World Famous San Diego Zoo

San Diego Zoo is among the most famous zoo in the world due to its extensive research on animals, abundance species in the zoo compound, home to 2 giant pandas, polar bears and Skyfari which is a cable car to look the thru the zoo from the sky. This was featured in Madagascar animation movie where a group of animals thinking that they were in San Diego Zoo in California. Being located in San Diego, this zoon don't suffer much of weather change as this area is always hot and dry. Even during winter, the temperature seldom drop below 10 C. Initially, I was thinking whether I want to go to the zoo as the entrance fee is quite steep. At USD40 for a daily pass, it was my most expensive entrance fee for my USA trip. However considering the huge number of animals that they have and the ability to view the giant pandas in action, I finally decided to enter the zoo. Plus, there not many zoo in the world which have cable car on top of the zoo. Anyway, I am quite satisfied with the animal display here as all the animals were well breed and almost 75% open concept. On the giraffe display, the animal is so near to the visitor. As a rule of thumb, please allow three hours to visit this zoo.


San Diego Zoo.

My ticket.

Koala bear.

Llama.

Lion.

Fossil sample.



Skyfari cable car. You can take as many times that you want and its included in your entrance ticket.

Bus around the zoo. Its included in your entrance ticket.

Polar bear.

Red panda.

The cute giant panda.

Giraffe.

Me with panda souvenir.

Address:
Balboa Park, San Diego, California, USA

Transport:
Take the trolley to City college station. Then take bus route 7 to Balboa Park. The zoo is located within Balboa Park area. Press the bell when approaching the zoo.

Zoo, Science Centre & Chinatown @ Singapore Trip

For day 3, my trip is more on educational side. Visiting both famous Singapore Zoo & Science centre. Day 3 trip ends at Orchard Road to see the Christmas decorations. In my opinion, the zoo is quite interesting with many animal show session and organized feeding time. Plus you can see most of the animal from near. Most of them is just separated by glass or a small river. The zoo has white tiger, penguin & previously polar bear. I don't see the bear. Maybe the temperature is not suitable for it to live. And in 2012, Singapore River Safari will open to the public featuring many exciting animals such as giant panda, polar bear & anaconda. All these animals will be placed in the specially build habitat mimic the climate like in tundra, Amazon river & Yangtze river. I don't know how they going to do that. Let's wait and see. Singapore citizen are so creative in creating new attractions every year. Next year we probably going to see the Marina Bay Sands Museum (the lotus like figure) open to the public.

For science centre, what I can say is that it is just normal. However, I do amazed by the abundant amount of material on life sciences. Maybe Singapore aims to be a world class centre of biological research.

We also went to watch the IMAX movie on the "Legends of Flight" which describe about the creation of new Airbus 380 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The screen itself is 5-storey high and the screen is actually the building dome. The screen is so huge and the A380 engine shown is bigger than me.

Singapore Zoo


Singapore zoo main entrance.

The pricing.

Kids nowadays is so lazy to walk. Need to get their parents to pull them in this cart.

Oops... is this a mirror.

Turtle.

Beavers.

White tiger.



Emu.

Sign unique to Australia.

Tram to bring passengers around. For old people :-)

Fighting deer.

Group of baboon.

Baboon leader.

Splashing sea lion.

The shows attracted quite a number of viewers.

Sea lion balancing a balloon.

Water jumping show.

Deer.

Cute little orang utan. Some visitors are so scared of the orang utan. They scared the creature fell of from the tree and landed on them!

Animal friends kids show. Skipping dog.

High jumping dog.


Pole climbing cat.

Crocodile just separated by the glass. Can see the crocodile underneath also.

Lizard.

Giant tortoises.

Cute little sun bear.

Rhino.

Sleeping cheetah.

Very funny statement. Fast but all heat up. "they will die from overheating!" Like computer meh?

Zebras.

Giraffe.

Female lion.

Another performance. Animal fights back.

Hanging orang utan across the hall.

Nature lover.

Hail the animals because won against evil.

Penguins.

Waiting for white tiger feeding time.

Jumping high to catch the food thrown to him.

Catch!

Lunch in Singapore Zoo @ Ah Meng Restaurant
Don't play-play. Ah Meng was a very famous Sumatran orang utan and she was a celebrity in the 90s. She was visited by Prince Philips & even Michael Jackson. She was also a "Special Tourism Ambassador" for Singapore.


The famous Ah Meng.

Curry laksa.

Chicken rice. At least this chicken rice is better than I had on the first day in Suntec.

Singapore Science Centre


From zoo, we took bus 927 to Choa Chu Kang. From there, we can take MRT to Jurong East MRT station where the science centre is located.

Finally we reached the science centre. The centre is about 10-15 minutes walk from Jurong East station.

Brought science centre entrance & IMAX movie. We watch the Legends of flight.

Small pox Edward Jenner story.

Full of optical illusion examples along the stair case.

This is the Omni-Theater. Featuring a 5-storey high dome shape screen.

Chinatown


This kopitiam (Orde Cuban) has a lot of customers especially those from westerners.

Eating place.

SEX toy shop.

Famous bakkwa (sliced barbecue pork) . Need to queue up one. Lim Chee Guan.

Orchard Road
This road is famous for shopping. For me this place does not catch my attention very much. Much of the items here are quite expensive. They have extensive selection but its not cheap. I notice that the items in Singapore is very cheap for Singaporean. For example we earn the same amount of dollar example SGD2000 & MYR2000. The same shirt cost SGD33 while in Malaysia, it cost MYR70. I can see that their purchasing power are indeed very high compared to ours. A luxury Louis Vuitton (LV) wallet only cost around SGD500 while in Malaysia, it sold for more than MYR1000.

Ion Orchard.



Along Orchard road. River of people & so packed even on weekday.