31/12/09 - Jurong Bird Park

Today, Wade and Athene had the day off, so we all went to the Jurong Bird Park. Straight up, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality and size of the park, it features about half of the land being open air, a quarter with 2 massive aviaries that you could walk into and the last quarter being large cages for the birds of prey.

We started out at the Penguin exhibit, where you would go inside an air conditioned building and view the penguins through glass that showed both above and below the water. It was good to be able to view the larger penguins this way, as they need it to be cold, though the glass above the water line was pretty dirty.

Exiting the building, we saw the colourful Macaw, the very pink Caribbean Flamingos, went through the empty 'Birds of Prey' show area, that had some good educational displays and onto the Cranes. The Cranes too were completely open to the sky, I can only assume they are fed very well to keep them in their correct area. I couldn't see any clipped wing

s on any of the birds.

We saw African Flamingos and Pelicans on large open ponds on the way to the parrots and other like birds. They were all individually caged, which was a bit of a bummer, it does make them easier to see, but the bars wreck any chance of a good photo, and the birds really could use some extra room. They set out the birds in the area going around the globe, starting out in South America and ending up in Australia with a few pests I recognise from home.

They also had Blue-Eyed Cockatoos from Papua New Guinea, which I've never heard of before, but were very striking.

By some luck, the Pelican show was about to start as walked by it. The show area consisted of a large water tank with a glass side, full of large fish. The show started with a talk about the fish in the tank and ramped up once a keeper arrived with a bucket

of fish. By then the Pelicans had all flown up and were perched over the water tank. Most species of pelican from around the world were represented and ALL were very keen on the keeper with the fish. The show was light hearted and educational, as one keeper would give us a run down on the pelicans and their abilities, while the other keeper would throw fish at them to point them out to us.

Towards the end of the show they threw huge handfuls of fish directly into the water, to show us how the pelicans can stab through the water and really spread out their beak to scoop up the fish.

We rushed out of there, as I had an appointment with some birds to feed at the African Waterfall Aviary. It's the largest wal

k in Aviary on site, with a tropical rainforest setting and a 30m high waterfall in the middle. We went there for the bird feeding session, also kept educational via the attending keepers. They give you a little cup of live worms to try and entice the birds to eat from, and if you're lucky, they may even perch on your hand instead of swooping in for the food.

Around the park there is a Monorail, and we caught it from inside the Aviary here and did a full loop of the park. It was a pretty good, but not essential little addition to the experience.

From there it was past the large flightless bird enclosure, the birds of prey cages and onto the other massive walk through aviary, this one full of Australian Lorikeets. I got to feed these ones as well, with a bowl of juice and juice pulp. It took a little while for the buggers to come, but finally I managed to entice some.

We had lunch there, though it wasn't fantastic, and then went through the bird of paradise walk through aviary, around the cages that held many varieties of Toucans and Hornbills, both impressive beaked birds in their own right. Athene had a theory that the birds were hiding at the back of the cage away from us, which could be true, as I reckon they could have been scared off from all the bird calls she was making!

By this stage, time was really getting away from us and we picked up the pace for the rest of the attractions. The crowned pigeons were pretty, with a very large fan of feathers on their head, the Kingfisher exhibit was a bit cramped and dark and missing the Kookaburra in my opinion.

The Ibis's had a central glassed walkway to view them from, and the Heliconia Walk (and the Heliconias in general all over the park was pretty. We went in the Owl Exhibit next, which was in darkness for the owls, I even saw a owl that looked like Hedwig (from Harry Potter fame).

We set out to find the special ducks for Athene, even touring through the entire east asian bird aviary, but alas, they must have been elsewhere.

It was almost closing time when we exited and we got a taxi back to Wade and Athene's with a VERY animated Taxi driver that I made out bits and pieces out as he told us of good places to see, and 'excellent' sales going on around the city.

Once we got back, it was time to get ready for the night.....

30/12/09 - Marina Barrage

It was a later start today, the previous day of no sleep and straight to touring the city really took it out of me. Started the day with Wade taking me for lunch at the 'Scissors Curry', a local indian eatery that is close to the where Wade lives that uses a pair of scissors to cut up your meats or other ingredients before you mix in your rice and curry. Was pretty good, not too hot at all.

My destination today was the Marina Barrage, a building I had spotted f

rom the top of the Singapore Flyer the previous day.

It's located at the mouth of the river here, with dual duties of flood control and turning the water in the bay from salt to fresh over time. The barrage itself is impressive, if fairly standard, but it's the building that houses the pumps that's impressive. The grass roof sweeps around and down a central courtyard that houses fountains and sculptures

with children going berserk through said fountains. The building is mostly over the water, and has a cafe (awesome chocolate milkshake to be had) an educational history on water supply of Singapore, with a scale working model of

the barrage, and almost the best part of all, it's all air conditioned!

The roof is grassed and it's overrun with families, kids, couples and tourists. Quite a few people were flying kites from there, most absentmindedly, but interesting to see regardless. I got some great photos of the shipping moored off in the ocean, as well as the city, though it was a bit hazy with the rain about to roll in.

Speaking of rain, I made my way across the barrage and got 'stranded' halfway by a heavy downpour. After about 10 minutes it stopped, and I continued on to look at the boat lift, and as I was walking back, I noticed by looking at the water surface, that it was raining on one side of the barrage on not on the other. I picked up my pace but I still got wet on th

e last section of the barrage as I ran into the building for shelter.

The land around the Marina Barrage is currently being developed into a parkland, so it's earthworks and half finished buildings everywhere. There's whole fields of full grown trees in 'pots' that no doubt are to be transplanted into the new park lands. I've seen one of two like this before, but never on the scale or number that I saw here.

I caught the MRT (subway) back into the city central, killing time looking through the shops there, and met up with Wade and Athene at the Clarke Quay station for dinner. We went to their favourite place for crab, although in the end we never did get the crab, filling up on everything else, as well as the restaurant being slack and not bringing it out on time. We did have prawns in shell with some sort of crunchy, spicy coating I quite liked, a tofu dish with mushroom and something else I'm now not sure what it was, but it was good.

After dinner we had a look around Clarke Quay in full, it's a restaurant/tourist district and was bustling. It also has a giant slingshot and swing attraction, which we amused ourselves to the terrified riders for a while.

We got a taxi back to the apartment and that was the day done.

29/12/09 - Singapore Flyer

After dropping off the bulk of my luggage at Wade's apartment, we headed into the city to check out the Red Hat offices and get the lovely Athene (Wade's wife) to go out to lunch. We had Japanese and I got lessons on chopstick use.

Then it was time to explore the city! After meaning to catch the train to the harbour front I ended up somewhere in near the river, which turned out to be handy. Manage to get onto a tourist boat and get a short tour of the river, buildings and bridges before ending up out in the bay disembarking near the tourist icon, the Merlion. (Pictured)

Looking over the bay there are thousands of white buoys all clustered up. Had me completely stumped what they were for, but as I found out later, they all have New Year wishes and messages written on them from the locals for the new year celebrations. As I explored more around the bay, there is a lot of preparation work going on for near years eve, with sound system installation, more buoys to be installed and firework platforms being installed.

I'm really interested in architecture and Singapore has it in spades. On the river tour I spotted many interesting buildings, including one that looked like a UFO, but the building, or buildings that have really got my attention was the Marina Bay Sands, that is currently under construction. Imagine 3 sweeping skyscraper with what could be described as a surfboard on top of them connecting and overhanging them. In front are what looks like convention centres and the bottom half of a massive sphere under construction.

After a bit of research I found out it's a Casino/Motel/Entertainment complex, with the towers being motels, and the 'surfboard' along the top housing a pool and deck restaurant.

It's absolutely fascinating me.

I walked around the bay area, over the river and headed to my next eye catching building that I spotted from the river cruise, the Esplanade complex. It features a glass roof with golden 'scales' over it in a basic bubble shape. The piers along here were also having sound equipment installed for new years eve and I could hear off in the distance sound checks on a massive floating stage.

My new destination was the Singapore Flyer, a massive ferris wheel that towers over the city where it is built. It never stops turning so you have to be careful as you board the pods on it. Freaking out a bit as it got higher and higher I got some great city, ocean and bay photos all the while checking out the construction of the Flyer, looking for defects.

Right under the wheel is a fish pond with those colourful fish you can purchase some fish feed for. The Flyer pods are air conditioned, and in order to ensure that the air conditioning condensation does not spill onto anything, it is stored inside the pod and released into the fish pond as it passes overhead. Pretty neat really.

Eventually I walked back into the CBD headed back to Wade's and we went out to Chinese. More chopstick practice! Then we went looking through some toy / collectable shops where I spotted one of the toy transformers I had as a kid. It would just about have been a antique now, but there it was of all places.

29/12/09 - Singapore Arrival

Well, after 7 hours of red eye flight, Singapore, here I am! Flight had everything, screaming kids, electronics not working, food was good though.

Pro tip, the exit row seats indeed give you more leg room, but the video screen and food trays that would go on the back of the seat in front are instead incorporated into the armrests, which means a lot LESS arse room. I believe I will be square shaped for while now. And no windows!

The forward and downward facing cameras where pretty cool though, nice touch.

I managed to navigate out of the maze that is Changi Airport, collect my luggage and meet up with Wade out the front. Wade might have mentioned that I was the last one of my flight out (maze I tell you!) and we took the light rail through the city to his place.

Apparently the security guys in the airport only load one bullet in their guns, the pickpockets are all little girls and the cars will run over me. About to head out to lunch and get some exploring done.

Oh! And I am now 2 hours behind Queensland time.

What was I thinking?

Welcome to Jarod's travel blog of wonder!

The flight from Emerald to Brisbane was uneventful, except for the lady I was sitting next to, for some reason she was freaked the hell out about me, kept glancing at me and looking nervous.

Arrived a bit late at the airport and took a cab out to meet up with Jade who was staying at the Novatel Motel, a new place close to the airport that smelled odd and had a direct feed of the flight times from the airport. Which someone could not get enough of!

Got a taxi back to the international airport, had a cherry ripe muffin, found some free wifi and waited till 1.30am for the boarding call.

Currently sitting on the tarmac in the plane at the Brisbane Internation Terminal, thinking 'I'm doing what now?'