The schedule showed us that we would have the Bird Park visit in the afternoon after a morning of shopping. But since it was a Saturday, plans changed and we were on our way to the Jurong Bird Park in the morning! We reached when there was barely any crowd around. Lucky us! We got our tickets and took the ride on the park Panorail which services three stations. We got down at the Lory Loft. This is the world’s largest walk in aviary. You can feed the birds for $3. They hop on you to have the food and soon you ll have around 4 or more birds trying to eat from your hands. An awesome experience! The Bird park is the World’s Largest and it also has shows for the visitors at regular timings. The Panorail ride was how we saw most of the rides as we were ill pressed for rides. After the Lory Loft experience we got into the Panorail to go to the “Bird’s of Prey” Show. I sat in the front because i wanted to get good shots! The seating area was not very big! So the show started and First came the Secretary Bird which was followed by Owls, Hawks, Eagles and some more birds of prey. An interesting show with audience participation too! Next we headed to watch the macaw’s and the parrots and the flamingos. We also got to see the Nocturnal Bird exhibit ‘The World of Darkness’. We were going to watch the next show at a different venue. Birds n Buddies Show had a bigger seating arrangement and we were advised to sit at the top so as to be able to get out more easily. I was the only one sitting so near the arena. All for a better shot 🙂
The show started and this was a more imaginatively created one with entertaining the kids one of the main ideas. It had flamingos, toucans, parrots, macaws, Pelicans, Storks..etc. They played basket ball, recited numbers , sang a happy birthday song , flew through hoops and did many more tricks!
The bird bark was an unforgettable experience but we didn’t get a chance to check it out entirely due to our schedule. The Jurong bird park is one of the 3 wildlife parks in Singapore. The Singapore Zoo and the Night Safari are the other famous Parks. We couldn’t visit them as they weren’t included in our tour. Maybe next time?
Okay so i had missed indulging in my philatelic interest in Malaysia but wasn’t going to do the same here. I had already marked the nearest post office and wished i could visit their Philatelic museum but it was too far away from the hotel to go on my own.
So after lunch and a short rest we were out shopping. We tried the OG. This is a nearby mall which is a famous Singapore mall for the Singaporeans. Its not a place Indians usually visit but we were told by our tour guide Ling that since it was the end of july it would be the shopping season and the OG would be a place where you get great deals. And boy was she right! If you wanted to buy branded clothes this was the place to go. We bought quite a bit here after roaming a lot for the elusive money changer. For every purchase of $20 or more we were entitled to a free pearl at the OG. That was a fun purchase!
So my family wanted to go to Mustafa which was still some way away from the OG and i decided to detour to the nearby post office but sadly when i found it, it was closed. I had forgotten that it was a Saturday so i trudged back to Mustafa disappointed. But hey atleast i tried!
I cut through Little India armed with my map and made it just as my family reached it. We then proceeded to buy the stuff that we had previously noted down to buy. After which we proceeded back to our hotel for lunch at 7:30pm. Our flight out of Singapore was scheduled that night at 11pm.
We managed to stuff the newly bought stuff into our luggage’s and we were off to the Airport. The Singapore airport is one among the best in the world. Its huge! The shopping area was one of the biggest i have seen, boasting the biggest brands there are! Oh and the joy when i saw a mobile post office! Finally i could buy some stamps. I ended up spending slightly more than $20 but it was worth it. I got a Grand Prix Singapore, Old Singaporean theatres, an embroidered Flower stamp and a Singapore City. I had already picked up a Bird stamp from the Hotel’s reception. Finally i got what i wanted. We also browsed the net and i tweeted my status just before we left. There were also Foos ball tables but they were occupied!
Singapore like most tourist countries has a GST(goods and service tax) on its products. So when tourist buy items, there is a scheme to reimburse the GST to them. This can be done so by producing the relevant bills of purchases. A maximum of 3 bills can be held together to produce a sum of $100 minimum to be able to get your GST refund. Mustafa however has a different procedure wherein you need to fill out a form at the mall and after you get the necessary authorities to stamp it you can drop it at the airport and in a few weeks you’ll get a demand draft delivered to you at the address of your choice. The other stores have a normal GST refund method where in you can get the cash as soon as you check in.
So We were finally leaving Singapore. I wished we could have stayed longer and visited more places but there was not much that could be done on a planned trip.
Next up: Mission Kashmir
an Innocent Life 