Night Safari-ing

Had a long day, but boy, it was fun!

Met Dear on 96 on the way to NUS; I had to go settle the makan for band camp, then pass some stuff to CFA ppl... inbetween that, we had lunch at Munchie Monkeys, should that be breakfast? lol... anyway, it was not bad, but not very filling... We made our way to Bukit Panjang Plaza; we were so engrossed in talking that we were standing at the alighting door of the bus and then forgot to press the bell and missed our stop at Jurong East; ended up walking to the next bus stop to catch 180 to Bt Panjang... window shopped around the place... nothing's changed much, except that the food court shifted to level 3 and Level one became sort of more trendy... level 4 too... Oh! Met Tooty and *ahem* at level one outside TS vdc shop; someone was so engrossed in someone/something/watever that I had to flash my palm infront of her face to catch her attention *sniggers*... then we took LRT (Dear's first attempt hee) and she was marvelling at the 'magic' windows that can become 'frosted' every now and then when the carraige approaches and HDB blocks...

Reached Lot 1 and walked around again; the mall changed quite a lot since I was last there, and then it rained, threatening to spoil our Night Safari trip... thank goodness it cleared up in the evening; we bought bread from Bread Talk and took 927 to Mandai...

Bought our tickets and took some pics to proof that we were there (but of course we were...); the initial hour or so was spent waiting amongst the crowd... we attempted to try out the Forest GReat nature trail, but it sort of frightened the wits out of us; you see, we were kind of the FIRST ppl to begin walking the trail and boy, it was SPOOKY... in the end we were friightened by this falling leaf the size of our heads combined, not by the size, but the sound it made amonst the silence of the woods... we ended up watching the Animal Show first, and it was great, with this HUGH python that was concealed underneath this compartment amongst the audience, and barn owls and raccoons and etc... only pissed off by (1) Consistent camera flashes in spite of countless reminders not to use them; wat if the wolves and hyenas were frightened by the bright lights and started attacking ppl? (2) this indian family that were shoving ppl ard to get close to the animals after the show; Dear was pushed by the Indian man, and I was 'molested' by the little Indian girl who was groping (though i guess its unintentional) on ppl to make her way to the front... in the end, we just walked away instead of posing for pics with the animals... BLEAH!

The tram was crowded, so we tried the Trail again; this time was better, cos there were other ppl walking ard with us; saw bearded pigs, tigers (beneath glass panels; boy, were they hard to spot!), deers, bears.... went to take the tram at a less crowded station, and saw much more; tapirs, hippos, elephants, giraffes.... the tram even took us to within 3 metres of the deer and tapirs! Whoa!

After 1 1/2 trips of the tram, we decided to head home; took us surprisingly 45 quick minutes to get back to Jurong East... even though the rain was quite heavy, we werent wet at all.... thanks Dear for spending this day with me!!! YEAH!! =)

Signing off.......... Will try to get around both the Zoo and the Safari the next time round.....
RC