Saturday in Singapore

Our late night had us all exhausted. Yesterday, we made it to the breakfast buffet with 15 minutes to spare. Today, we only beat that by another 15 minutes.

After breakfast, we went to the Singapore Zoo. I'm glad we did. For me, and I think for many, the quality of a zoo is based on the uniqueness of the animals, the human-animal experience, the knowledge transferred, and the enjoyment of the children. While Singapore's zoo did not have any animals I hadn't seen in other zoos, it excelled in the other areas. For animal encounters, I maintain that Taman Safari in Puncak, Indonesia is second to none. For a zoo experience that makes you feel like you are viewing animals in their natural habitat, the Singapore Zoo is at the top of my list. In addition to the close proximity the displays allow you with lions, polar bears, white tigers, penguins, elephants and orangutan, my daughter had a tremendous time playing in the water park and taking her obligatory pony ride. We spent a good part of our day there and returned exhausted.

When we returned from the zoo, we all passed out for a nap. I slept about 20 minutes, my wife and daughter slept well over two hours. When we were all awake, we decided to go to the Night Festival. We were lucky enough to be here for the two-day event. Singapore's three major museums - National Museum, Art Museum and Peranakan Museum - were all free during the event. The museums abut the Singapore Management University and they were staging several cultural shows on the grassy areas around the university.

We arrived at the National Museum shortly before 8 PM and took a quick tour before making our way over to the SMU Campus Green on the opposite side of Samford Road. We found a nice spot on the grass close to the stage shortly before the red ribbon dance began. The hostess described it best by saying it was like watching Chinese calligraphy being drawn with red ribbons. Just as the next act took the stage, it started to rain. Within seconds, the skies opened up and it began to pour. The performers were already leaving the stage and the organizers were advising everyone to take cover. Lightening lit up the sky as the masses huddled under the overhangs of the campus buildings.

Fifteen minutes later and the rain was coming harder, so we decided to leave. We waited for thirty minutes at a taxi stand before the rain finally let up enough for us to walk to a hotel where we hoped we'd have better luck. We snagged a cab before reaching a hotel and had it take us to dinner at Black Angus.

My thoughts for today:

1) A few years ago I determined the average walking speed of a human is about 3 mph. I am assuming my daughter reduces that average speed by about 1 mph. We also spend a good portion of our days sitting in cabs, trams, and benches. Taking all that into consideration, I figure we are walking about 12 miles a day while we are here. I'm not surprised our feet hurt, our backs hurt, and we wake up not wanting to move. The $18 massage back at our compound in Jakarta is something we are definitely looking forward to.

2) As advanced as Singapore is, apparently they have not mastered the art of cartography. The map of tonight's festivities was grossly in error. The street map available at the hotel shows streets continuing through dead ends. The subway map seems to be the only thing that was accurate. While waiting for a cab, someone asked me if I knew where she could find the nearest subway station. I said I didn't know and pointed to a map behind us. Her response: "I've given up trying to figure out how the maps here work". Which leads me to my third thought.

3) Singapore is NOT tourist-friendly. The maps are misleading. The instructions on how to buy a subway ticket are either inaccurate or the machine was not functioning. They kept telling me to point to a point on the "interactive map". The only map on display was not interactive. Finally, the taxi stand at SMU never had a cab arrive that someone hadn't called for. Not exactly great for tourists unfamiliar with the local customs for obtaining a taxi.

Maybe I am being unfair to Singapore. There is the distinct possibility that my expectations were
too high because of everyone in Jakarta talking so highly about it. Or, it could be that people who live in Jakarta have low expectations.