Singapore Day #4

We started the day with a traditional Singaporean breakfast of Kaya Toast, runny eggs, and coffee with condensed milk. The kaya toast is a type of bread with a coconut jam type of spread on it and runny eggs are what they sound like, eggs that have only been partially cooked (hence the runniness). This was a very very good breakfast, a great way to start the day of touring, although I wouldn't suggest eating this breakfast on a regular basis.

When we left we noticed that it was pouring outside, so we took the subway and rode the bus to our next destination, the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. By the time we got there, the rain had subsided and was mostly a mist or a light rain. Luckily the nature reserve had lots of…well…nature that protected us from the light rain. We hiked up the "mountain" (it is a mountain for Singapore, but it is more like a small hill for the rest of the world) and got some nice pictures of…nature. They had some signs saying that there would be a fine if you fed the monkeys, but my theory is that they just put those signs there to get people excited to see monkeys when in fact, there are no monkeys, just my theory. By the time we were leaving the nature reserve the rain had pretty much subsided, so we decided to continue our adventure and head to Chinatown.

Now I live in Shanghai, so there are not many Chinatown's that impress me, as I live in the biggest Chinatown in the world. Singapore's was okay, not too much going on there, just a bunch of stalls selling junk, the same junk that I can get in Shanghai for much cheaper (actually most of those vendors buy their stuff in China and then bring it back to Singapore to sell to tourists for an ungodly amount.

We moved onto to the other cultural center of Singapore, Little India. Here we walked around a bit and got the notion that gold is a really big thing in India as there were hundreds of stalls and stores selling gold stuff. We eventually made our way to an area that had a bunch of restaurants and found a nice Indian restaurant. The service was great and they had some really good food. The chicken tikka masala (a staple for me) was just okay, but the rest of the food was great, so it kind of balanced itself out into a really good meal.

We took a short break in the afternoon and then headed to the Night Safari. This is basically a safari/zoo that is only open at night. We saw the Creatures of the Night Show and that was pretty neat (nothing too great, but fun), and then we went on the tram ride through the park. There were some parts were the animals roamed free (mostly just small harmless dear), and most of the dangerous animals were in areas that were protected by moats. The best part of the night safari was going into the flying fox cage. When you go in, you go in through a bunch of gates that make it so that the flying fox could not get out and when you enter the flying foxes are jumping all over the place, to the point where they are jumping right over your head and it almost feels like they are about to hit you. Anyway, the Night Safari is definitely worth a visit. After the Night Safari (around 11:30pm), we just went back to the hotel to retire for the night. A long day, but a very good day.