River Safari Singapore

And... We had our first family outing to somewhere other that the malls last weekend.

To River Safari!

Here's a photo of the map because we forgot to take one at the entrance. 8 adults, 5 toddlers and babies and 4 strollers. That's quite a sight and a rare photo opportunity.

This was a much anticipated trip because it's 

1. our first to River Safari, 

2. our first non-mall trip without a car,and 

3. our first with our friends and their kids. 

In fact, I woke up at six in the morning to give J her milk and couldn't go back to sleep after that. I was that excited.

It was a quick trip from our home to Mandai via the taxi. Probably around 20 minutes due to slow traffic at one point. (For record purposes, the fare was $16.20 inclusive of the booking fee. The very nice driver rounded it down for us.)

Rivers of the World

I like the concept of the park very much.

With a bit of imagination, I can pretend that I'm travelling around the world. And I have pretty good imagination.

We start off at the Mississippi River.

And we have the beavers!



I wished I had the opportunity to take a closer look if not for the crowd. After reading J's book to her, I really want to see a beaver up close.

These information boards at the start of each section? I love.

I like that they include environmental messages as well. (Like how the Ganges River is now very polluted, how the animals are suffering due of the pollution etc.)
I didn't manage to get a good look at all of them but they are really good information for the little ones.
Think of all the discussions you can have when you are back home!

Despite having "mostly fishes", I thought it was rather interesting. 

Especially for locals like us who get to see these animals only in enclosures.

I don't even know if we have fishes in the Singapore river. Not kidding.

You don't get to see alligator gars very often.

And what mattered most that day, was J enjoying herself. If she enjoys watching the fishes, we are happy too.
She did.
(I tried to dress us to the theme.)

I didn't manage to get a very good look at most of the animals so I'm glad the hubby snapped some.

The crab eating macaque with its very long tail. We saw one with the tail hanging just above the water and I wondered if the fishes swimming below would attack the tail. Weird, I know.

I didn't even see him/her!
I think this is the Yangtze alligator.

Giant Panda Forest
J fell asleep shortly after we crossed the Nile River so she (almost) missed the highlight of the trip - the pandas. There was one red panda which is really active and everyone was trying to get a good shot of it. J would have loved it.

I don't remember which is Kai Kai, and which is Jia Jia because I was walking too fast to avoid hitting people with the stroller. But this one was sleeping...

And this kept walking in and out in.

J woke up while we were waiting for the rest of the party outside Mama Panda Kitchen. The husband wasn't keen to go back to the pandas because that involves pushing the stroller through the crowded gift store, and we had to go against the (human) traffic. I really wanted to show J the panda so I decided I should just carry her and walk back to the last panda we saw.

We stood at the sides, away from the main crowd but just enough to spot the panda.
It was a good decision because she saw the panda walking in and out five times, and got excited by the third time. J kept smiling to the panda and I take that as a sign that she enjoys herself, even though her joy could come from scaling my tummy to get a better view.

We did not go for Amazon River Quest because we have young kids with us but I checked the map and it looks like there are quite a few other animals we could see there. 

We also gave the Squirrel Monkey Forest a miss.
The trip ended with manatees and the giant otters, and hungry tummies.

The River Safari Tea House could fit all of us for lunch but we thought it's overpriced so we headed off to MEDZ at Millenia Walk. It was pretty empty and had plenty of space to accommodate us. I've never sat at a long table with so many kids, so this dining experience was quite a fun one.

We had a great time that Saturday, and seeing how J enjoys the company of the jiejies and korkor and uncles and aunties, I think we will another massive outing soon enough.



Afterthoughts

I haven't stayed long enough nor explored enough to give a "review" so here's some afterthoughts.

1. The park is of a comfortable size, not huge like the Singapore Zoo, so you can easily cover the entire park in one day, or half. I couldn't finish the zoo in one day because I have a habit of looking at all the signs, I want to watch all the shows, and I tend to lose my way.

2. Common 'complaints' about the park - "It's just fishes.", "There's nothing much."

We even overheard someone saying that "It's just fish tanks."

True. It's mainly fishes but we can't expect much from rivers either. 

And for people who have the opportunity to explore real rivers and wildlife, the park would probably not be very interesting.

It helps to lower expectations and have a little more imagination.

Despite our short two-hour stay there, I did enjoy myself.

3. Even though we stayed for only 2 hours, I'm expecting to stay longer when J is older and when it's less crowded. Maybe 5 or 6 hours? They have the Panda Mascots at certain times of the day. That would be fun for little children as well.

4. I'm looking forward to take J there again when she is older. There are so many different pre-and post- trip activities that can be done and I can't wait to try it out with her.  There are also mobile discovery stations along the parks which is really cool.

That said, we all agreed that the full price of $25 + $5 (for the Amazon River Quest) is a little pricey. That makes $60 for 2 adults. Our friends managed to get corporate passes this time round so it was free admission for us. Singaporeans get free admission to the Wildlife Reserve Singapore's parks on their birthdays so we would most probably explore that option. Or get the Friends of XXX cards when J is a little older. (I'm hoping that they will have a Friends of WRS so that we don't have to apply for so many cards.)

I am looking forward to yet another trip to any of the parks.

Maybe the zoo next time?