The Singapore Zoo, a breakfast, and a Behind the Scenes Tour

I don’t think we’ve ever been to Singapore without going to their Zoo breakfast and we’ve traveled there a bunch of times in the past 10 years.  I absolutely LOVE this breakfast.  There is an abundance of good food (this is Singapore after all) and it’s a great place to get your feet wet if you haven’t tried many of the local specialties and just want to get a feel for what it might be like.  I love the congee bar and the prata and curry for sure but there are lots of other things like french toast, pastries and fruit too.  (FYI kids under 4 are free)

Last time, one of the guys was terrified of the orangutans so this time I was determined to get a real picture.  I couldn’t believe that they were now brave enough to hold the snakes by themselves.

Leelee even got an extra squeeze from this little snake because it wouldn’t let go.

The breakfast is also a great place to make a game-plan for what everyone wants to see in the day.

I love that so many of the animals just seem to roam freely. There are many exhibits that make you feel like you are watching the animals in an actual jungle.

We caught the polar bear swimming.

And we thought ahead and packed swimsuits so the guys could check out the water park.  This was so fun and the zoo has lockers, showers and change rooms so you don’t have to wear wet clothes the whole day.

The guys could have stayed there all day, but I had more things planned.

We tried out the River Safari even though it was not fully opened.  I wasn’t sure what this could offer that was different from the zoo at first, but the use of space here is so creative and the exhibits are so interesting.  There were a lot of animals here we’ve never seen before.

And then we saw SWIMMING MONKEYS!!!! ( These are truly fascinating animals especially when they jump off branches into the water like little kids jumping off diving boards.)

The Red Panda was way more active here than the one at our local zoo but the other panda was sleeping.

So this panda bun made up for it.

We also spent a lot of time watching the dugongs swim around.

And then we had to head back to the zoo for our Fragile Forest Private Tour.  The last time we visited the boys loved the Fragile Forest so I thought this tour would be perfect because it would give them an even more in-depth look.  I might have even booked this before I booked any of our trip hotels because we couldn’t book it last time when we arrived at the zoo and I didn’t want to miss out again.  (We did however get to go on the Jurong Bird Park tour and that was awesome too!  Book early!)

The first thing they taught us on the tour wasn’t even in an exhibit but in the walkways where you don’t really expect to see anything.  You can see bats everywhere If you see this on the ground:

Look up.  Then you will see this:

We toured the zoo grounds in this lovely vehicle and it was nice to be able to see animals without walking around in the heat.

We stopped at the Fragile Forest where we went through a little door to a place full of bugs in cages. We held a TON of them and the boys were definitely braver than I was.

At the end of our tour our sweet guides surprised us by letting us feed the Hamadryas Baboons.

And we finished our day with ice cold Milo Rhinos (These are usually called dinosaurs and you can order them in most places where you find prata.  They are ice milos with extra milo powder on top and we love them.) and Kaya Toast at the Ah Meng Cafe just outside the zoo.

So this was an incredibly busy day, but it was absolutely amazing.  I know I’ll be perfectly happy repeating this day when we come back in a couple years.  (And if you’re headed to Singapore, please please please at least do the breakfast and stop by one of my favorite places in the world.)

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)