river safari

*back dated entry*

couple of months ago, we signed up for the NUS welfare thing to ballot for free tickets to river safari & luck for us, we managed to get 4 free tickets!!!! so me, my bf went down to river safari went down with 2 of our lab mates since the rest were not free.... for those who are staying in the west, i recommend you all to go to choa chu kang station to take 927, it takes about 15-20min to reach zoo for a smooth traffic.... for those who are staying in the north then can take 138 from ang mo kio... before we knew about bus 927, we used to take train from clementi to ang mo kio to take bus 138, somemore there was no circle line during those time, can you imagined how much time we spent on travelling....

bus stop at zoo

i also recommend for those who intend to stay in the zoo or river safari for the whole day to bring your own food to picnic cause there is really very limited choices of food there... the cheapest option will be KFC at the entrance but it is still like $2+ more than what you can find outside.... personally i will always opt for picnic but today i dont have time to prepare food & we wont stay there for so long so we just had KFC for lunch prior to entering river safari

river safari entrance

halloween signboards

since now is oct, so there is halloween theme but we are not there during the specific dates so we didnt see much halloween decorations.... & the admission tickets to river safari DOES NOT include the boat ride so you have to purchase a separate ticket... & according to my friend you need to book it early before it ran out...

amazon quest tickets

now there are 2 boat rides, the amazon quest & river quest.... both are at $5 each.... the river cruise seem more relaxing but you will be seeing more scenery than specific animal attractions.....

main entrance

river safari map

i would say river safari is really pretty small compared to the zoo, you can actually finished everything in less than 2hr unless you like to camp at specific exhibitions....  there are 2 sides which are connected at the main entrance & the bridge at the end.... i would say river safari is actually just part of what you will see in the zoo & the "main" attraction will probably be the pandas... personally i am not a fan of them so i dont really see the need to purposely go to river safari, zoo is still my favourite =)

inside river safari

normally people will start the trail on the left but we started on the right first since we want to reach the river safari station before the allocated time slot... similar to the SEA aquarium, there are also huge fish tanks in river safari but lesser compared to former... it is located on the right of the main entrance....

otters

more otters

cute otter baby

stingray

fishes

dugong swimming upsize down

BIG fish tank

halloween  decoration along the walkway

since we are ahead of schedule, we went to see the panda first

interesting fact: panda actually has 6 digits & they are orientated like human, thats pretty cool... but i prefer red panda than normal panda... they look so much cuter!!!

red panda

we went in around 1+ to 2pm so i think it is the nap time for them so they are sleeping happily on the branch... after enjoying the aircon at panda exhibition, we went to queue for our boat ride

river cruise boat

river cruise entrance

amazon river quest entrance

queuing for the boat ride

the boat

the amazon quest ride is actually like those rides inside USS or disneyland, you only get the glimpse passed those exhibitions... & again we went at the wrong timing, is afternoon so most of the animals are napping & hiding under some shelter so we couldnt see most of the animals....

some monkey & i can only see the fur

tapir

tapir? i not sure though

couldnt see any tamarin

capybara enjoying their dip

jaguars hiding under the shade

flamingo

red birds

so basically that's almost all the animals you will see during the the amazon quest... i actually doubt the ride has 10min since like we just breeze through everything.... after the ride, we went to the panda cafe for tea break since we gotten $20 food voucher together with the free tickets

panda cafe

even the chairs has panda design

the famous panda bun

there are 2 flavours to the panda buns, chocolate & red bean.... chocolate is definitely better... mango pudding is ok but taste more like mango mousse... but the gyoza is like omg tough... the skin is like made of plastic... so that's a no no..... after the tea break, we continued with the other exhibits...

another big fish tank

some amazon birds

blue fishes

giant salamander

 this salamander is amazing... if you didnt look carefully at the tank, i would have missed it.... another amazing thing is the name.... 娃娃鱼?? like which part of it look like a doll or something petite???

turtle

when we were walking along the exhibits we saw turtle & alligator being put in the same tank, we were really surprised but after seeing this sign board then we understood why.... haha.... screw you alligator!!!

basically that's all to the river safari... of cause i didnt take photo of all the exhibits but more or less everything is here.... lets end this post with the cute red panda soft toy =)

red panda soft toy

important things to take note when moving house

so recently i just shifted into my parent's BTO, so the passed 1 month was like super busy with packing, unpacking & clean up... we still havent finished the unpacking but at least we have some moveable spaces now... so for the passed 2 yr i had like 7 shifting: i shifted lab 2x & upcoming the 3rd time in dec, for home i also shifted 3 times & soon i am going to do 1 more to shift into my bf's parents' home while we hunt for our flat.... so i would say by now, i am pretty experienced in moving.... so i want to share some important tips that i came out with & hopefully they will be useful to you guys....

1. TRIM your fingernails
i know it may sound huh?? but it is crucial ok.... i am not talking about spoiling your manicure, cause every time my nails chipped like mad when packing & it can be very painful.... you will be like so damn frustrated with packing & painful fingers are certainly not something you want to experience..... so please do trim your nails to avoid unnecessary painful experience

2. stock up stationery
things like thick marker pens & tapes are especially essential for packing... of cause the movers will provide you with tapes but sometimes they are not enough & you might want to invest in some paper tape to wrap important things... cause normal tapes will sure leave a sticky mark on your items but paper tapes can be removed easily.....

3. distribute items weight in the boxes
this is especially so if you have alot of heavy items cause most movers have only 1 type of boxes & they tend to be quite big... so if you putting things like clothes, 1 full box is still manageable but IF it is a full box of books then nobody can carry it... for us, we will put like at most 1/3 box of heavy stuff then top it up with light items like pillows, bags, etc

4. layer the bottom of the box for putting fragile items
you can put TONNES of fragile sign on the boxes & i can guarantee you that the movers will still anyhow carry the boxes... sometimes its not their intention to not handle with extra care but accidents do happen... so you have to do your part in protecting your items... for kitchenware then you have to wrap with newspaper or bubble wraps & layering the bottom is important too cause it will lesser the impact... you can layer it with newspaper or plastic containers, etc

5. throw away useless/not important items
i think we all have the tendency to buy extra stuff when there are sales & just put them aside so moving house is a good time to do some serious spring cleaning & really discard things that you dont need.... of cause if you have lots of space in new home then probably you dont need to throw away so many things... but if you are shifting into a smaller place, clearing useless stuff is crucial.... you dont have to throw everything away... if things are still in good conditions, you can always sell them online or donate to people....

6. get quotes from several movers
i heard some movers do overcharge their customers... when we sell off our items, some buyers told us that their movers charged them $1k+ to move their things when they have lesser stuff than us.... we gotten citimap to move our home... i wont say they are the best, but they do quote reasonable prices & the workers are really efficient

7. DO NOT let movers anyhow jet up prices
you need to be stern with those movers, like all businessman, they all like to cheat people $ so you must tell them EXACTLY what you need to move & must be firm with the price they quoted... one trick they like to use is they bring a small lorry on the moving day then say you have too many items & need to get extra transport so need to charge more....DO NOT give in....insist on the price quoted & say is the movers fault for not getting the right lorry size...

8. layer a plastic sheet on the floor during moving
the plastic sheet i referring to is the thick kind that people used during renovation... our kind neighbour has kindly gave us 1 sheet & we put it in the living room.. so the movers all dump the boxes on top of the sheet... this will minimize the scratches on your tiles

so above are the useful tips that i came up with for moving... although moving is a very tiring & troublesome thing, at least you will gain 1 thing which is lose weight.... cause you will bound to sweat more & carrying items... i think i lost at least like 1L of sweat & tone up abit of my arm muscle =)

baby dash

once in awhile i do surf xiaxue blog & her facebook page just to kill time... not her fan or anything but seriously her baby, dash, is such a CUTIE!!!! ang moh babies really are LOVELY!!!! most of them have BIG eyes & pinch-able cheek!!!! OMG!!! how to resist!!!! i am also quite excited to see how my kids will look like in future since my bf is half malay... & normally they have sharper features than chinese =) but that's still a LONG LONG LONG time later... so i want to share 2 of my dash's videos.... his expression is just so cute!!! enjoy =)

legendary Hong Kong @ jurong point

*back dated entry*

i think by now quite a number of people especially those staying in the west should have known about the new layout in Jurong point... so for the JP2 level 3, they turned it into a 1960s Hong kong street.... actually i find those neon signboards quite disturbing cause they are too close to the eye level... but is their design... what can i say... the main highlight of that level i guess would be the legendary hong kong cafe... it really has the hong kong cafe (茶餐厅)look... & previously there was like a super long queue but today there wasnt so i went in to try....

九如烧腊

the cafe actually has 3 units or even more & they have 3 different signboards... at first i thought they are different stores but apparently they are 3-in-1.... & the main entrance is at the 九如烧腊....

interior design of the cafe

i didnt take a picture of the menu but they sell almost everything... from dim sum, to BBQ meat to rice & noodle.... at first i wanted to try the roast pork but my bf cant eat pork so gave up on that idea... in the end i go for wanton noodle because of a very important thing.... they have RED vinegar!!!!

red vinegar!!!

this may be not very common in SG but red vinegar is like a MUST have for all the cafe in hong kong... it really goes well with wanton noodle... so i decided to give it a shot... if a simple dish like wanton noodle, the store also screw it up then i can just forget about coming back to eat.....

HK style wanton noodle

the look of it was ok.... wantons are acceptable... the noodle was better than what i ate in SG, pretty close to HK style... first bite was nice but subsequently it kind of die down.... the difference between HK & SG noodle is that former is more chewy & bouncy... i guess is the type of ingredient used & i absolutely prefer HK style.... & my style of eating wanton noodle is to add ALOT of red vinegar.... so i practically dump the whole bottle into my bowl.... fyi, red vinegar isnt as sour as the black one so you can add more...

diced chicken fried rice

炸两

my bf had the fried rice, very average lo.. the 炸两 was not too bad... at least they didnt use the overnight 油条or else will be super soggy..... i think on the whole the cafe is ok... price wise is like $10-15/pax if you eat simple stuff.... & the cafe goes for very HK style layout so if you want to like sit down comfortably for a nice dinner then probably not the place for you since it is a bit cramp.... probably will go down again & the next time i will try the roast pork =)