Singapore, Dec 9 and 10

Dec 9 - today was a travel day, starting off with the treat of seeing Angkor Wat from the air after our flight circled south to head for Singapore. We arrived in the afternoon a bit of time for roaming around in the rather heavy rain. Dinner at a Chinese food market that had a great variety of foods, though a bit crowded and noisy as the popular ones seem to be.

Dec 10 - Bird zoo--long MRT ride and then bus ride. Good but very wet visit. We skipped the simulated "Tropical Thunderstorm" show, since the real thing was happening. While the rain kept the birds down somewhat, it was still great. The bird zoo has huge walk-in atria filled with tropical vegetation, waterfalls, birds--and rain shelters and thunder and lightning.

The night zoo was even better, although still wet enough to keep some of the animals in their dens. Unlike the botanical garden (good, reasonably priced food), the night zoo food was so-so and expensive. The tram ride is good, partially because it goes places you can't walk, and partially because it is fairly dry. The bats were fantastic. The flying squirrels were good too--one brushed by Ann's head! The whole place is wonderfully atmospheric and the temperature was great. We took the last bus/MRT back--long( 1 hr versus 20 minutes) and not really worth it unless you are short on money or long on local color, but comfortable enough and it worked.

Small Internet victory after returning from the night zoo: I wired up a USB wifi adapter on on long cable around to the back wall of the hotel, with a wire creeping out one of our windows, sealed against air conditioning. The result appears to be a reliable Internet connection. To celebrate this newly robust Internet connection, I uploaded my picture to www.scroogeyourself.com. You are welcome to view it at your leisure here:
http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1258251071

Tomorrow we do a few things in Singapore, then head for the airport at 2pm.