Singapore Safari

We took an early day off last Friday to go to Singapore's Night Safari and put the stress levels down a bit from work. We hung out at one of the bars near the office and some of us had a few beers before heading out. There's nothing like a couple of free Corona's to start your early weekend.

Our group consisted of 5 people so we split into 2 groups, with me ending up with the project director. We had a good chat with regards to our history in the company goes, some of the current events happening and where the company will be going in the following years (and where we see ourselves in it as well).

We arrived a bit early for the night safari, bought our tickets and had a quick dinner (all
a part of company expenses mind you). Then off we went! There were a few "rules" set for the safari and these were:

1. No laser pointers or flashlights
2. No flash photography
3. Keep all extremities within the tram
4. Don't touch or feed the animals

I knew I was screwed when I heard the no flash photography rule. True enough, I had no good photographs of the animals we saw, which was a whole lot! Funny thing is you could see the animals quite well with the lights setup but I guess the lights were carefully chosen for human eyes while not interfering with the natural behavior of the animals. Imagine a full moon type effect. Therefore no picture evidence for me.

We saw elephants, tigers, lions, all kinds of birds, hippos, deer, all the things you see in Discovery Channel and more. Some of them where as close as a couple of meters away, while the big ones where around 20 or so meters, as close as you could get I suppose. There where also trails where the animals where just above you or a few feet in front of your face! Of course, you were highly discouraged from touching or feeding them.

Then we went to the "Creatures of the Night" show. It was great! We were all seated in an amphitheater and the showcased some wonderful animals. A barn owl flying overhead us barely made a sound! Some kind of a cat that was able to jump 10 feet into the air, and a whole bunch of furry little animals.

There was a whole bunch of walking during the night, and it made me wish that I brought along (and wore) my MARPAT pants! Hehehe. The place was huge! It was a real jungle, with streams, rolling terrain, trails, roads, and of course "wild" animals. I was already imagining myself patrolling the trails, watching out for enemy troops....