Spectrum of the Seas Review: Day 8 – Singaporefeatured
I feel like we accomplished a lot in our first two days in Singapore. We saw most of what we wanted to see. We did most of what we wanted to do. And we didn’t really know how we wanted to spend our final day, so I left it completely up to Stephanie.
She was wide awake and dressed before any of my (or her!) alarms even went off. I turned over in bed and she was just dressed, awake and on FaceTime with Mom (the time difference worked out best to call home in the morning – morning time in Singapore was early evening the day before at home). And before I could even process what was happening, she was telling Mom what we were doing today – we were going to the zoo.
For weeks up to our trip, Stephanie kept talking about the Singapore Zoo and all of these cool experiences they had. She was obsessed with this Breakfast with the Orangutans thing (which was exactly what it sounds like – you eat breakfast and there are just Orangutans there hanging out near your table), but when she checked for tickets the day before, they were sold out. So we weren’t going to the zoo to monkey around with the apes. Instead, she had booked us tickets to the Singapore Zoo because she apparently had a long standing dream of feeding elephants that she also never mentioned to anyone and they do hourly feeding sessions where you can get up close and personal with the elephants. And to make it more Nicole-friendly, she added on tickets to the zoo’s River Safari, where they had two panda bears that I could fawn over because pandas are my favorite.
As we had every morning, we started the day with breakfast at Oscar’s in the hotel lobby. I was honestly going to be sad to leave Singapore if, for none other of the numerous reasons we kept finding, because the breakfast at the hotel was so darn good. Any whim or craving I could find myself with, they had an answer for (including, but not limited to, ice cream, dim sum, made to order eggs and omelets, so many breakfast meats, the cereal bar of my dreams and a really solid cheese board).
The Singapore Zoo is located a good distance from the city center and there wasn’t a good way to get there on public transportation (though we later found out at the zoo that there’s a shuttle between a nearby MRT station and the zoo for S$1, so we probably could have made it work, but it would have taken over an hour), so Stephanie hailed us a Grab, where the ride cost us around S$24 and took about 40 minutes.
I don’t know what was going on, but I’m pretty sure that every school child between the ages of 3 and 7 were at the zoo this day. I don’t know if it was a special program. It didn’t seem to be limited to one school, but the zoo was swarming with little people in school groups. Oddly enough, aside from the kids, the zoo seemed relatively quiet, which was still bizarre to me because I continued to expect crowds everywhere they weren’t. We exchanged our virtual tickets for hard ones at the automated kiosks and made our way to the River Safari to start our zoo adventure.
When I was little, Mom used to take Stephanie and I to the Lincoln Park Zoo all the time. Well, as many times as I would let her – apparently, I’d throw a tantrum and start screaming anytime I came anywhere near a zoo. Or animals in general, really. I’ve never been an animal person. Stephanie, though, loves the zoo, loves animals, will not hesitate to pet or play with any friendly creature – the complete opposite of me. I like zoos enough now. I’ll make it a point to visit if I can see more animals than I can see at home. Basically panda bears. I’ll visit any zoo where I can see panda bears. They’ve always been my favorite animal. I turn into a pile of mush when I see them and I literally have to be pulled away from the observation area because I’ll just stand there and stare.
The first thing that struck me about the Singapore Zoo was that it was immaculately clean. Like, (and I know I keep saying this but…) I could walk barefoot across it. I feel like I’ve said that about just about every space in Singapore, but it’s true. Not a single piece of litter, no gum stuck across the pavement. There was even a groundskeeper walking around to sweep errant leaves. The upkeep of public-facing spaces was the best in Singapore than anywhere else I’ve been in the world. The second thing was that the design of the zoo accounted really well for the climate and the fact that it can get really hot there. Instead of being out in the wide open, most of the walkways are canopied and covered, with fans blowing cool air intermittently and plenty of pavilions to duck into that have the AC on full blast.
We started dodging in and out of exhibits. We went into a sea otter exhibit where you can walk under a glass enclosure in their pool, allowing you to “play” with them. We saw the manatees getting fed their morning breakfast (cabbage – yum!) and we saw SO many fish. It kind of felt like being in The Land Pavilion or the Finding Nemo ride at Epcot!
Our walk through the River Safari led us to a boat ride, where we took a 15-minute river ride along the perimeter of the park. It was really fun and informative. I always love being on the water, and it was really cool to see the animals on land from the river!
After our boat ride, we also had tickets for the Amazon River Quest. We contemplated doing it while there was next to no line, but we realized it wasn’t a fun, leisurely boat ride like what we just got off, but rather, almost a thrill ride that would probably get us (and our camera gear) wet, and honestly few things sounded less appealing than walking around a park on a hot day in soaking wet clothes.
Instead, we decided to cross the bridge and beeline to the big attraction for me, the Giant Panda exhibit. I love panda bears. I love them so much. They’re just so calm and chill. They don’t hurt anything or anyone. They don’t want any drama. They just want to hang out, eat some bamboo, chill out and look cute doing it. What’s not to love?! As we entered the habitat, a zookeeper held up a sign with the rules for the exhibit, the big one being to keep quiet because loud noise stresses the panda bears out. This was especially important because it’s nearing the end of mating season for them (which was the reason why we couldn’t do a feeding session – it goes on pause during mating season!).
I was so smitten. I couldn’t look away. I stayed silent and in between snapping shots and going live on Instagram, I kept putting my phone down because I didn’t want to just see everything in front of me from behind a screen – I needed to see it live, relish in it, appreciate it and remember the details for as long as I could.
After two (…yeah) rounds of walks through the panda pavilion, we headed to the cafeteria outside to have a panda bao, a panda cappuccino, a Diet Coke for Stephanie and an iced Milo for me. The bao and cappuccino were a little excessive, but I was all in.
It was just past noon at this point, so we decided to hop over to the other park. My big thing was seeing the pandas, but Stephanie’s thing was that she wanted to feed an elephant, and their feeding session was at 1:30 PM and limited to 25 participants. We made a quick stop at the Starbucks in between the parks before officially crossing over, popping into a couple of exhibits on our way to the back, where the elephants are.
The Singapore Zoo is home to five elephants, ranging in age from their mid-20s to nearly 40 years old! We got to the exhibit with a half hour to spare after booking it through the park, so we sat and watched the elephants interact with each other, clearly affectionate and loving animals. It was really sweet to watch!
At 1:30 PM, the zookeeper explained that for a S$5 donation towards elephant conservation, you could buy a basket of fruits and veggies to feed to the elephants and people literally ran to line up. I wasn’t going to do it – this was more Stephanie’s thing than mine and I’m really not a walk-with-the-animals kind of girl so I was kind of squeeked out by the idea of a wild animal eating off my hand. I was a little less squeeked out by elephants because they use their nose but I still couldn’t commit to it. When the zookeepers brought the baskets out, the elephants came through the water up to the feeding area – they knew what was coming! And when I saw that everything was cut into long strips or were long pieces of fruit and that they wouldn’t have to touch me to eat it, I let Stephanie talk me into it. And I was really glad she did – it was a very special moment.
After our elephant encounter, we were pretty much done. There were a bunch of other exhibits, but we wanted to get back into the city so we could do some other stuff before we sailed off the next day. The zoo offers a tram for S$5, but admission to it was included in our tickets. It runs in a circle, so we rode for about ten minutes before we were back at the front of the zoo.
The tram dropped us off by a monkey exhibit where they’re free to play on ropes that dangle above your head. It was a little weird, but a lot cool, in how much room they have to roam and play in spaces that get them close to guests.
We debated the merits of taking the MRT back to the city as opposed to a Grab (which were much more expensive in Singapore than in Malaysia, but still a palatable expense) and ultimately ended up getting a Grab just because it was such a long ride back that we may as well do it in a comfortable, private car.
The ride back took just over a half hour and while the original plan was for Stephanie to change and then for us to head out, I passed out into an hour long nap. It was probably for the best – I was continuously exhausted on this trip – and by the time I woke up, it was the perfect time for a late lunch.
I knew I wanted to eat as many meals as possible at Hawker Centres on this trip, so we headed to Maxwell Food Centre, one of the most well known Hawker Centres in all of Singapore. They have a stall that offers Hianese Chicken Rice that is Michelin Star rated, which is crazy for a $5 chicken dish, but it really is that good! We also had some carrot cake, which isn’t like a sweet dessert (and doesn’t even seem to have carrots in it?), but something I really really liked.
After our late lunch, we just kind of wandered around Chinatown. The late afternoon sun was intense and made taking pictures challenging, but we finally found the kind of souvenir shopping we were looking for and we got shopping, picking up chopsticks and beautiful fans while perusing silk robes and jade jewelry.
We decided that since the offerings at Maxwell Food Centre were more limited than we had expected (most of the stalls weren’t open until much later in the evening) and we were still a little hungry, we headed back to Lau Pa Sat, where we FINALLY found the satay stands. They were clear across the center on the street side, and we ordered from the stall with the best reviews (per TripAdvisor, that’s 7, 8 and 10). Stephanie waited at a table for the satay while I ran inside to get a plate of that delicious braised pork belly that we had enjoyed two days earlier, only to be told they were sold out for the day. I was legitimately bummed since we were leaving the next day, but I told myself that it was better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. Gosh, that pork belly was just so good!
I did pick up some garlic naan and Stephanie and I dug in to a feast of meats on sticks. Closer to 6:30 PM, the street was shut down to traffic and tables were set up and quickly filled in with locals and tourists alike, all in search of the country’s best satay. It was the epitome of what I expected the street food scene to be like.
As we made our way back to the hotel, I was telling Stephanie how I couldn’t get over just how clean the MRT and platforms were. No transit system in the US comes close to holding a candle. It’s easy to navigate, it’s clean, it’s simple – it’s perfect.
And just as quickly as our time in Singapore started, it was drawing to an end. We were finally beginning the next phase of our adventure bright and early the next morning, when we’d board the brand new Spectrum of the Seas. So we packed (…a little) and we turned off all the lights in the room so we could take in the magnificent Singapore city lights one last time.
