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.

Siam Reap, Dec 5, 6, and 7

Angkor Wat - the centerpiece.

Siam Reap, Dec 4 through 8

We're now in Cambodia, having arrived on the 4th with no hitches. After a morning on our own at Angkor Wat temple, we hooked up with David Cardinal's group. We visited temples, starting at 4 or 5 am to catch the morning light, for the next several days.

Singapore, Dec 3, 2007

Singapore, Dec 3, 2007

Greetings folks. Another fine, busy Singapore day. We got up early, hit up Starbuck's for some early morning java, and hailed a cab for a pleasant 20 minute air-conditioned ride to the zoo (pronounced zoo-eh here). Suffice it to say, this is a blow-away excellent zoo. Right up there in the big leagues with San Diego.

A pair of cheetahs were among the early attractions. They had quite a large, grassy area to romp in, and the keepers had hidden raw bits of meat here and there in the grass, so there was plenty of prowling going on.

There were two baby chimps. This was the younger of the two, with its mom.

The orangutangs were free to roam overhead in the treetops, which were connected by climbing nets. There was a new baby, already starting to do some experimental climbing, 50 feet above ground, while mom watched casually.

This rather lumpish looking lizard, and two more just like him, were busy roaming around their enclosure rather happily. I'm guessing that the warm climate perks them up, and they are really much more lively than we typically see them in colder climates.
The tapirs were one of the last animals we saw - this is a baby, still with about half his stripes.

Evening was spent in Little India, chowing down in one of the food courts. In a few scant hours, we will be heading to the airport at 4am, for our flight to Siam Reap, Cambodia, the location of the Angkor Wat temple complex.

Take care.

Singapore ,Dec 2, 2007

Singapore, Dec 2, 2007

Our hotel is the New Seventh Storey - a plain but well-kept hotel with one of this manually operated elevators. Air conditioned, and enough of a stray WiFi signal to keep in the Internet. Heaven!

Visited the ATM, bought our nifty transportation tickets, and hopped the air conditioned double decker bus for the Botanical Gardens.

The botanical gardens are gigantic! Within the gardens is a section dedicated to just orchids, with thousands of varieties. I personally only saw a few hundred of them, so I don't know. They might be exaggerating...

These particular orchids were a very vivid purple color that instantly washes out on camera.

Some bona fide liverworts. They look similar to the Nov 30 ones from Takora Gorge.

We took a break, then went to the river that evening for a boat ride and a nice dinner of pepper crab. Tomorrow, it's the Singapore zoo!

Taipei and Singapore, Dec 1, 2007

Taipei, Dec 1, 2007

Heading for a temple in Taipei, we came across these fellows, all dressed up and happy to have their picture taken. Some sort of festival was in progress, more than likely related to the round flowery signs that we in other parts of the country that I mentioned earlier.

One of the larger temples was setting up several giant marching puppets for a parade, and they strutted around in front of the temple. Evidently this was a big deal since there were two satellite uplink trucks, and TV cameras from Tapei channel 7 and PSB. This was serious stuff, with no clapping or other applause. I got a bit of video of this, which shows how they swing their arms in time to the rather raucous live music.

I always wonder what little kids think of these things. This guy looks as if he is wondering a little if the giant puppets are real or not, though he was only a few feet from seeing the people put on the puppet gear.

A somewhat bemused little guy and his mom, also watching the puppet spectacle.

Sliced fruits and vegetables at a juice stand in the "Tourist Market".

This puppy knows his way around heavy equipment!

We finished up our last day in Taipei, hopped on the plane for Singapore, and took a cab to our hotel, very tired. Our first reaction: man is it warm!