At the start of the school holiday, I suggested to visit the newest attraction in town – the River Safari. The weather was so hot, humid and almost unbearable, V thought that it was a crazy idea. But seeing how much our boy loves animals, he finally said YES.
The River Safari is located at the Singapore Zoo. If you ask me what does it looks like, I’ll say it’s a little like the Underwater World, but more like the Zoo except that it doesn’t have a tram service. So, you’ll expect a bit more walking here.
The River Safari, a river-themed wildlife park, is divided into two zones – Rivers Of The World and Wild Amazonia. The Wild Amazonia River Quest, including its boat adventure along the Amazon River, is not opened yet.
At this point, highlights of the River Safari include the Giant Panda Forest, Squirrel Monkey Forest and the Amazon Flooded Forest. Kai Kai and Jia Jia, Singapore’s two Giant Pandas, can be seen at the Giant Panda Forest.
You can see a variety of aquatic animals and a HUGE amount of fishes here. I’m not particularly interested in fishes, so I find them a tad too boring. Much to my surprise, the boy was excited to see a variety of odd-looking fishes in the aquariums. Some have razor-sharp teeth, some are extremely long, some are rainbow-coloured, some have big heads with round eyes, etc.
No doubt, the nicest part of the River Safari is the Giant Panda Forest! This part is fully air- conditioned, and the air is exceptionally fresh too. It’s feels like there is an air purifier at every corner of the forest.
This forest is the house of Kai Kai and Jia Jia, and the Red Pandas. I really like these Red Pandas. One of them was sleeping on the tree branch, and when it was sleeping, it looks exactly like a panda plush toy! Its red fur is so beautiful, clean and fluffy. The other red panda was so active and it ran non-stop. Both of them look super cute.
On the contrary, the giant pandas looked a little dirty. I expect them to be snow white and black, but somehow, the snow white parts were stained and look brownish. And our boy quipped, “Why Kai Kai never showers?” Nonetheless, these giant pandas still look very adorable.
This is what Kai Kai eats everyday – 20kg of bamboos, 1kg of high fibre biscuits, 400g of carrots and 200g of apples. Looks like these giant pandas have enormous appetite too.
One more thing, we also discovered that Kai Kai was born in the same week as Little Edison. Our boy is just three days older than Kai Kai!
We had our lunch at the Mama Panda Kitchen, just outside of the Giant Panda Forest. The queue was very long, and we queued for almost 20 minutes before we got our turn. This eatery is nicely decorated with the panda theme, but I find that the food is just ordinary.
One of the highlight in this eatery is the panda bun, and there’s only a limited quantity served each day. The bun looks really cute, but if you peel the skin away, it’s just an ordinary red bean paste pau.
At the end of the day, we were all sticky and sweaty. All in all, it was a great trip and we’ll probably be back when the Wild Amazonia River Quest is opened.
The viewing deck and bridge that connect the two zones, Rivers Of The World and Wild Amazonia.
For more information about the River Safari, please visit their website at http://riversafari.com.sg/.
