Singapore Weekend

In early August, we hopped on a plane to Singapore again for a little break from the city.

We found out about an interesting craft type shop in Chinatown so we had to check it out. B said this sounded like it should be the name of a restaurant!

They did have a ton of stuff and it was tightly packed in the small shop. We also hit Spotlight as we have in the past.

While in Singapore we braved the crowds in the underground mall at the MRT station to have our favorite Vietnamese restaurant's beef hot pot.

The Wrap & Roll. So incredibly yummy!

We also went back to the Singapore Botanical Gardens and the Zoo, again, to enjoy the park-like settings for a few hours each.  We saw this bird. It remains unidentified. 

We were really excited to see the new Ethnobotany Garden which opened earlier this year.

Ethnobotany? The garden "explores the traditional knowledge and customs of SE Asian indigenous people and the use of plants in medicine, rituals, craft, culture and more."

There were several rock paintings depicting different scenes throughout the large garden area.

It was really hot on this day so we enjoyed the Centre for Ethnobotany which had air conditioning set to Arctic Blast. And look what we saw there! B already knew all of this, but I learned a lot. 

At the zoo

Some really well done critter statues... otters

hippos

A 10 meter reticulated python.

Some real critters...

River Toad

 Malayan Horned Frog

In the Fragile Forest mixed species exhibit:
(We didn't get any bird photos on this visit.)

This is where the zoo gathered a huge percentage of zoo visitors for a elephant demonstration. In so doing, we had a some quiet time for a bit.

 We saw this in a shop nearby. Saki flavored KitKat bars.