Singapore Zoo and Gardens by the Bay 28 Jan 2017

I've noticed in UK and London in particular, the huge number of people walking around glued to their portable media. People aren't looking at what surrounds them which can be rather frustrating when they walk into you, to say the least! Here, portable media usage is, perhaps, even more widespread. Worse still, many have their phones and cameras attached to selfie sticks! The desire to take photos of yourself with random backdrops seems to be all consuming for some people. I wonder who gets to see the photos? On the Metro, everyone is using the phone as it works even underground. The digital revolution has certainly hit Singapore

Chinese New Years Day seemed to be a good time to visit Singapore Zoo. It was a good time, clearly, for a lot of other people! We caught the Metro part-way, and then caught a bus to the zoo. Once again, we got a tour through the jungle-like suburbs of Singapore.

We had already bought a combined Bird Park and Zoo ticket yesterday so didn't have to queue for tickets, but did stop for a coffee and breakfast pastry.

We enjoyed the Zoo overall although it was very busy. It's not normally the sort of excursion we would do as we prefer to see animals in their natural and unfenced environment. We were interested to see some of the Southeast Asian wildlife as it's often difficult to see them in the wild. Some things were more notable than others. The Orang-utans, for example, have free range across the Zoo as they rarely descend to ground level and just follow ropes and vines draped between the trees. The Ethiopian Baboons too, had a huge enclosure and were clearly breeding!

One huge enclosure was a 'walk-in' area like a jungle, one of the animals in there were Fruit Bats. They were flying around freely, but roosting close to the viewing platform.

Lunch was taken in a rather manic food court, but it wasn't expensive and was local in origin, tasty and relatively cheap.

After 4 hours, we'd had enough and headed back to the hotel to relax. We also had a swim in the outdoor pool on the fifth floor. It was rather refreshing swimming as it was raining too!

After tidying ourselves up, we headed out again, but this time down into the heart of the city. We took a Metro down to Bayfront and walked through an underpass and came up at Gardens by the Bay. This immense green area is built on reclaimed land and was started in 2007. It consists of a number of small themed gardens, two huge biospheres and a grove of 'Supertrees'. One biosphere is a rainforest whilst the other was full of flowers. The biospheres charge for entry. We wandered the circular route around the smaller gardens as it moved from twilight to dusk. By the time we got to the 'Supertrees' in the middle it was almost dark. 

The Supertrees are constructed of steel, some connected by an aerial walkway, and covered in natural vegetation which is gradually vertically colonising the towers. They are certainly a wonderful sight in daylight, but take on an even more spectacular mantle when it's dark. They are softly lit in pastel shades which highlights the plants growing up them. Then at around 1945, a sound and light show bathes then in a variety of startling colours to the sound of chinese music. It is certainly something to behold, and all for free!

After the show, we attempted to find food in the massive shopping centre nearby, but it was so crammed with people enjoying New Years Day, we gave up and caught the Metro back to Orchard.

Here, we went upmarket and ate in the outdoor foyer cafe at the Marriott across the road from our hotel. It was very busy, but they found a space at the bar where we had a great view of the world strolling around. We both had local food again, which was delicious. The experience cost us S$90, but given the lack of places open elsewhere, was well worth it, and not far to walk back to our hotel.