Animal mad

Yesterday (I've got into the habit of updating my blog the morning after) we visited the Singapore zoo. Now, if you have ever visited a zoo before, forget about it, the Singapore zoo is by far the best zoo you will encounter! The animals aren't in cages or pens but they all appear to be in the open and it's designed so that you feel as if you could almost touch them. See my encounter with Ah Meng, the mascot of the zoo..



Of course you can't really touch the animals, even with Ah Meng, her trainers were there ensuring that you didn't, but it felt that way. See how close we got to the rhinos...



I can't put all my pictures here, but if you'd like to have a look at more photos of my trip so far, I have uploaded them on to the internet for you to see here.

We couldn't help but remember the verse in Genesis 1:25 where God looked at everything that he had made and "...saw that it was good". Amazing is more like it.

From the zoo we took a taxi, to the opening night of the River HongBao celebrations. There we ate dinner from the stalls - wanton, japenease pizza, prawn balls, shark fin soup, haw stick... and a few things that I can't remember the names of. There was even a firework display and a concert with various chinese acts.

We even saw the ex-Prime Minister of Singapore, Goh Chok Tong who was an honered guest as he went around looking at the various exhibits. Charlotte got very excited as he is a very well respected man in the city which could be seen from the crowds of people who wanted to shake his hand.

There was a carnival feeling, and we even got to see a traditional Chinese act where the actor moves/dances to music and every now and again waves his coat and switches his mask. I couldn't figure out how he did it as it was so quick, it almost looked like magic.



After all the excitement, we stopped by the river to have a rest. It was a lovely clear night and you could see the Singapore skyline across the water. It was a very beautiful view and we just sat there and chatted for a while.



Tomorrow is the Eve of Chinese New Year and the preparations will soon begin...