Singapore Day 3 - 26/12/2014 [River Safari]

On Day 3, it was a hasty decision of us to visit River Safari.

We took MRT to arrive at Ang Mo Kio, a very quiet and peaceful neighborhood where my brother once stayed when he still studied in Ngee Ann Polytechnic. What a feeling to be back to this place after around 3 years.

I love Ang Mo Kio of the peaceful ambiance, food, people and transport.

How people parked their bicycle in Ang Mo Kio MRT Station

Going to bus interchange station

We boarded bus 138 to our destination.

Christmas decorations still captivating outside of AMK Hub

Road signboards

Ang Mo Kio street view

It was a rainy, cold and blustery morning.

The journey took us around an hour. While the bus was swinging, we overcame our standing inertia to capture the rainy views along the journey.

It was about 10.30 am when we finally arrived.

Parkhopper

Young unknown poser

Cute baby

My exciting face

Gf

Another happy faces before buying ticket

Zoo fares

At first, we thought we just wanted to visit River Safari. The ticket fare for River Safari only was $25. However, after discussion that the package of River Safari + Singapore Zoo was just $50 compared to $53 if we bought both separately, so we bought the package!

Plus, if we bought online instead of buying at the counter, we got 5% off the total fare!

So we found one corner to sit down and bought the ticket using CIMB Clicks and the free WIFI at zoo. One thing I was surprised was the incredibly fast internet speed. It was faster than my house's. It was just that my house has around 7 users connected to the WIFI at once and here at the zoo, it had more than 100 people connected to it at once, still able to load every internet page in seconds.

And here we went to explore this Asia's First and Only River-Themed Wildlife Park!

At the entrance, we saw a very huge crocodile model. Fake but we thought was real at first sight.
 

Rivers of the World

First we arrived at Mississippi River!

If I recalled correctly, Mississippi River was in North America and the native Americans have long lived along it. It ranks as the fourth longest and tenth largest river in the world.

"The crookedest river in the world" borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana

The first thing this river introduced to us was BEAVER!

Data of beaver

The skull specimen of a beaver

By then we were searching everywhere for beavers but unable to locate them. Instead we found the below right beside the home for beaver.

Ducks!

Here the beaver was having some good times at home

How beavers build its home

World's Largest Beaver Dam in Canada

Beavers were once slaughtered for the fur to make hats. They are also the national symbol of Canada

Mississippi River, an important migratory flyway

Beavers contributed to the mother nature

Swollen Rivers

Formation of Dead Zone in Mississippi River

Deadly nutritious - Gulf of Mexico

Still, Gulf of Mexico is more known to me for the BP oil spill incident.

After beaver and ducks, Mississippi River offered us Alligator Snapping Turtle. Huge but movements were awkward under the water.

Okay, this was just ordinary turtle

More to explore as we saw Alligator Gar. Odd creature.

The last thing Mississippi River had offered to us in River Safari was Mississippi Paddlefish.

Looked like shark to me but much smaller.

Mississippi Paddlefish

Some nemo-liked fishes

Me, Paddlefishes and the cute small fishes

Another shot

Next, we arrived at the world's deepest river with measured depths in excess of 220 m (720 ft) - Congo River in Africa!

According to the road map, we were supposed to see African Dwarf Crocodile, but we saw some unknown fish species.

Looked more like a 白须公 to me

And then there was Tigerfish. Look at the tooth.

Scary, fierce enough to scare the predators

Looked just ordinary without the tooth

I wondered how the other fishes survived with Tigerfishes in the same aquarium? Maybe the latter have false look only, in fact they are vegetarian.

Finishing the Congo River, we were still unable to see the African Dwarf Crocodile and next was Ganges River!

River of Faith

Nevermind the African Dwarf Crocodile, because we got to see Indian Gharial in Ganges River.

Floating Indian Gharial

Very unique nose

Huge, really huge.

Goonch Catfish and Australian Lungfish are also found in the real Ganges River, we got to see them in River Safari Singapore. Worthy of the ticket.

Catfish

I had no idea how this thing was related to cat.

Australian Lungfish

How Ganges River is called River of Faith then

Okay, Mekong River, a river known to me because it flows through those countries familiar to me especially the ASEAN countries like Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. To be exact it starts from Tibetan Plateau through China's Yunnan, then Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Read more about Mekong River here. It is being called Mother of All Rivers.

There is this monkey species called Crab-eating Macaque which can swim in water living along Mekong River.

Beware: Staring is Unfriendly

The Crab-eating Macaque

Nothing

And then, we saw a big fish sign below and found ..

A really big river aquarium!

Impressive! I suddenly felt I was inside Aquaria KLCC, watching all these fishes that never before seen by me. Here it had Giant Freshwater Stingray and Mekong Giant Catfish for us, catfish again.

If you have ever played a game called Hungry Shark then you will understand my feeling wanting to be the shark and eat all these fishes in no mercy.

Walking out from the aquarium, we saw birds that I thought was crane, 仙鹤. It is being called Lesser Adjutant Stork.

Next was Elephant Trunk Snake which live in cold water. How I knew was cold water? Because of the colorless water vapor outside of the aquarium glass that I needed to wipe away in order to see the snake.

The most exciting river was the last river we arrived at - Yangtze River! Yangtze River in China is known as Chang Jiang. It is the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world where it flows for 6,300 kilometers (3,915 mi) from the glaciers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai!

The Yangtze River flows through a wide array of ecosystems and is itself habitat to several endemic and endangered species including the Yangtze Alligator, Chinese Giant Salamander, Sturgeon, Finless Porpoise, Yangtze River Dolphin or baiji and many more. However, we only got to see the Giant Salamander.

The Giant Salamander also lived in cold water like the Elephant Trunk Snake

The true colors of the Salamander

It was almost afternoon when we decided to find some food before continuing the visit. While looking for restaurants, on the far side we saw a viewing deck that connected to the other side of Wild Amazonia - Amazon River Quest and Amazon Flooded Forest.

It started raining and we decided to stop by Mama Panda Kitchen! Fully packed but we were attracted by the menu. We did not really want to have lunch at the time, just wanting some snacks.

The entrance

Panda statue

It looked like the Singaporeans are happy and amazed for the arrival of pandas, Kai Kai and Jia Jia to the River Safari, even this one of the very few restaurants in the River Safari compound used Panda as the restaurant theme.

It is a cross between a Chinese restaurant and fast food outlet. The Chinese-inspired decorations here with lanterns and bamboo dividers are something you might expect in dimsum restaurants. But the environment here is more casual and instead of giving your orders to waiters who will bring the food to your table, you have to join a snaking queue to order and collect your food at the service counters, much like a fast food outlet. 

It was hard to find seats that was why we split jobs - the gf will do the queuing and buying and I looked for seats. Not long for me to find one, but the queue was really too long so I sat and took photos around while waiting.

The famous dishes of this restaurant were plenty, ranging from dimsum such as spring roll, dumpling,  shrimp balls to noodles like ramen and the famous panda bao.

Here was how it looked like. 2 flavors were available, chocolate custard and red bean, both selling at $2.90 each. Gf bought a chocolate custard and a red bean so we got to taste both.

To be honest, the taste was just okay. But we set up mind not to expect much, just that converting $2,90 to Malaysian Ringgit for a bao, my heart vexed me a bit during the toilet break.

When the stomachs were satisfied, we continued our journey to visit.

This photo booth looked so real and good

Even better when we were on it

There was this viewing window where we thought we might catch a glimpse of Inuka, the polar bear. We saw nothing, and because the information board said we could still see him from Frozen Tundra at Singapore Zoo which we were heading next, so we thought we catch him later.

Was this the Yangtze Sturgeon that we missed?

Or this? No idea

Walking into the Giant Panda Forest, the thing we saw was Red Panda walking and climbing freely on trees!

Looked like cat or fox, no?

The red fur was really attention-getting

Hey buddy, over here

Oh, look at my stomach! I am flattened and slim

The Safari put air-conditioners in there to make the weather cold and breezy, emulating the original environment in China so these pandas can live. The tourists were like us, taking out all photo-capturing equipments possible to capture the red buddies.

Settling with red ones, I realized there were some chicken-like creatures in the entrance. It is called Golden Pheasant but no photos of them because I felt they looked just like ordinary cock.

And then we were overwhelmed with excitement and enthusiasm seeing panda for the 1st time in our lives thus far! Excitement beyond words can describe.

Here are the series of photos showing Jia Jia (嘉嘉), the female panda sleeping soundly. 

Us and Jia Jia in the background

The Safari officer told us that the other male panda, Kai Kai (凯凯) was shy, introvert and often hide inside his cage, tourists were only able to watch him through the outside CCTV.

Tale about Panda

Pandas and bears have different paws

When we came out from the panda forest, people were lively in front of the polar bear viewing window. The polar bear, Inuka was showing himself!

Having said that we have just seen pandas for the 1st time, we have also seen polar bear for the 1st time now as well.

Observed the big white polar bear on the top right side. It seemed like Inuka was really having some good times despite the rain. We were really lucky today, thank you Inuka!

Next destination - Amazon Flooded Forest!

Finally walking on the viewing deck. The rain began to fall even more heavier.

Upon reaching, welcomed by a big green anaconda.

Anaconda or Python?

The real journey began! Lets explore South America Amazon Forest

1st stop - Electric Eel

Downright homely but never underestimate it

Introduction of an electric eel

How many times a horse is bigger than a human?

Powerful eel

Japanese are always creative!

2nd stop - Red-bellied Piranha. Its ugly name spread far and wide. Again, downright homely but never estimate it. It may look small but if it aims on your ass, well you want to be very far away from water!

More unknown water creatures found along the way!

Looked like promfret to me

Alien fish

Forever alone

3rd stop - Manatee, Pacu and Arapaima.

Tadaa..!

Big chubby cute Manatee

Pacu, Omnivorous South America Freshwater Fish related to Piranha

Me and a bunch of glutton manatee

The manatee gathered for their lovely lunch

One of the manatee was doing water melody

Crowd stunned watching the manatee

Look at the size

Somehow they were cute in terms of size

Manatee in close distance

Arapaima

Last but not least, showing you the video of the manatee aquarium. What a brave human feeder/ diver down there.

It was really an entertaining visit to River Safari, opening our eyes to all these river creatures and animals living in other parts of the world.

After the River Safari, we had our nasi lemak lunch at the Zoo Cafe costing us $9.80.

It was already 2.20 pm and we started 2nd part of the visit to Singapore Zoo.

Stay Tuned for more!