Singapore really does know how to maximize revenue from their local tourist destinations. What is the single place you would go if you want to see live animals; zoo. But over here in Singapore, this attraction generally called as wildlife reserve is separated into 4 different parks; Singapore Zoo, River Safari, Night Safari and Jurong Bird Park. So..you have to pay price of 4 tickets to visit them all because visiting only one will make you feel that it is not enough.
I have visited River Safari with my parents last year. It was a very enjoyable experience. Last night, I visited the other park; Night Safari with my friend. This is the park where you get to see nocturnal animals (animals that are more active at night). There is an on-going promotion of which the entrance fee is slashed by half and hence we decided to go for it.
We entered the park at 7.15pm, the time slot that we were allocated to to adhere to the capacity limitation requirement of any tourist attraction now due to the pandemic. That is the earliest time slot as the park is only opened from 7 to 11pm. We first took the tram ride to quickly tour around the whole park and get the overall picture and feel of the park in general. The animals there roam freely within their clearings without any cage…that is good…
After the tram ride which took about 30 minutes, we then walked along the 4 different trails along a continuous path. They are called Fishing Cat Trail, Leopard Trail, East Lodge Trail and Wallaby Trail. As the trip is in the evening, it was pretty much comfortable walking along the trail without any worry of heat. However, the only downfall is the lack of lighting that make it very hard for visitors to look for the animals. Even when we spotted the animals, we couldn’t really see clearly their overall features. However, we do understand that plenty of light may disturb or interrupt behavior of these animals.
We finished the whole walking trail in about one and a half hour. Some of the animals you can see here include Asian otter, fishing cat, binturong, Indian gharial, hyenas, leopard, lions, bears, tiger, wallaby, tapir, elephant, rhinoceros, wolf, deer, owls, porcupine, squirrel, etc. We end the trip by watching the ‘Creatures of the Night’ show that took place every one hour (7.30pm, 8.30pm, 9.30pm, and 10.30pm). We managed to catch the last time slot (10.30pm slot…but we have to queue from 9.30pm already to catch a spot). All the earlier time slots were full (due to the limited capacity of 100 pax for a show). By the way, 10.30pm slot is only available during weekend or public holiday. There is this another show called Thumbuakar performance but it was suspended due to the current pandemic.
The ‘Creatures of the Night’ show was a bit of a disappointment for me as there is nothing memorable or spectacular that comes out of the animals’ performances. All things covered in the park…and so we left the park right at its closing time at 11pm. There is also a souvenir shop but we are not keen on that, so we skipped it. Overall, it was still a fun experience visiting the park and I had a comfortable time there. It was my first time seeing animals in the dark. The staff are very friendly and efficient at their work too. Malaysia really need to learn a lot from Singapore on the quality of tourist attractions.
2 parks down…2 more to go to complete the whole ‘wildlife reserve’ experience in Singapore. I’m waiting for their next promotion then. By the way, do remember to bring mosquito repellent if you to plan to visit the park. That’s very important. If not, you will end up finishing the tour with many mosquito bites on your body.
(Images in this post are from various online sources)
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