6th Birthday Celebration: Around Singapore Day 3, Singapore Zoo

A few months after our 2006 wedding, the husband and I visited Singapore and had the greatest time. My favorite was our day at the Zoo.

Because he loved Manila Zoo so much, I just know the zoo trip is an absolute must.

We scheduled this visit on a weekday. After an MRT and a convenient bus ride after, we arrived to our destination on a semi-cloudy morning. 

Dressed in long pants because I was afraid of mosquito bites. Every inch of our exposed skin was doused with insect repellant because you can never be too sure.

After the requisite picture by the entrance above,  we started our day of exploration and wonderful discoveries.

Get a map. The place is huge and you need to strategize. Be at the right place at the right time.

Check the show and animal feeding schedules.

At one of the shows in Waterworld

With grandma while waiting for the Polar Bear feeding

If you don't have an unlimited tram pass, this can save you maybe kilometers of aimlessly walking. And please wear comfortable shoes, apply sunscreen and this is what I forgot, bring hats!

Our ticket only included one free tram ride

Unless of course you are a happy bouncing rabbit like this one

 
I love my Canon G15! Look at these photos. I'm getting the hang of taking better pictures. 

 Almost giving up with the heat, I almost asked, no wait, begged the boys to  go home. Good thing, we passed by a group of tourists and curiously looked at what the commotion was.

This is an experience that's hard to beat. We fed a herd (is that the proper term?)of rhinos! A basket of fruits is $10 but look at that sheepish smile on his face. He does that when he's extremely pleased with himself.

Still feeling a bit scared here. I mean, even I was afraid. These are really big animals.

 

Daddy giving a little push

How many times in your life can you feed a rhino? They look fierce but all gums and no teeth.  This must be one of the highlights of our trip.

We love Singapore Zoo!

6th Birthday Celebration: Around Singapore Day 1

Checking in at Hotel V Lavander was a breeze (and if I may add, checking out took less than one minute!!!) and after surveying the room (it was small, around 16 sq. meters but very clean and gave us a nice view all the way to the Singapore flyer), we were off to our first adventure.


Ahhh, his dream is for our room to look like a hotel room: all white sheets. We were billeted at the top most floor of the hotel which is right on top of the Lavander MRT station--how's that for convenience?




Our days are carefully planned. Since we have a senior citizen and a little boy with us, the plan was to stick to one main attraction a day. But man, it is still very tiring. The heat had a lot to do with it so I am thankful for Singapore's airconditioned walkways which made this midday trek more bearable.

The selfie pod came in handy

On our first day, we explored the Gardens by the Bay.




But the thought of another long walk, this time with no shade from the underground walkway to the main garden attraction is so far we decided to ride the tram instead.  Here is the boy looking every inch the tourist while waiting for our ride.




This was our ride to the cooled domes.

Going to the garden area, we passed by this impressive floating baby.

You can actually see the super trees from the outside but because of the heat, we paid SGD99.00 for the four of us so we can visit the two cooled domes, the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest as well. The cooled dome never sounded so terribly appealing to me as it did that day.



The Flower Dome

This was just okey for me-- if I can skip it I will but for tourists, you can't buy ticket to just one attraction.

 

The Cloud Forest

Now this I like! It has trails, a gigantic waterfall, lush plants and mist. It looked like a scene straight out of Avatar. Alas, we missed having a picture taken by the giant waterfalls =(

 


If you just choose to stay outside, there are lots of photogenic spots where you can rest and pose.

Okay, I have to mention the heat again. I could have walked some more but somehow our energies seem zapped by 4 pm so off we walked again to Marina Bay Sands.

 

Our first day was full and I'm glad we booked an early flight out of Manila. Our 6 year old was so game in walking, too! No more "carry me mom/dad" unlike our travel to Hong Kong two years ago.

It really also helped that our hotel's located right on top of an MRT station. Going in and out  of our hotel was a breeze! There is also a Fair Price supermarket nearby (the 2L water here was $.75 compared to $2 at the convenience store), a Kopitiam at the ground floor and a Wendy's branch for quick meals.

Day 2 coming up!

6th Birthday at Singapore and Malaysia

I love that our birthdays are only a week apart! I don't really need to plan anything on my day because we celebrate together-- less leaves filed at  the office and joint celebrations are more pocket friendly.

The one year between him being 5 and 6 really brought a lot of changes and in a lot of ways, he really is a big boy now: independent, can speak his mind, has developed his interests (in science, particularly about the universe, dinosaurs, legos) and those we seriously took into consideration when we began planning this birthday trip.

It should be noted it was also a year of setting aside extra funds for this trip so we can enjoy what we felt will be a treat for our boy--Singapore and Malaysia.

Airfare
My simple pleasure in life is to do mock bookings on Cebu Pacific's website. Yes, I almost always book every time I see a promo with no intention of ever going on a trip but the 75% off tickets to Singapore were too hard to resist. At P6,000 per RT ticket, this sealed the weighing in I had been doing for several weeks prior.

My real target though was the Singapore Airlines promo for just $210nett but never reached them by phone or email.

Here are some photos as we boarded the (very early) morning flight to Singapore.

Intently studying the inflight safety instructions. Good boy!

With grandma as seatmate

The a little more than 3 hour flight went by in a breeze. Kept the boy entertained with snacks and movies on the Ipad.

And before we could get bored, we have arrived in Singapore!

Everything at the Changi (which he early on pronounced as Tiangge) Airport fascinated him. The vastness of the space, the walkalators, even the drinking fountains!

Raring to start going around the city, we bought our EZLink cards at this stall.

His first ever MRT ride in SG. Of course, mom has to capture it on cam.

We went around the city by MRT and Jared so loved the efficiency of it all. Fascinated with all the stop,s platform changes and various exits, he really got to know this system and by our last day knew our surrounding stations better than me!

Stand by for Part II!