Back to Singapore, again!

We spent another long weekend in Singapore. It's so close and we've learned the public transportation system pretty well so it's pretty easy to just take off and go. And there is "onboard" entertainment for B:

We went back to the Zoo (because we love it) but we also visited a new spot—Sentosa Island. This is a HUGE island resort just off the southern coast of Singapore. One tagline for the place is "Asia's Favorite Playground." Here are just a couple of items of interest at Sentosa: Universal Studios,  Maritime Experiential Museum (under renovation), S.E.A. Aquarium, Madame Tussaud's Singapore, Butterfly Park and Insect Kingdom, tons of beaches.

We only had time for one of the many spots in Sentosa so we visited the S.E.A. Aquarium. Great place though the traffic flow through the place isn't very good. The website says they have over 100,000 marine animals and over 1,000 species in 50 different habitats.

But first things first. I always love a great undersea mural. I would love to someday paint something like this on a wall in my office!

We thoroughly enjoyed spending time watching this giant Pacific octopus. Fabulous! So often with octopus they are hiding.

There were lots of opportunities to take photos that might become screen savers for my computer. Here are two possibilities.

We saw lots of cool fish of course, most found in the Indo-Pacific: checked swallowtail (rare deep water anthias), whitetail bristletooth (a small tang), several new (for me) species of cardinalfish and so many more.

Loved the sea jellies! First we have the blue sea jelly or blue blubber jelly. Found in coastal waters of the Indo-Pacific they are pretty large at 14-18 inches in diameter. The different colors are due to the symbiotic algae that the jellies may host. Without algae, the color is cobalt blue. When algae are present, the color can be white, yellow, brown or even purplish. These are harvested commercially. Despite being venomous, if properly prepared, they are an Asian delicacy. Ah... too pretty to eat! And then there is the venomous factor...

White spotted sea jelly. Smaller, on average only about 4 inches in diameter but can grow to 12 inches. They are found in the waters of the South Pacific, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Another common name is the lagoon jelly.

And here's another potential screen saver shot:

Quite a few venues in Sentosa shoot off from a main center hub. That's where we found a Hershey store. B didn't want to be in the photo but I got him in it anyway. That's his hand touching the Reese's characters glove! We loved looking and the place smelled great!

This fountain with a spinning central sculpture was also located in the central hub.

As I said, we also went back to the Singapore Zoo. The skies looked OK as we headed out but we soon realized the weather was not going to cooperate on this day and we had not taken rain gear. The skies opened up! It was raining hard enough that as we purchased tickets they pointed out that they had very few "indoor" areas. We knew places like this always seem to have cartons of rain slickers to sell when it is raining, so we tried a nearby gift shop and voila! They had several cartons of clear, toss-away rain slickers.  Instant rain gear! The slicker protected the backpack as well. B models his lovely slicker near the polar bear exhibit.

There were not very many indoor spots on the grounds but we managed. After we had been there a while we took a break and got a drink and a bite to eat as it continued to rain. The place was jammed with others doing the same thing trying to wait out the rain. Eventually the heavy rain ended.

The orangutans were having a fun time.

 Looks like an Aldabra tortoise race.

We also stopped at one of our favorite spots: The Fragile Forest, a mixed species exhibit. On this day, we arrived as the staff was bringing out lunch!  On this visit, no visitors were touching the animals due to staff presence.