Animals of Singapore

It seems like we've been doing all kinds of animal-related activities with Grandma and Grandpa, besides eating lots of good food and playing with the boys. We took Ben to the zoo this week and he was so fascinated with his fan that he barely looked up for the first hour.

Ben and Grandma outside the probiscus monkey exhibit. Those are some ugly monkeys!

We enjoyed the beautiful white tigers and watched one cool off in the pond.

The other two were just relaxing the morning away.

I thought this was an interesting new addition since our last trip to the zoo, right after a man was killed by the tigers. In the tigers' defense, the man jumped the wall, swam across the pond, climbed up the cliff, and started beating them with a broom. What else were they supposed to do?

We loved the pygmy hippo mama and baby! The baby was too dense to float but too young to swim so he stood on his mom's nose for air.

Ben provided a little perspective on their size. The baby was about as big (and probably as dense!) as Alex.

The free-ranging orangutans are always one of the best attractions.

This was my favorite of the day - feeding the giraffes. The keeper called them over and we were second in line.

Ben laughed and laughed at the long tongue and fed the big guy carrots and apples.

Afterward Ben refused to look at any other animals until he'd been to the bathroom and properly washed his hands. Such a little clean freak!

The best ride of the day!

This was the biggest komodo dragon I'd ever seen...he had to be at least 6 feet long.

We watched the Asian elephant show and saw the big gals demonstrate their strength and training.

Ben fed them as well but got a little freaked out this time by the big trunks grabbing at the food so I ended up giving them most of the fruit.

The next day Ben went to the bird park with Grandma, Grandpa, and Daddy (no camera) and passed out in the car on the way home. This was his first nap on the couch in years!

Yesterday we took the cable cars from Mt. Faber to Sentosa. The walk up to the top of Mt. Faber was really pretty but the name is slightly misleading - it's really just a tall hill because there is nothing close to a mountain here.

The guys enjoyed the sights for a minute.

We caught one of the new glass cable cars so we had 360 degree views in all directions, including down!

It was a pretty ride over some forest and through Harbourfront center.

On the other side of Harbourfront we saw the cruise ships and the construction site for Universal Studios, which is coming along really quickly.

After the cable cars we walked through Underwater World and let Ben touch everything in the open tanks.

He got to feed some of the tropical fish and big goldfish in big tanks with smart little feeding troughs out to the side.
Behind Ben is an arapiama, one of the world's largest freshwater fish. This one was at least 5 feet long, so remember these things are in the water next time you take a dip in the Amazon.

Check out these amazing seahorses! The two yellow ones in the center are leafy seahorses and the brown one to the right is a weedy seahorse.

The jellyfish tank had some pretty cool lighting.

The highlight of the aquarium is a huge acrylic tunnel with a moving sidewalk but Ben was so engrossed in the walk that he barely looked at the fish. You never know what's going to interest this little guy!

We're having so much fun with Grandpa and Grandma here and are trying to fit in as much play as possible because they leave on Monday night.