Jurong Bird Park.

Iforgot to say that it is Durian season so there is a pungent smell everywhere. I am still not confident enough to get the smell past the nose. Apparently the fruit tasts delicious.Jurong Bird Park was amazing. We used to go there in the early 70's and it was remarkable then although the trees were only small and there were no facilities as such. I know that it was very hot walking uphill dragging three small children along. Now the trees are huge and all the nets covering the large areas are almost invisible. It is also much cooler, with lots of shaded stops and food and drinks available in four places. Very civilised. The array of birds are still remarkable. There is a huge area called Lory Loft which was full of Australian lorikeets. Lory Loft is a 9 story high enclosure and you can view the birds from the tree tops. The enclosure with the waterful now looks very natural - without the trees it used to look so artificial. Of course you can also travel around the site in an airconditioned train, which we took advantage of so that we could get an overall look at the place. Then we walked of course.

We came back again on the tourist bus (getting a little lazy) and went directly to the bumboats. These boats used to collect all the cargo from the ships and bring them to the warehouses along the river. Of course the warehouses are now up market restaurants. At least we know where everything is now that more of the sea has been reclaimed. The Singapore Merlion has been moved to the new entrance to the river. Then to finish the day off we went to another local eating area and had murtabak, egg prata, curry juice and vegetable curry (our eating habits are very predictable). The restaurant was called Makanan Bollywood and it specialised in Indian and Malay fusion. I can now see why curries here do not taste like curries in the UK. They are of course Halal restaurants so no alcohol.

When we lived here we had an MG Magnet (an MG in a sedan body) which went like a rocket as long as you avoided using the first gear. We went everywhere in this car -both in Malaysia and in Singapore. I especially liked beating all the other cars when the traffic lights changed from red to green.

Off to NZ tomorrow.