Now that we’re plugged into the Primary School system, it feels like there’s less time for everything. Especially since Noey is dismissed from school at nearly 2pm and there’s a need for the kids to be in bed by 9pm every night, I feel like I’m always rushing to get everything done.
I’ve really been missing our random afternoon outings, so one afternoon shortly after the Chinese New Year break, I decided to whisk the children off on a spur-of-the-moment trip to the River Safari after picking Noey up from school. Because such excursions need not always be planned in advance, right? Besides, I had, at that point of time, never been to the River Safari, nor seen the pandas. I figured it was as good a day to rectify that omission as ever.
Ready to explore!
Armed with a change of clothes, water bottles and my camera (naturally), I herded the surprised kids to Mandai. Upon arrival, I made the fortuitous decision to park at the sheltered carpark instead of out in the open. Actually, I made the decision because I thought that the entrance to the River Safari was near the Night Safari. I thought wrong. The entrance to the River Safari is actually very near the entrance to the Zoo, to the right of the ticketing counters. If I had known that, I would have parked at the open-air carpark nearer to the Zoo entrance. However, my choice of carpark turned out to be a great one because it rained unexpectedly. And that’s when I made the discovery that the River Safari is, surprisingly, an all-weather destination. Aside from being unable to take the boat rides (River Safari Cruise and Amazon River Quest) and having to give the Squirrel Monkey Forest aviary a miss, we were able to visit the rest of the River Safari despite the rain because the paths are sheltered. Even more amazingly, you can walk the entire River Safari all the way to the sheltered carpark in the rain without an umbrella! I thought that was super awesome.
The kids? They were just happy to have an afternoon out.
Hello there, Mr Fishy…
Alligator Gar
The real alligator! I was quite terrified of this, even with the glass! I didn’t want to get that close…
Walking into a whole new world…
A little frog in the process of metamorphosis!
The highlight for me was meeting the pandas, or rather, the panda, since we only saw Jia Jia, adorably munching on her bamboo. The pandas are the star attraction of the River Safari, and with good reason, seeing how cute they are! The children were really tickled by the fact that their enclosure looked a lot like what is depicted in A New Home for Bo Bo and Cha Cha, a local series about a pair of pandas that is, I believe, loosely based on these very pandas themselves.
Hello Jia Jia!
For the kids, the highlight might have been the Zoomoov rides that they got to take! I rarely pay for such things but we were waiting around to see if the weather conditions would improve enough for us to take the River Safari cruise, and the rides were conveniently just there. Since we were waiting, I decided to give them a treat.
Thrilled to be on a ride! 4 rides for $10 after liking their Facebook Page, which I thought was quite ok.
She wanted me to take a photo of her in this ride though this I didn’t agree to pay for!
Overall, I found the River Safari a rather enjoyable outing, and very doable for me out alone with two kids. It is sheltered (yes, this is a big plus for me!) and an easy loop around. You see plenty of animals as well as fish, which makes it a different experience from an aquarium. I would really love to go on the Amazon River Quest where you’d get to see animals living along the edge of the Amazon River, but there is a height restriction of 1.06m so Mei is not going to be able to make it. We might have to wait it out for her to reach that height!
Would I do this again on a weekday afternoon? Yes, definitely! Though next time, I’d make sure it’s a sunny day so we’d get to see the stuff we missed!
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