Day 2: The Singapore Zoo!...Sienna

August 3

Today Gen and I woke up bright and early.  Gen had to pee at like 3am and in the process of getting out of bed she woke me up, then when I had to fall back asleep I couldn't I was just all fidgety.  At 6 in the morning we were both up, quite hungry, and totally unable to sleep.  So we decided to finish off the egg prata we had for supper (it's soso good) and I was talking about how I couldn't fall back asleep and Gen goes, "really! I couldn't sleep either I just kept moving around and felt so bad because I didn't want to wake you," which was ironic since I was worried that my restlessness was going to wake her up too. While we were eating her grandpa came to say good morning and was surprised on how early we were up.
At the apartment complex that we are staying there is a 25meter pool that opens at 7.  So since I really wanted to go swim we went down to the pool for an hour.  The water was really nice - not to hot not to cold - and it felt so good/weird to swim again.  One thing I noticed was swimming was much more tiring than it used to be.  After a 200 (which isn't even what a warm-up was when I did swim team) I was a little tired, this freaked me out but Gen reminded me how she can't swim at all and since I haven't swam in over 2.5 years that wasn't too bad.  Then I decided to swim fly to see how that was and it totally killed me.  I could only do a 50 and then was like out of breath when I used to be able to swim a 200, it's very sad.  I'm determined to swim every-morning though so by the end of the trip I should be in much better shape again.  It just feels so nice to be back in the water after such a long time.

When we headed back up the the house at 8 we showered and got ready for the day because we were heading to the Singapore Zoo.  I enjoy zoo's but since there really aren't any around where we live I believe the last time I visited a zoo was at the Fort Worth Zoo when we were in Texas - and I haven't been to Texas since like the 1st grade so its been quite a while.  Gen was really excited to visit the zoo (it's like her favorite thing to do here) and she and her grandfather were telling me how the animals weren't really caged to much but more in the open and around you.  When they said this I was thinking more like big cages and stuff but it was nothing like that.  The animals (other than like lions and cheetahs and things that could kill you) are all close by.  The orangutans (which I learned means like 'man of the forest' in Malay) and other primates are loose in the tress and swinging above your heads and there are birds and lizards wandering around and the other animals have some just wooden post fences to sorta keep them off of the walkways but they can still come out there and be in front of you.  The same sort of concept applies to the dangerous animals too only there are some observing rooms with glass since the open areas have a huge trench the separates you from the animal.  The zoo itself if absolutely breathtaking too.  It's like walking through a rain-forest and just being in the animals natural habitats because everything there is natural and green, I can't really describe its just so amazing and totally unlike any other zoo I've been to.

My Kaya Toast Breakfast

Anyways, we got to the zoo at 10:30am and bought a zoo pass that gives one entry to the three different zoo's in Singapore (the Singapore Zoo, Nighttime Safari, and the Bird Park) then, since we were hungry again, we went to eat breakfast at one of the little food places at the zoo.  We had the kaya toast meal (2 eggs that are sorta poached, coffee, and toast with butter and kaya spread) and it was so good.  The eggs were sorta odd because they are like more liquidy I guess and more like a poached egg so the texture was slimier than what I'm used to (it was still good though, especially if you dipped the toast) the toast was amazing and the spread had such a good unique flavor and the coffee was good and I don't even usually like coffee.  The coffee here has a sweeter taste to it though and Gen even said since they could tell we were from America she thinks they made it more bitter for us since that's how Americans normally drink it.  It was such a great meal though and I will definatly be wanting to have it again sometime!

The zoo has a lot to do rather than just look at animals.  There are shows, elephant rides, and times when you can go feed certain animals so Gen and I did quite a few of those things.  The first show we saw was the elephant show - it was amazing.  Gen actually like made herself sick she was so excited sine elephants are her favorite animal.  There were four trainers and their elephants as well as the main speaker for the show.  They showed how the elephants have amazing balance and strength and talked about how they command the elephants by talking and certain motions they use.  The elephants are able to walk across and turn on pretty narrow tree trunks (which is surprising considering their large size) and can easily grab and move or kick heavy wooden trees and such.  They also showed elephants taking and putting on their riders hats and demonstrated how the riders get on and off easily.  The tricks and things that the elephants did for the show (and it was at least a 45min show) were so cool.  It's amazing the types of things that they are able to teach the elephants and how the elephants can remember and act according to what has been planned.  At the end of the show you can also feed the elephants for S$5, so Gen and I each bought a basket of food and got to go out and feed the elephants.  There were small bananas, an apple, and carrots in the basket and the elephant would use its trunk to grab the food from your hand and put it in its mouth.
The next show we saw was one on the rain-forest.  It was a cute show but of the three shows we saw it was probably my least favorite.  Pretty much it started out with a man who was saying he's going to find the rain-forest, cut it down, build a mall, and become rich and then the main speaker and other rain-forest 'natives' came out and showed some animals that can be found there.  We saw spider monkeys, pythons, orangutans and a few other animals and that was about it.
The last show we saw was the Splash show one.  It was just two seals in it - an older seal and a little 7month year old seal that's been training.  They could do ton's of tricks.  The young seal could swim by jumping out of the water and the older one could do that as well as flips.  They also will splash on command and can catch frisbees and balance balls and do handstands (or I guess for them it would be fin stands) and can swim and jump to hit a target and such.  The cutest thing that they did (in my opinion) was ask for applause.  After they were finished with a trick they would go back to their stand on the stage and clap their front flippers at the audience and it was just so adorable.  The seal show was super cute and I really enjoyed it.

We also got to ride an elephant.  It coast S$8 per person and you were put in a basket on the elephants back with a few other people and you went around for a little ride.  Elephants are super wide and when they walk the motion sorta like wobbles you back and forth, but not in a bad way, its actually sorta relaxing.  Being on the elephant you are pretty high up but since they are Asian and not African elephants they aren't the largest elephants that you can find.  I was really excited to ride the elephant because even before we left for Singapore I had been asking Gen if there was anywhere that we could ride an elephant, it's just something random I've always wanted to do I guess.
The last little event thing that we did was feed the kangaroos.  It cost S$5 for one group to feed them so Gen and I went together.  You just sit on a rock and hold the bowl of food and they all crowd around you an you can pet them.  They are sososo soft!  For some reason I thought that they would be coarse but their fur is so nice and fluffy and soft.  Gen and I took turns holding the bowl and at one point when I was feeding there there were three crowded around but one kangaroo decided that he wanted more so he like grabbed the bowl with his little paw and pulled it towards him, it was the cutest thing and just made me laugh.

When we weren't doing the shows and stuff we were just wandering around the zoo looking at animals.  They have these bus thingies that you can pay to take a tour around the zoo on that drive everywhere and they are like the dang kids train at the mall and will just drive and not honk or avoid you.  I legit almost got hit by one. We also had some issues finding the flamingos.  Somehow we totally missed them so after we had seen the rest of the zoo we tried to find them.  At first we ended up going in a circle then we finally took the right turns and got to them and they were in a place right between the white tiger and gibbon - and we had seen both of those animals.  We had absolutely no idea how we completely passed the flamingo exhibit when we were in that exact area but all that mattered was we eventually found it.  Walking around the zoo looking for them was not bad though.  Since the zoo is so beautiful I could just walk around it forever and since they do have animals that are more free you can constantly be looking for birds or lizards or monkeys somewhere around you.
When the zoo was beginning to close we went to the gift shop for some souvenirs - I got a Singapore zoo mug with an elephant and then Gen got a mug and theses adorable best friend animal stuffed animals for us.  We then went to the little photo place they have sine photographers are all over taking your pictures and we got to look at all of ours and we picked the ones we liked best and got some printed and they were nice enough to make us a disk with all of the pictures free of charge.  Oh ya, we also had a little snack of curry puffs and fish balls before one of the shows, they were yummy. :)

Fish Soup and a Barley Drink

Popiah

When the zoo closed at 6 (we had spent the entire day there) Gen's grandpa came to get us and since we were all hungry he drove us to this food court where we ate supper.  It's sorta weird in a way ordering food and Gen actually did it for me because I can't really understand what some of the people say and since they also aren't used to white people eating at those places I guess I'm the minority but I don't mind because my amazing friend is good at helping me find yummy food.  I had this seafood soup thing that was spicy and had fish balls and some minced pork and noodles and stuff, a cold barley drink (which was actually sorta sweet but not too sweet, it was good), and a different type of popiah.  Once again all the food was amazing!  I can already tell that when the trip is over I'm really going to miss this type of food, its all so tasty and way cheaper than food in the US and you also can see them make it right when you order which is neat.  I also had to eat with a fork and spoon again and did much better this time, so I am improving which is good. :)  Gen's grandpa also seems very happy that I am willing to try anything (I guess he was worried that the friend Gen brought would be very picky) so we already made some plans for what other meals we are going to try in the future!
It was an awesome second day and tomorrow Gen and I are going out to street markets, which I am excited for.  It's time to sleep now though cause I am pretty tired XD