Nature | Roving Sun

February 5, 2023February 15, 2023

City of Westminster

After a very early arrival in London, we dropped off our bags at our hotel and headed over to Westminster. We walked across the Thames and by Big Ben and headed into St. James Park. We walked past the lake, taking some time to look at all the British birds. We arrived at Buckingham Palace in time to get a good spot to view the changing the guard ceremony. Afterwards, we headed directly to Wellington Arch where we caught the Underground to Piccadilly Circus where we had lunch. We then continued onward through Leicester and Trafalgar Squares, soon reaching the Thames once again. We crossed via the Jubilee Bridge, continuing along the Thames back to where we started our day!

January 2, 2023January 5, 2023

Singapore Zoo & River Wonders

We headed to the Mandai Wildlife Reserve‘s Singapore Zoo via taxi and arrived slightly after opening time. It much cooler earlier in the day and with less crowds. It turns out some of the enclosures were still being cleaned and not all the animals were out yet so we had to backtrack a bit at the end of our visit. We ended up seeing many animals, including a large selection of monkeys and apes. They also had various big cats and many of the usual zoo animals.

After lunch, we visited their adjacent River Wonders park. This was a bit like an outdoor aquarium, with the addition of pandas and monkeys.

December 29, 2022January 5, 2023

Night Safari

We visited the Mandai Wildlife Reserve’s Night Safari in the evening. It is essentially a dedicated nighttime zoo. Timed entry is used to control crowds, we arrived at 8:15pm. It was obviously pretty dark. There was just enough lighting to be able to see the animals, though not always very clearly. Definitely an interesting and very unique experience! Particularly with the larger animals as generally you’ll never get to see them when its dark outside in a zoo setting.

December 28, 2022January 5, 2023

Jurong Bird Park

We headed out to Jurong Bird Park in time to catch the first free shuttle from the Jurong East MRT station. We ended up spending the morning there, catching the hawk show and seeing most of the enclosures and aviaries. Jurong Bird Park is only going to exist for a few days more as everything is moving to become the Bird Paradise and will be adjacent to the rest of the Mandai Wildlife Reserve parks.

December 27, 2022October 4, 2023

Mount Faber & Sentosa

We visited both Mount Faber and Sentosa today, taking the gondola between each location. Although the sky was overcast and somewhat dark, it was still hot and incredibly humid. We ended up doing a good amount of walking despite the heat.