Singapore Zoo

Day 9 (6-Aug-2006) : Singapore Zoo

We stayed a night at CW's apartment in Singapore the day before we flew back HK.

My enthusiast brother, he didn't just volunteer to be our chauffeur, but to bring us around to taste the good foods. The night we returned to Singapore, he treated us a sumptuous and delicious seafood dinner near Woodland checkpoint. The next morning, he took us to this Ng Ah Sio Pork Ribs Soup Eating Shop for Bah-Kuat-Teh breakfast. Like most siblings who have been brought up together under the same roof, we share the same food preferences for most of the time. So, what he thinks is good food would probably my good food too. And this time was no exception.

A good restaurant certainly worth a remembrance. So, we took a picture in front of this Ng Ah Sio Pork Ribs Soup Eating Shop. Hope we can go to this place again somewhere in the future.

Our flight time was 6.30pm. There was still enough time for us to go to visit Singapore Zoo before boarding. So, there we went after the breakfast.

The Singapore Zoo is a model of the `open zoo' concept. The animals are kept in spacious, landscaped enclosures, separated from the visitors by dry or wet moats. The moats are concealed with vegetation or dropped below the line of vision. In the case of dangerous animals such as leopards and jaguars which can climb very well, moat barriers are not used. Instead, these animals are housed in beautifully landscaped glass-fronted enclosures. Oppressive cages which typify old zoos, are absent. The end result is a feeling of openness.

Somehow, going to Zoo reminds me of a movie : Madagascar - Spoiled by their upbringing with no idea what wild life is really like, four animals from New York Central Zoo escape, unwittingly assisted by four absconding penguins, and find themselves in Madagascar, among a bunch of merry lemurs. We had a blast when watching this movie. I think the humor is one of Dreamworks best.

This is called team work. One pacified the cow while the other was milking.

Surrounded by the most important men in my life.

This 'monkey' just sat up there and looked down to the spectators like nobody business. Cool...

The Binturong, or often called 'bear cat', but it is neither look like a bear or a cat, wonder why? Adult females are larger than the males which is unusual for mammals.

At the entrance...feel like venturing into a jungle.

White tiger. It looks really gorgeous.

I'm glad to see the lions moved around actively. Although they showed no special action, at least they were not acting like a dead fish.

This mini size hippo is called Pygmy Hippo. Cute..

In terms of weight,

1 Nile Hippo : 10 Pygmy Hippo

1 Nile Hippo : 40 me

Australian iguana. The boys want to perceive it as mini dinosour.

Don't know if this kangaroo was enjoying the touch of the strangers or it has get numbed of it?

The 'Elephants at work' show.

Unlike other animal stars (like seal, dolphin, etc), the trainers don't need to give them small treats to drive them work out the performance. They certainly worth a big applause.

I've never seen a giraffe sits before. I thought they stand all the time...If they can sit like this, I think they can sleep on the ground as well, right?

This is a lonely lion. I didn't see others but him.

Leapord as backdrop.

2 men and a little boy, nothing happen.

I did tell the boys honestly that dinosours are no longer exist in this world and logically, they won't see a real one by any chance. But deep inside my heart, I am, as silly as they are, wish to see the dinosours glide gracefully in the pond.

The boys were so eager to take a ride on the tramafter walking for a long time. Thank God we didn't have to queue long for this like the day we went for Night Safari. It took us 40 min to wait for our turn that night.

Don't know why they all looked so serious out of a sudden?

Met the closest relative to human being. The young one, sat at the most right hand side there, suddenly jumped up the nearby trunk, and believe it or not, he started to dance like Alex-the-Lion, who entertain the crowds at the New York Central Zoo. We all cheer loudly, couldn't believe our eyes on what we saw!!

I think those orangutans are really live a happy life in Singapore Zoo. Well, because they all look happy and active.

Jackass Pengiun.

Awaitng for the show to start off at the amphitheatre. We were lucky enough to get a 'good' seat. I said it's a 'good' seat because we sat near to a surprise basket. When the trainer took out an anaconda from that basket in the middle of the show, it scard the hell out of me.

The animal star of the show is a highly intelligence seal. He can make a twisted jump like a dolphin, and he can find the watch that has been thrown inside the pool in less than 20 sec.

Vincent bugged us for a ride on the elephant's back. Well, we all never tried that before. So, we were kind of excited about it too. Just when KS line up in the queue, he was told the tickets has been sold out. How unfortunate! It took Vincent quite some time to accept the fact. Poor boy.

CW said this is one of the very famous restaurants to taste the authentical HaiNan Chicken Rice. And he is right, it's so wonderfully delicious. It's the best Chicken Rice I have ever eaten in my whole life. [Remark : Loy Kei Chicken Rice Restaurant]. See those pictures hanging on the wall there...HK movie stars Ser-Si-Man, Lam-Fung, etc, have visited this restaurant while they were shooting a TVB seriel 2 years ago.

Although Changi International Airport is relatively old compare to HKIA or KLIA, inside there, it's charming and pleasant. Must give a credit to the airport authorities for their good works.

So long Singapore. We will come back again.

Here is the end of our family holiday.

I have no time to adjust and calm down my heart at all. The next morning, I have to ascort a Japanese customer to go to our GuangZhou factory for a plant tour. The massive travelling within at week was truely physically exhausted. I came home that evening, feel like and look like a zombie.

Sibu Island

DAY 4, 5 & 6 (2, 3, 4-AUG-2006) : Sibu Island

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Sibu Island is one of unspoiled islands 12 km off the east coast of the West Peninsula of Malaysia, facing the South China Sea. The island is shaped like a triangular hour glass, about 6 km long and never more than 1km wide. The Sibu group of island consists of Sibu Besar, Sibu Tengah, Sibu Hujung and Sibu Kukus (Coral Island). The island abounds with lush tropical vegetation, and is noted for its beaches, hills, cliffs and exotic bird population.

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We called a taxi to pick us at CK's place at 9.30am. The resort has arranged a shuttle bus to collect us when we reached JB (Golden Square) around 10.30am later on. We didn't wait too long for the bus to show up. To be precisely, it was actually a 11-seated van. A French family of 5, and a French couple were already inside it [wonder if Sibu Island is famous in French?]. We inhaled softly and quickly squeezed ourself into the crowded compartment at the back. This bumpy road journey took approximately 90 minutes from JB to the new ferry terminal at Tanjung Leman.

The rest of the family members (KS's parents + KH's family) drove all the way from Kuala Lumpur and arrived at Tanjung Leman's jetty just in time. To get to the Sibu Island resort, we have to sail on a 'speedboat' that would take another 30 min.

The 'speedboat' is not as fast nor as comfortable as it suppose to be. There is no aircon inside, and the windows couldn't be opened wide enough. Under the hot sun, it was unbearable warm and humid inside the boat. What make it worse was a strong gasoline smell floated all over the place. Boy, it looks like a refugee boat. I would have suffocated if the journey took any longer.

The boat was thrown up and down following the momentum of the strong waves. They started to feel nausea at the middle of the way and have to rely on 'tiger palm oil' to relieve the sea sickness.

Sibu Island Resort is located at Sibu Tengah island, east coast of Johor, Malaysia. It comprises of 20 acres in size and surrounded by white sandy beach.

We have booked 3 chalets. This is how a delux chalet looks like.

The facilities inside the room were not very well maintained.

Example 1 : the main swith in our room tripped for the consecutive 2 nights. Bugger, it happened at the middle of the night. KS has to search for the switch in darkness, turn it on so that the aircon would keep on roaring.

Example 2 : met a frustrated Singaporean woman who complained about no water supply in her room for a couple of days. In fact, we saw she and her 3 boys took their shower at the pool side.

This is the swimming pool. Nothing too fancy about it.

The buffer dinner were served at the pool side every night, from 7pm to 10pm. I appreciate for the delicious local foods, like, roti canai, roti John, nasi lemak, noddles, vegie, etc. But COME ON, give the seafood lover some shrimps, crabs, 'fresh' fish...Even a little one is fine for me, ok?

Despite all the complaints about accomodation, we have no complaints about the clear emerald blue sea, soothing tropical breeze and white sandy beaches.

Most of the time, be it in the morning or evening, this beautiful beach is like our own private beach. We hardly see anybody, besides the 9 of us, lingering around there. Wonder where those people have gone all the time?

What did we do at the beach?

Activity 1 : The kids helped me to collect sea shells at the coast. They did find some special shells. Have to admit they have better eye sight than I do.

Activity 2 : playing sand...I tried to unite the kids to build something but to no avail. The kids prefer to play destructively than constructively. Well, what to do, up to them lah..

Activity 3 : playing water...William was so so reluctant to leave the water even though I said this for N times - "this would be the last time, ok?"

Activity 4 : Free movement.

Activity 5 : admired the beauty of the nature...

while watching other people snorkelling.

Landed on the remote beautiful island.

On Day-3 morning, the hotel's people drove a boat to take us to Sibu Kukus Island (Coral Island) for snorkelling and sight seeing. We should have booked this trip on the day we arrived so that we could go on the 2nd day but we have missed it somehow. Therefore, we could only do it on the last day. Since we have to catch the ferry scheduled at 12.30pm, we have less than 2 hours on the island there. KS and I didn't have the mood to snorkel in such a hurry. KH did. He said the water nearby coastal is not clear enough to see the group of fishes, but it's better when he dived further away. He even saw live corals underneath the clear water.

This is the group of fishes I was talking about. They aren't too big in size, most of them are tiger fish species. When I fed them with white bread, they dare to swim near to me, and knocked my legs. It's a sensational experience to have a close encounter with fishes that won't bite.

Should I describe the fishes as having 'yellow body with black stripes' or 'black body with yellow stripes'?

Don't know what's that island called? One thing for sure, there won't be any toilet for people to pee and poo privately. The same goes here, at the Sibu Kukus Island.

No matter which beach they go, they will play the same thing. What else the sand and water can offer them?

Wherever we go, William will stick to me as usual. He won't run away from me for too long [laugh proudly]. From time to time, he would check on me to see what I was playing with, and he would want to play my game too. Since I was taking photos at that time, this's what we were playing together : self picture.

As KS said, we have taken a group photo at this starting point, and we should take a group photo at this ending point as well. Since when he became so sentimental? Aaah...whatever.

We separated at Tanjung Leman. They drove back to KL stright away. And we, decided to go back to CK's place following the same bumpy road.

* I've made a terrible mistake before we departed to Sibu Island that morning. I've left my digital camera behind, at my brother's place. HOW COULD I FORGET TO BRING ALONG THIS IMPORTANT TOOL? I even thought of buying a new digital camera when we reached JB, before the van came to pick us up. Luckily, we found the price there is much expensive than in HK. So, we gave up the idea. Instead, all the above photos were taken by using KH's camera. Although I couldn't take the photos as freely as using my own camera, it's better than nothing at all. Here, I want to thank KH's effort to send those photos to us.