Singapore Sling and Zoo

One thing everyone "must" do is drink a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel. Here is a picture of my 20 Singapore Dollar (~$12.50) Singapore Sling at a more comfortable table NEAR the Long Bar. It was a pleasant enough drink but my next order was a white wine. We did consume an incredible number of peanuts.

We were not able to find an evening to go on a "Night Safari" but we did the next best thing - an afternoon at the Singapore Zoo. Our first destination was to see the "white tigers" and this exhibit had 3, one of which was wading back and forth in the water (the other 2 were pacing on land). All white tigers today descend from Mohan, who was captured as a cub in 1951 by Maharaja Shri Martand Singh of Rewa. After siring many cubs, Mohan died in 1970 and was laid to rest with Hindu rites and official mourning. The Maharaja of Rewa eventually turned Mohan's native forest into the Bandhavgarh National Park.

We enjoyed other animals we saw - molting polar bear, pygmy hippo, maned wolf, otter, false gavial, hamadryas baboon, white handed gibbon, cassowary, etc. The marine mammal show (starring a manatee and small penguins - no Shamu) got rained out by a sudden downpour. We ate an Indian lunch that was actually quite good, especially for a theme park.

We spent one business dinner at Il Lido at the Sentosa Golf Club. Sentosa is an island you can reach by car (our entrance fee was waived because we were going for dinner), Sentosa Express (monorail) or cable car. I would like to return someday during the day but instead had to "settle" for a delicious dinner in a top Italian restaurant with ultramodern decor overlooking the Singapore Straits at night.