"Erm erm" at the Night Safari

It's kinda of a funny 'misadventure' in the whole Night Safari thing.

My sis got the staff letter from her boss to get 4 admitted into the Night Safari. But there's a catch, the staff must be there and produce the staff card. So her boss loaned her the card. BUT looking at the pic, none of us look like that. Maybe my mom but in the end she didnt want to go.

So is left with me or my sister, Geoky. Only I among us both, only I seemed to be able to carry off a straight face and lie through without batting an eyelid. So we headed there, my sis, Dad (who didnt know about our dilemna) and me. I combed my hair to the very side parting to make some sort of resemblance. I cant help the fact that I look younger, and my hair was coloured compared to her boss...

When we arrived. I went on ahead while they waited at the zoo area, to go get the tix. Though my sister's collegues were telling her that they just quickly flash the staff card. This particular lady whom served me, took the staff card, looked at me and said "Erm..." I could see she was trying to see if there was resemblance. I looked at her with a straight face and said "Erm...." then mumbled a bit about it being an old photo. So after a short, uncomfortable pause, she processed the letter and gave me a tix to admit. I paid for 3x tram rides of $30 total.

Then I walked back to find my sis and dad. Dad was still kept in the dark cos we know he would nag non-stop about honesty and all the stuff if he knew of the complicated ruse of posing as my sis's boss. We ate KFC right outside the zoo entrance before going in. Over our meals, I was telling my sis about the whole 'adventure' and the "erm erm". Seriously for an adult with tram ride, tix is $32 per person! Freaking expensive. If not for this 'free' entry except for tram, I wouldnt even wanna pay. The worse-case scenario is that in the end, I wasnt successful in the impersonation and had to resort to buying 3 full price tix and just bluff my dad that they were free. PHEW!

After dinner, around 7.30pm, everything closed. Including the KFC, the Cheers. Everything at the Zoo corner closed. Then we walked with a full belly towards the Night safari. We entered and walked 1 of the trail nearest to the entrance. It was quite refreshing initially esp when you walk and see the noctural animals like deers, crocodile. But later we reached the end of the trail and we had to walk quite a long distance back to the entrance area to watch the Animal Show and later take the Tram ride. By then my dad was breathing hard already. I whispered to my sis that most likely we watch the show and take tram, end cos no chance can get Dad to walk much more. His heart plus severely obese, made it difficult for him to walk too much. More so in the dark trails with slopes.

The animal show was alright. Surprised at the size of the wolf and hyena, also how cute the fishing cat was. Not impressed with the otters cos of the previous otter-sex encounters just a couple of months back. Think the show is really for kids.

After that we headed for the Tram ride. While we were waiting in the queue for the animal show, we saw the tram passengers alighting and there was a wall of photos taken while people were in the tram. We were observing how they printed out everything and there were a few takers. We were trying to see how much the photos cost. It cost $20 for it. Its a rather big photo. We agreed that if the shot was decent, can consider paying when its our turn. When we just got on, within seconds, a guy came and took photos with just 1sec of notice. Err my eyes were half closed in the photo. But overall we all look decent and we did pay for that photo.

The tram ride was rather cooling. Got to see many animals indeed (including a bull elephant facing its ass straight at the road where the trams would pass by and poohing) Cos of the dark, couldnt see too clearly for me, my sis was telling me she saw something drop. Really saw many diff animals though we didnt go to the other 3 walking trails. After the ride, we walked out. I dont think I would want to go again unless its free. $32 is totally not worth it. Very over-priced even by tourist standards. My sis was saying that at least in Taipei, we headed to touristy places and the stuff were pretty cheap, they had a range of prices and not overly expensive unlike Sg. I totally agree.

Feeling thirsty, we were considering getting a drink or an ice-cream. But the food-court superbly over-priced! A nasi brayani cost $17-$19. Chilli crab is $56. A sweet and sour hotplate costs $20+ OMFG!!! A can of coke cost $4. We decided we rather go elsewhere. Also took a peep in the merchandise shops. Bloody expensive. A plushie cost mostly near $30. There was a nice polo for $35 but I decided not to. The cheapest was some flimsy looking small key chain of sort. No thanks. My dad offered to treat us Bens & Jerrys but we think he is not familiar with the premium pricing of the ice-cream. He pointed at certain pics of Mix and Match, Sundaes that had several scoops of ice-cream, and they cost $15-$16. We told Dad that we rather go elsewhere. Plus obviously he not willing to pay the premium price for the ice cream. My dad is still in the mass-market type ice cream.

We headed to the car, got out some canned drinks and drank. Then headed home. Missed the connection from KJE and landed near Tuas. Then made it home near midnight. I slept around 1am plus after all the 'excitement'.

I wouldnt want to go to both zoo or the night safari until maybe ten years later. Not that I dont like animals. But having seen so many documentaries about them, learn so much about their natural habitat and seeing them just hanging around in the zoo is just so shallow. Plus didnt really learn alot about facts. The only thing is the size. Certain animals are just so large in real-life compared to what is seen in the documentaries. Can appreciate the raw power of the animal from its size and build.