Each "capsule" is the size of a city bus and has the capacity for 28 people.
The sky's the limit on this one!! One full rotation takes approximately 30 minutes.
View of the Kallang River. The high-rise buildings to the right are all apartments. Over 1,000,000 actually. They were one of the first things built when Singapore was settled in order to bring expatriates to the country!
View of ships waiting to enter the world's busiest port. Singapore Port handles one fifth of the world's shipping containers and over half of the world's crude oil!! The islands in the far distant are actually Indonesia. (On the opposite side of the Flyer you can often see the mountains of Malaysia, but it wasn't a very clear day for me to take a photo.)
Construction of the future IR (Integrated Resort). It's a fancy term for a casino development, along with hotels, conference centers, shopping, and plenty of other entertainment. This is the same construction I took a picture of from the boat tour, but at a different angle.
KG listening to her handheld guide and following along on the map.
Singapore rush hour... oddly, they often call it "Happy Hour"... hmm, maybe I need to check the drinking and driving laws!
The "13" Building. It was a lucky number for the architect.
Stadium seating I also took a pic of from the boat tour. This time you can see the "floating field" that goes along with it!
Singapore skyline of the Financial District. They are building a new swirly pedestrian bridge right next to the highway.
Next, I went to the world's first nocturnal zoo: Night Safari!! The head of the Mitsui Singapore office gave it rave reviews, so I had to give it a look.
The entire zoo is almost completely dark, with a 45-minute tram ride available and three walking trails which takes approximately 30 minutes each. They have 120 species and over 1,000 animals.
I started on the tram was shocked that there were no cages or fences and that many of the animals roamed around, resting on the tram trail or even 12 inches from the tram path. I am constantly shocked by the lack of safety measures in Asia. There are no guard rails on the tram. There are no gates for the pedestrians to know that a tram (with no headlights) is coming and you should get off of the path crossing. People could jump out of the tram, or animals could seemingly jump in at any time.
There were animals from 6 different continents, and many I had never heard of. We saw: lions, sloths, hyenas, deer, porcupines, elephants, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, hippos, tigers, and many others. I was pretty freaked out that the animals could be lurking any where in the dark. Some paths even had "rumble strips", I'm sure so the tram made some noise and scared the animals away a little bit. Towards the end, I did see some "moats" around a few of the exhibits, so at least I knew it was unlikely for jungle cats to pounce out and get me!
Well, if I was a little freaked out by the tram, I was in no way prepared for the walking trails. I was technically sightseeing by myself, but there were people and families every where, and every time a bush shook up ahead or a leaf dropped, I would jump a mile!! These nocturnal animals were just so creepy. I guess I really don't appreciate rare bats or other creepy Asian tree vermin. I have no doubt that if my zoo buddy from Cinci, Sarah, were with me, she would have been just as freaked out!! We would have been chasing each other from one scary exhibit to another. I think the worst part was the bird cages. You had to go through a series of magnetic doors to get into the exhibit, and the only way to get the second door to open was if the first one was closed. One time the room was filling up and no one would shut the first door, so we couldn't proceed to the second door, and I felt like I was in a fire drill. All of these people are pushing to get out, but there is no exit because it's blocked!! Traumatizing, in fact.
So it was an experience, but maybe there's a reason why it hasn't caught on in the rest of the world. And I know I've been raving about the nice warm weather here, but being in the rain forest tonight was humid and at times I felt like I was suffocating (especially when it stunk like animals). Isn't foliage supposed to make the air clean, not the other way around?! Maybe I will stick to the daytime zoo trips from now on...
The Singapore Flyer capsules look awesome! The zoo maybe not so much.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame, too, because I was really excited about the Night Safari!! Maybe I am afraid of the dark afterall!
ReplyDeleteThat zoo experience would not have been my cup of tea! Creepy! The Singapore flyer looked very similar to the London Eye.
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