Wednesday, 10th September SINGAPORE

Robyn writes: Well, our worst fears came true with regards jet lag last night - and this morning. We were both wide awake for hours and hours (curse that 13 hours of sleep...) and as a consequence, have felt fairly drained all day! However, we've made sure to go out and keep as busy as possible, so fingers crossed for a decent sleep tonight.

We were both fully awake by half past seven, so dragged ourselves out to get dressed and make it down to breakfast (included in our hotel deal). This was at an outdoor restaurant on the fourth floor and in the shade it was quite pleasant. They had most of the usual breakfast dishes with an interesting Asian twist or two - Lex had noodles (okay) and a bean dish (not so good) amongst other things. At least they had fresh fruit even though there was no yoghurt. We were able to have a good feed before setting out for the day.

Our aim for the day was to do the Rivers of the World at the Singapore Zoo. This involves a fair bit of travel - two trains on the MRT and then a bus to the zoo itself. We managed this very well - much better than when we went in 2007 as there is now a big, well-signposted bus interchanged at Ang Mo Keoh, our MRT station we got off at. The bus trip took nearly half an hour, so it was about eleven o'clock by the time we got there. We lined up to get our tickets, and were horrified to find that to do the rivers, we had to pay the zoo entry as well - $50 each plus $5 to do a boat cruise. Their prices are not well explained on their boards - it looked like we could just do the rivers (and as they are quite separate, there's no earthly reason we couldn't have.) Well. we'd come all that way, so we gritted our teeth, handed over the money and booked a boat cruise for 12.30. We went off into the zoo to have a quick look at some animals and find a cuppa. I was also rather upset to discover that I'd left my camera behind at the hotel - first time on the whole trip I'd done such a stupid thing! Lex very kindly let me use his, and we crossed our fingers that his battery would hold out.

Orangutan

Baby orangutans on the platform behind me

Zebras

I loved the giant otter

They had brilliant display tanks so you could see everything

Next shock was the price of drinks - $5 for a cup of tea or coffee! Lex declined to have anything and I forked over almost that much for a large iced Milo (Milo is big in Singapore, thank goodness.) Much more filling and refreshing than the tiny cups of tea or coffee I saw being served. It was nearly 12.15, so we headed back to the main area where we thought the river cruise went from, at the start of the river section. Wrong again! It was right down at the very end of the rather long pier, so we had to race to get there - to discover that it was actually rather like a theme park ride, not the proper boat ride we thought we'd asked for! We went on it anyway, and seriously, if you're at Singapore Zoo, I wouldn't bother. More than half of the animals we supposedly went past weren't in evidence at all and our boatload was getting quite amused at the number of no-shows! In eight minutes it was all over, and we could go off to look at the river exhibits we'd raced past properly. They had fish and animals from eight of the great rivers of the world including the Murray, Meikong, Nile, Congo, Yangstze, Mississippi etc. Many fish and animals there I'd never even heard of, so it was very interesting. They included the pandas, but only one of them was out - the others were all feeling a bit shy apparently! My favourites were the giant river otter and the manatee.

By the time we'd finished looking through all of these displays it was after two, so we went into the food area for some lunch. Fortunately the food prices weren't so bad, it was just the drinks they really slugged you on. I had a curry chicken set (cold, unfortunately) and Lex had a Laksa, which he really enjoyed.

Rather cute Asian crocodile - very small

The Asian otters were having a lovely play!

The lemurs were my favourite

They were quite tame

Don't know what he is, but he's gorgeous!

The male lion was being very vocal

Then we set off to go through the zoo again. Our tickets included rides on the 'train' which goes around, so we used this a bit to cut down on walking. Singapore must be one of, if not the best zoo in the world, and they have some wonderful exhibits in great natural surroundings including orangutans, a polar bear, adorable meerkats, Asian otters and ring-tailed lemurs, lions, tigers, rhinos, giraffes, zebras, a huge range of monkeys, reptiles...the list goes on. A lot of them you can walk among, and there are frequently monkeys swinging overhead. I loved the otters, meerkats and the lemurs - they all have so much personality.

The famous Raffles - with lots of very expensive cars outside. That's a Lamborghini!

Singapore Sling and beer to celebrate (?) our last night overseas on this holiday

By five o'clock we were fairly had it, so headed out to the buses again. A 138 came along right away and once more we were lucky enough to get a seat for the long trip back to the MRT, then two very crowded train trips home (it WAS rush hour by then!) When we got back, we showered and changed, and chatted to Cait who called on Skype, before heading out to Raffles for a Singapore Sling (my favourite) for me and an Erdinger Wheat beer for Lex. Glorious! (It would want to be - $56 SD for both drinks. We only had one each.) We came back to Lavender to look for a restaurant for tea but this proved difficult, as it isn't really a restaurant precinct, we discovered, and the bistro we ate at yesterday had just closed. So in the end, Lex went to the big Asian food court under the hotel and got a chicken curry, and I wasn't brave enough to take on anything from there, so I came up and ordered a teryaki burger on room service! It's been a BIG day, here's hoping we can sleep tonight....