Komodo Dragon

"My parents used to take me to the pet department and tell me it was a zoo."
Billy Connolly

The hotel breakfast room is buzzing, a coachload of Chinese tourists are tanking up before starting their day.  Quite a strange combination for breakfast - egg fried rice, chicken sausage, "scrambled" egg and beans... When in Rome, well Singapore anyway...

We find our way to Chinatown MRT [Metro] without a hitch, and soon have our travelcard for the next two days.  The underground is user-friendly and we're soon heading out to Singapore Zoo, although the weather doesn't look that user-friendly.  There's a bus journey to take too, and it takes the best part of two hours to get there overall.  At the ticket office we're told it's mainly open air and raining - are we ok with that? Then we're sold tickets.

It starts off raining but clears, although still hot and humid so I still get wet!  The animals have their handlers well trained, occasionally coming out to perform and then getting fed [the animals, not the trainers].  The Komodo Dragon [photograph] obligingly got up at my approach, wandered around with its tongue flicking in and out, maybe thought I was a tasty morsel, bit of a soggy one by then.

And then I discovered Ah Mengs Kitchen, a sort of fast food outlet.  I hesitate to call it that because the meal I had - Nasi Lemack - was so good!  Delicately flavoured "blue" rice with a fried egg on top, chicken cooked in a light coating, green beans, nuts, cucumber with a relish.  I don't recall ever having a "fast food" meal this good before.

The return journey is quicker, getting the hang of navigating around and finding short cuts through the streets.  Also pause at the Chinatown station to have a look around at ground level.  Shops etc have opened up now and it's got busier as the city has livened up throughout the day.  It's been another long day and as the sun goes down it's time to prepare for tomorrow's explorations.