The month of May is ending! I'm slowly getting through my To-do list, so I'm pretty happy. I'm procrastinating on something, but Huda made me promise (kind of) that I'll do it before I meet her, so I'm determined to finish that. Before I digress any further, yes, the month of May is ending! I turned 23 during this month, and I opened my laptop to see this.
Heheheheheh thanks kor! :p Also, I didn't get drunk man I was just sleepy that night.
'twas a rainy morning, I remember, and I just very leisurely enjoyed the episode of Game of Thrones first before this person showed up at my doorstep!
Was
hurried all throughout doing my makeup and choosing an outfit, so it's all his fault if my blending's
shite. Heh
In zee cab to.......
Got forced to go to the River Safari!!!
I use the word
forced because I honestly don't like birthdays as I've repeated numerous times on this blog. But I use it IN JEST, because though I was in a sulky mood throughout the entire day, I'm very glad that this mister insisted on bringing me out of the house, else I'd been just grumpy at home. I spoilt my own surprise though, I guessed correctly where we were going to hahahahaha. I love surprises but I'm way too intuitive and smart for my own good :x
Backed out of the trail after the above photo because I realised I was hungry, so we headed to the River Safari Tea House!
We had guo tie (fried wantons) and kong ba bao (pork belly bun). Was pretty good!
Went back to the exhibitions and we devised a trail to follow.
Firstly we saw this ENORMOUS MANATEE
O_O
I was genuinely intrigued by this creature! She (you'll see below why I use the female pronoun) was just gliding along like a submarine ahahahaha. She's really huge, probably longer than three times of my height!
Meet the manatees, sea cows and dugongs. I honestly can't tell the differences besides the colours hahah
There you go, the biggest is a female (hence the female pronoun as used above).
We then saw the playful sea otters!
These were the Giant River Otters, much bigger in size than usual otters
And this is a funny looking striped catfish.
I prefer reading the information about the animals than taking photos (most photos were snapped using Thom by Bryan! I basically trudged around reading all these snippets of information). It's interesting that they have such modifications on their bodies (spines) to prevent being eaten! Makes you wonder if the human skin should be modified to protect us more or not, like genetic modification, or something. Maybe I've watched too much Fringe episodes
These piranhas do not look menacing at all. I was confused. They're supposedly red bellied piranhas too, but their bellies are obviously yellow. As I said, I was confused.
HERE'S THE GREEN ANACONDA! Every time I see this word I am reminded of the film and the man getting swallowed. And J Lo.
The original sausage party!
It was time for our Amazonian Boat Ride! These tickets were purchased separately. The entrance tickets only get you to 85% of the River Safari exhibitions, the remainder can only be seen through the boat ride journey. Doesn't cost much though, $6 a person I think!
Excited boy is excited. Srsrly he was basically like this for the entire trip, it was difficult to maintain my sulky mood because of his infectious happiness. He ran around snapping photos with Thom. When he was younger he'd wanted to own an aquarium.
Zee queue
(:
Hehehehehe front row seats for us! B was scolded by one of the personnel for not hopping in immediately. Before we got the front row seats they asked "Do you mind getting wet?" Consider yourselves warned!
Off we go!
We were splashed with quite a bit of water - my flats were entirely drenched and so were my legs.
Hiya jaguar! I'd always thought jaguars were black, but really, I've forgotten all my primary school science knowledge. Cheetahs have spots, tigers have stripes, leopards... run the fastest?? HAAHAHA
Okay I went to check: jaguars have spots; black jaguars are panthers and they are melanistic jaguars (having some skin condition). I still can't differentiate the leopards from the jaguars! Is it the spots? Cheetahs seem to have entire spots but jaguars have sort of ringlets surrounding the spots. Gahhh #epicfail
We saw flamingos as well!
Okay can.
I've always liked going to the zoo because I like finding out more information about such animals; it's like watching Discover Channel but up close. However, recently, one friend of mine remarked that she was against such places which shut animals up in enclosures and that led me to re-consider my take on the issue. While one can't deny the negative effects of such wild animals being locked up and tamed, one cannot deny that people who go to such places might be more better informed than those who don't. Who knows what some people will do with knowledge? They might do good, such as rejecting consumption of endangered animals, and educate others as well. I'm kind of on the fence here. What do you think?
End of the boat ride! Look at the awkward expression on the aunty's face behind us.
These are the jaguarundi! They were lazing in the sun. They're so cuuuuuuuute
Here're the squirrel monkeys, they had just gotten fed when we headed in. Such comical faces they have!
SNORT. SO MANY SYMBOLIC MEANINGS TO BEING "FAT" OR "SKINNY"; human beings are just like monkeys
The serene Mandai reservoir, which I pass every time I cab to school hahahahha
Whenever I told anyone I had been to the River Safari, the first thing they asked was "Did you see the pandas?"
So here you go, this is Kai Kai!
He's the male, and he is very lazy. Wouldn't budge at all
Hehehehe I was only interested in such silly photos
More trivia!
I never knew there were so many different kinds of bamboo! I think I'm most familiar with the Buddha's belly one.
We didn't get to see Jia Jia (the female) because she wasn't in her enclosure.
Here's the Red Panda!
They were all housed in an air conditioned enclosure. I was very happy to be inside as it was getting quite warm hahahahahaha.
Here's the Sturgeon, which you get your caviar from.
THEY ARE AS OLD AS DINOSAURS. Don't you feel that creatures which have to live on land are more susceptible to death and destruction than creatures that live all the way deep down in the sea??
Stop eating caviar, friends.
We had now reached the Yangtze River area! The attraction is divided into different areas, such as the Yangtze River, Amazon Flooded Forest, Giant Panda Forest, Mekong River, River Nile, Congo River, and Mississippi (damn I misspelt that) River. You can most probably guess which we had already passed, so the following photos are of those areas that we hadn't covered.
This is the Yangtze Alligator. It was small
Here is a stingray, which Bryan thought was huge but having seen much larger ones at Sentosa's SEA Aquarium with my mom and granny, I couldn't agree
Bryan really loves water tanks!
I was more interested in reading stuff like this:
Never knew the use of rice was vast! Can't remember why this appeared here though, doesn't it seem random to you?
I was also very tickled by this information:
KUA SI MI KUA
Sorry, forgive me, I just had to do it
To differentiate a 'gator from a croc, check its snout out! And teeth.
I was pretty creeped out by the Indian Gharial:
IT WAS HUGEEEEEEEEE
And its beady eyes look so sinister ):
I really liked the Tiger (goliath) fish!
Thought its teeth made it look quite badass
Here's the Alligator Snapping Turtle
And we were done for the day! Took a breather at KFC, and got a drink before we headed out again.
If you want to visit, please visit the
River Safari website for more information! I had a pretty nice day out, but I think the River Safari itself is rather small and so may be paired nicely with an outing to the Night Safari right after. I haven't been to the Zoo in a really long time, but I recall it being wayyyyy bigger and more enjoyable.
(:
Was queuing for the public bus when we realised we could pay $6 for an express bus that had stops along Orchard Road and Dhoby Ghaut, so we decided to take that! There was a bit of traffic but we managed to reach Dhoby Ghaut in about 35 minutes or so.
Bryan and I traipsed to Clarke Quay on foot! It was actually quite an enjoyable stroll, because the route from Dhoby Ghaut to Clarke Quay is quite quiet.
Met my parents for dinner at Santouka Ramen!
Hi Papa :D
Hi Mama! :D
Since it was my birthday, I decided to go the whole luxurious way and got myself the pork cheek set! The meat was gloriously tender, as always, but this time it was HORRIBLY SALTY. I was not pleased, to say the least.
Bryan with his Shio ramen :D
Bryan's gift to me!
(: (: (:
Won't say what the gifts were; one was quite the shock, while the other really made me smile because I wouldn't have thought the mister would have such patience! (': Really very touched.
Love you Bryan Tong, thank you for treating me so preciously this day. I know I wasn't the best company wahhahaahaha
Genuinely, turning 23 doesn't feel like much - I don't feel like much has changed. But people around me have told me that they feel that I've grown up quite a litte, so perhaps I have. Sung a little homage to Blink 182 (can you guess which song?) on my Instagram, so if you want to check that out, click
here! I also wrote a post on the actual day itself, so no more sappy stuff here. Here's to more bearable birthdays ahead!
Love,
PamelaLabels: animals, b, birthdays, Blink 182, little kid, outings, River Safari Singapore
