November 17th Sentosa & Night Safari

Our first full day. After a good rest and sleep we were ready for the first full day of our holiday.

We awoke at 8.00am to rain, but this soon disappeared and the day proved to be bright, sunny and hot. The view from our hotel room was overlooking a busy dual carriageway, hotels, the Singapore River and the Alkaff Bridge.
This bridge is shaped like a tongyang which was an early boat that was used to transport  goods along the river. Alkaff is the name of a prominent Arabian family who were amongst the wealthiest in Singapore at the start of the 20th Century.

With only a short time in this hot, humid and bustling city decisions were made in advance about what we would like to do and places that we would like to visit. This first day was to be Sentosa Island and a Night Safari at Singapore Zoo.


Sentosa  Island is an array of themed attractions, a deep water harbour, sandy beaches and resort hotels. It is accessible via a cable car which runs the whole length of the island. The journey begins at Mount Faber, on the main island of Singapore and at times is not for the faint hearted. The views change continuously going over private residences, theme parks and port. The shipping lanes are extremely busy and Singapore is home to the world's largest container port.  The day grew to be extremely hot, something which I do not readily cope with.  So, a return cable car was taken sooner than expected and we spent a little time in Singapore's largest
shopping mall, VivoCity.  It was from here that we hailed a taxi to take us to Singapore Zoo for the night safari.



The Night Safari is an abundance of wildlife ranging from lions, zebra and nocturnal animals. A tram takes you through geographical areas, with commentary, (there are also walking trails), and there are no fences only ditches. Amazing to see a lion standing on a mound!
The Zoo was extremely clean and the public toilets were cleaned immediately as they were vacated.
Our return to the hotel was made by taxi and a man of Mexican heritage readily answered all our questions. We learned about the greening of the city, container shipping being the largest industry, that the main areas of employment were fruit, shipping and the shipyard, technology and banking.
Taxi drivers as I have previously stated are great for information.
Flower Sculpture at VivoCity

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