoped for the best.

The Zoo was virtually deserted when we arrived. At the entrance, the staff admitted all of us but reminded us to roam around in twos. 

We were also told that the capacity for the animal shows were also limited to 50 hence they were mostly full by the time we arrived. We decided to skip the shows and tried our best to keep our distance from other people while wandering around the Zoo. 

RAINFOREST

Proboscis Monkey

Our first stop was the Proboscis Monkey enclosure. We were in time to witness their feeding but didn't stay long enough as the enclosure was too stuffy. 

Anoa

I dressed the Littlest Girl in a pretty dress since we'll be taking lots of pictures and I wanted her to look good. But most importantly, at least she has an occasion to wear it before she outgrew it! 

Babirusa

White Tiger

My boy was pretty fascinated by the tiger. It's always such a privilege to be able to see them upclose. 

Pigmy Hippo

I really love the pigmy hippo enclosure as it had a viewing gallery that was cooling and provided us with much needed respite from the noon-day sun. The pigmy hippos were also really cute to watch. 

AUSTRALASIA

My memory of the kangaroo enclosure is of a huge open field which allowed people to wander into. Now it seems that they have built a new air-conditioned viewing gallery for you to view the animals in comfort instead! 

Tree Kangaroo

Wallaby and Grey Kangaroo

The kids were trying to see how far they could jump! 

ELEPHANTS OF ASIA

We didn't get to watch the elephant show but my kids were contented spotting the elephants from far! 

PRIMATE KINGDOM

There was also the Primate Kingdom nearby but we gave it a miss as we're not big fans of primates. 


SPLASH SAFARI

This area is new to me as we haven't visited in such a long time. Once again, there is supposed to be a show here but we missed it due to the restrictions. 

There was also a small playground here, which looked fun but the kids couldn't play in it as it was too hot! 

African Penguin

The kids managed to see the penguins though. Gotta love penguins! 

ORANGUTAN

The huge dining area near the Orangutan enclosure was closed so we spent some time watching the orangutans. 

Sumatran Orangutan

Bornean Orangutan

SUNBEAR

It was so hot that even the sunbear was taking shelter from the heat in his den! 

TORTOISE SHELL-TER

This enclosure is a must to visit as it houses endangered animals such as the Ploughshare Tortoise and Giant Tortoise. These guys were here when I last visited and will likely still be here when I visit again next time 😅

REPTOPIA

This is a new enclosure which marries the indoor and outdoor exploration of reptiles. Despite not being a reptile lover, I ended up quite liking it. 

Gotta love this weird looking lizard whose backside looks like its front to confuse predators and give it a chance to escape. 

Getting to view the reptiles up close was quite fun for the kids! 

We spent a bit longer than usual at this enclosure, to my surprise! 

Houbii Spot Rope Course

We didn't get a chance to try the rope course. Looked fun though. 

WILD AFRICA

Giraffe

I will never visit the Singapore Zoo and not say hi to my favourite animal, the majestic giraffes! ❤️

Zebra

White Rhinoceros

Everyone, including the animals, were trying to find shelter from the sweltering heat! I miss the cool weather in Japan/Europe! 

In the past, to escape the heat, we would head to Frozen Tundra, the old home of Singapore's polar bears. However, ever since the death of Singapore's last polar bear, Inuka, the exhibit has been closed for renovation in preparation for a new exhibit. We can only reminisce our last visit to see Inuka, the first and only polar bear born in Singapore! 

The Eldest Girl's favourite animal is the polar bear, hence I bought her a small Inuka keychain as a souvenir. The Zoo shop was selling 2 keychains for $10, which was a really good price. There were a lot of other items on sale too! I did my part to support :)

After the Zoo, we headed to the River Safari next door. This was not our first visit. I've blogged about the River Safari in more detail during our first visit here.  

Since this wasn't our first visit, we decided to be rebels and walked the wrong direction, i.e. instead of walking the park in a clockwise direction, we went anti-clockwise.

That allowed us to have a fresh perspective of the park, like we were visiting it for the first time! 

See this redtail catfish? We have a smaller one in our very own tank at home! 

It's not a surprise that the hubby prefers the River Safari, seeing as he is such a fish-lover. Did you know that we have 6 fish tanks at home and counting? 😅

A visit to River Safari is not complete without visiting the Red Pandas and Giant Pandas (Kai Kai and Jia Jia)!

We ended the day viewing the rest of the aquariums of fish in rivers around the world. 

We clocked more than 15,000 steps and had a great day! Thankful for another good trip to the Zoo! 

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A post shared by Madeline Heng (@madpsychmum)

 

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This post is part of my MadPsychMum Fun in Singapore Guide to all things exciting for kids! 

Check out other fun playgrounds and attractions in Singapore! =)

You can also keep up to date with our fun adventures on Instagram via our hashtag #mpmfuninsg!