Rajeev's World: An Afternoon At The River Safari

Monday, August 18, 2014

An Afternoon At The River Safari

After a walk through the colonial district of Downtown Core and a rather relaxed lunch at Toast Box at CHIJMES, we took the MRT to head to the Ang Mo Kio district in the northern part of Singapore from where we headed to the wildlife reserve complex adjacent to the Upper Seletar Reservoir. The wildlife reserve complex has three attractions - the Singapore Zoo, the Night Safari and the River Safari...

As time on hand was limited, we had to prioritise between the three. Neeti and I voted for the Night Safari and the River Safari, simply because of their uniqueness. We had heard a lot about the Night Safari earlier and the novelty of seeing animals in their recreated "natural" habitat. And the River Safari was a no-brainer, we missed out a date with endangered pandas during our China trip in May 2013.

We took the MRT from City Hall MRT station. The journey was a bit long and we dozed off a bit on the way...

The metro wagon had an advertisement of an online dating website...

I instantly recalled a discussion that Neeti and I had with a Singaporean way back in early 2009. Faced with falling birth rates, the Singaporean government went about encouraging young Singaporeans to get lovestruck, marry and have multiple kids, fiscal incentives were given...

Fortunately, for us in India, we are on the cusp of reaping a demographic dividend...

At Ang Mo Kio, we took a bus to take right to the gates of the Singapore Zoo complex...

Incidentally, Neeti and I were the only passengers in the SBS bus, but despite that the driver was very mindful to check at each bus-stop whether there were any commuters there.

After a good 30 minutes on the bus, we reached the Zoo complex...

The Zoo complex was set up nearly 40 years back and set besides the Upper Seletar Reservoir, the pristine natural environment provided the backdrop to house animals brought from all over the world...

The River Safari was set on 12 hectares between the Zoo and the Night Safari in 2012, and it showcases river environments from over the world, including the Ganga, Yangtze, Mississippi, Amazon, Mekong, Murray, Congo and River Nile...

Thanks to our iVenture passes, we got to the fast forward ticket counter, skipping the lines...

I remember, we used to have fried Nile Perch fillets in Uganda... they were yum...

But I never knew the Nile Perch was a predatory species in the Lake Victoria. Introduction of the Nile Perch in East Africa's Lake Victoria led to a near-ecological disaster with indigenous freshwater species getting wiped out... It is considered as one of the world's 100 worst invasive species. In fact, Queensland in Australia levies heavy fines on anyone found in possession of a living Nile perch