This was taken more than a year ago

Darius’ first trip to the Singapore Zoological Gardens was more than a year ago and he was barely 6 months old then. Seeing the bald Darius in those photos reminded me how fast time had flown… ^^|

Last Friday, I was lucky to have gotten a corporate membership pass for the zoo from my company, which would allow free entry into the zoo for up to 4 person. We had been wanting to go to the Zoo for some time and so this would provide for the golden opportunity to bring Darius back there for some animal sightseeing. I had actually planned to bring him to the Animal Resort but since we would be heading for the zoo, that would no longer be necessary for now.

With him much older now than during his last trip to the zoo, and also with us introducing more animals to him during our daily activities, Darius should be able to recognise the animals better and benefit more from this trip. I had also packed a few animal figurines from our safari toy set along so he could compare them with the actual animals. It would be fun seeing his response when he saw his animal toys ‘coming alive’. ^^

On Saturday, we wanted to reach the Zoo early so we would not need to rush through the exhibits, like in our last trip. Also, with Darius expected to take an afternoon nap, we would be having even lesser hours to have him alert and awake during the trip.

Upon reaching the entrance 15 minutes before 11am, we were quite surprised to find out that we were not the only early birds (okay, not that early ) there as the place was already bustling with activities, mainly from parents and their children.

Flashing the corporate and my employee passes, we got into the Zoo and headed towards the Splash Amphitheatre, where the Splash Safari Show would be conducted at 11am sharp. We wanted to watch the show in the morning instead of doing so in the afternoon as Darius could be asleep by then.

Parking our stroller by the side like many other visitors, we then found some seats on the left side of the place. The show soon started and we were introduced to sea creatures such as the manatee (commonly also known as the sea cows), penguins, some pelican-like birds and the star of the show — a sea lion!

Manatees gathering to the front for their food

The sea lion leaping high up to reach the hanging ball

The show was fun to watch as the sea lion performed acrobatic and funny actions. However, we also noticed that Darius was showing a guarded, unhappy look throughout the performance.

Darius' serious look

We didn’t know if he was feeling disinterested or sleepy, until he started whining with tears flowing out his eyes! We did suspect that he wasn’t feeling comfortable with the host’s voices sounding out from the rather loud speakers after our experiences at the church but we were still taken aback when he started crying all of a sudden.

Catherine tried to calm him down by letting his head rest on her shoulder while she hugged her. That did help clam him down though Darius was still looking upset and frightened.

Darius seems to dislike loud noises from the speakers

Though we were disappointed that Darius wasn’t enjoying the performance, we didn’t let that dampen our spirits. After bringing him to the nearby restroom to ease his bladders, we headed back to the performance area for the Elephants at Work and Play Show. The show area was much deeper in and took us quite a while before we could reach there.

Initially, Darius was again showing little interest in what was going on at the center stage while the elephants did their performances. It was only after I carried him about at the area behind the spectators area that he became more comfortable (we also tried to avoid places with speakers blasting the sounds at him directly) to watch the performance. We also kept re-iterating the word ‘elephant’ to him so that he would be able to relate and identify the animals in front of him.

The elephants doing their shows

We didn’t watch through the whole performances though and left halfway through so we could check out the other animals. We came across the Primates Area and saw some monkeys perching on an isolated island surrounded by water.

At that moment, we saw one of them leaping towards a tree near to our side. However, he missed and fell into the water instead but quickly swam up to the surface over on our side. The remaining monkeys on the island gathered and looked towards the lone monkey and one of them even got very close to the water, seemingly trying to reach out to him. Alas, they could only watch helplessly as the wet monkey looked at them pleadingly for help.

We watched for a while before deciding to leave them be, as we wouldn’t want to get too close to the monkey in case it got defensive and aggressive. Instead, we informed one of the zoo’s staff along the way about the situation and believeing that they would bring the lone monkey back where he belonged.

Meanwhile, we let Darius roam along the road himself, which he obviously happily obliged. ^^

Wanting to have an early lunch before Darius was to take his nap, we then headed to the Ah Meng Restaurant (previously known as Restaurants in the Wild) nearby for food. It was relatively crowded but we managed to find seats in the air-conditioned restaurant without much difficulty. Baby chairs were scarce but available.

Looking at the food displays, we were quite surprised at the exorbitant prices of their dishes; a simple chicken rice set cost S$8.90, so was a plate of Nasi Lemak (malay coconut rice). One could easily find them at half the price elsewhere. We had expected the prices of food and drinks at a place of interest to be higher than normal but didn’t expect them to be this high.

$7.00 for this? -_-

We ordered two plates of chicken rice (S$7.00 each for not including the vegetables from the set) and ate them while Catherine fed Darius his porridge. To keep him occupied while eating, I passed Darius his toy elephant figurine since he had just seen the elephants moments ago.

With the metal spoon on one hand, Darius started interacting it with the toy elephant, seemingly imitating the actions the elephants did during the show, such as the lifting of logs. We were glad he could relate to what he had seen earlier.

As for the food we ordered, they tasted worse than what we could get elsewhere, especially the dry and hard rice. To think that they were serving such sub-standard food to our tourists; not the right way to live up our reputation as a food paradise yay?

The deco on the restaurant's walls were already indicative of its food's taste

Finishing our lunch, we headed out and saw a cow display just outside the Ben & Jerry’s, and decided to take a photo of it.

We then planned to head towards the Cat Kingdom to check out the jaguar, which Darius seemed to be so interested in after introducing him to the animal at home. We had wanted to go there earlier while he was still awake. Alas, shortly after we departed from Ah Meng Restaurant, Darius was already dozing off in his stroller…

(to be continued here)

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