TnT's Workout Blog

Today is another first time: we visit Little India and of course we are mistaken as tourists, and people try to sell us all sort of stuff. At Mustafa we can't resist the temptation anymore, but purchase us a dinnerware set (Made in USA), and a couple of Victorinox items for kitchen.

We make the fundamental error of trying to be environmentally friendly and use public transport to reach the place: first a bus to Clementi MRT, then EW train line to Pasir Ris, then taxi from the there to Changi Village, and finally a bumboat from Changi Point Ferry Terminal. It takes us two hours to reach the island. Plus we spent an hour standing in the overcrowded and freezing train. A taxi trip the whole way would have taken 30 to 40 minutes. Next time we know.

First we have lunch at the Ubin first Stop Restaurant: sea bass prepared sweet and sour and mixed vegetables with steamed rice. Then we spend near to four hours walking around the island, mostly on unpaved trails and areas we have not visited before. This is also the first time we visit Chek Jawa, but unfortunately the tide is so high we don't really see the reefs. The visitor center is certainly welcoming with its fireplace, supposedly the only working one in Singapore.

• large cats: jaguars, leopards, lions, and cheetahs.
• monkeys and apes: baboons, gibbons, chimpanzees, cotton-top tamarins, long-tailed macaques (the most common wild monkey in Singapore), and a little rarer ones, like orangutans, both Bornean and Sumatran.
• bears --- sun bears and polar bears.
• giraffes, zeebras, ostrich, lamas, and tapir

We also saw less common species, some of which we had never seen or heard from before, like komodo dragon, white tiger, pygmy hippo, proboscis monkey, maned wolf, false ghavial, and Malaysian flying fox. Unfortunately, we did not see meerkats and Asian otters, even if their exhibits were there.

The zoo was a very good experience, although less human presence would have been appreciated: especially there were a lot of kids. The most remarkable exhibit was the free-ranging orangutan island: they had their own island on which the animals can touch the land, but they could travel within much larger range in tree-tops above the visitors.

In the photos from top down (and from left to right, depending on your browser window): some lizards we don't know the name of, baboons, a cheetah, a cheetah taking a cell phone picure of himself, a tapir, a polar bear, then a flying fox, a ring-tailed lemur, and a butterfly in the Fragile Forest exhibit where animals roam free, and finally a tribesman Kai (namesake of Tei's brother).

The race route was relatively flat with the exception of a couple of highway ramps. Also, most of the time the course was wide enough to fit the runners comfortably, but it got quite crowded, too, when slower runners or walkers did not move to the sides.

We had a post-run brunch at Brunch restaurant in Pan Pacific Singapore hotel, where we stayed the pre-run night. We also attended Finnish Embassy's independence day reception at the Tower Club the night before the race. Unfortunately, there is no photos available of Tei's run but a video when she crosses the finish line.