14 Oct 2014 - River Safari

Today was our first visit to River Safari, except for Javier, who was here few weeks back during an excursion by the childcare centre.  When I asked him previously what he saw in River Safari, he told me there was a "pretend" (fake) boat on the sand.  I was wondering what's that because all I know is the Amazon River Boat Cruise but that should not be on sand.  The mystery was finally revealed today.  In the following photo, did you notice a wooden boat on sand behind Javier?  That's what he's referring to.

One thing we like about River Safari is that most of the exhibits are in shelters instead of under the hot sun.  And as it's a weekday, there was not much crowd.  It's not a very big park and we covered everything comfortably in about 2 hours.

We started going through the section of the park called Rivers of the World.  It showcase animals living in the various famous rivers around the world.  The following are Alligator Gar from Mississippi River.

This is the African Dwarf Crocodile from the Congo River.

At the back of Jerlene and Javier is an Indian Gharial from Ganges River.

This is our favourite exhibit which showcase the Mekong Giant Catfish from Mekong River.  If the catfish stands on its tail, it will be taller than Jerlene and Javier.

Here are some other animals that we saw around the park.

Next comes the highlight of the park, the Giant Panda (KaiKai and JiaJia) enclosure.  We were first greeted by a Red Panda.

And here comes Kai Kai and Jia Jia.  I've seen Giant Pandas in quite a number of occasion but this is the first time I come so close to such lovely creatures.

From the Giant Panda Forest, we walked across a bridge to the next section of the park.  Amazon River Quest is another highlight of the park.  It's a boat ride that brings us to experience Amazon River environment.

Look at my two silly kids getting ready for a "drop" during the boat ride.....haha.....

Though most of the animals went into "hiding" throughout the boat ride, all of us still enjoyed it.

The last section of the park is called the Amazon Flooded Forest.

The above is Pacu, a common species of omnivorous South American freshwater fish that are related to the piranha.  Behind Jerlene and Javier are the Manatee, also known as Sea Cows.

That's the end of our River Safari visit.  Though it's much smaller than the zoo, we all still prefer it simply because we do not have to walk in the hot sun for most part of the visit.  We will be back soon!