I told Sam that apparently we (Singapore) have a world renowned Bird Park, to which he replied with a ridiculous expression on his face, "Then why haven't you taken me there?!"
I love learning about and watching animals, but just thinking about the Singapore heat makes me wanna turn on the air con full blast and snuggle up in my comfy cool bed... @_@
Only had 3 hours of sleep the night before, surprisingly I managed to drag my ass outta bed in the morning after 15 mins of sitting up with my eyes closed, at the foot of my bed, deciding whether the day's activities is worth getting up for or not.
Am I the only one who does this??
The alarm rings, I turn it off, the alarm rings again (I set like 5 different timings) then I hit the snooze button about 20 times before I actually DO sit up....
Then I'm just sitting there, utterly miserable and unbelievably sleepy trying to convince myself I SHOULD get up, but every bone in my body is screaming
"NUUUUUUUuuuuuu..."
What usually happens is I do decide to go out after all (or not if it's school, haha) but I end up being late anyway. The next hour is a mad rush, trying to find suitable clothes to wear and putting on male up, etc (opening my wardrobe is disgusting - everything's packed to the brim and falls out when you open it)
Anyway enough about me and what a miracle it is that I didn't succumb to my laziness - more about Jurong Bird Park!!!!
And my gay looking boyfriend.. haha
I don't know why he doesn't mind wearing my girly glasses but sometimes get embarrassed when I ask him to carry my handbag for me. Apparently looking gay by choice is alright, but looking like you're helping your girlfriend carry her heavy bag that's straining her shoulders is a crime!
This is the bag in question btw...
Ok I suppose the fur makes it kinda strange for a guy to be carrying it :P
I just bought it recently!! Yay or nay?
I almost never wear fur (real or fake) but since it's end of the year and the holiday season, I think this goes quite nicely with a lot of my outfits. It looks kinda plain but there's gold dangling bits on the other side which you can't see.
In true gluttony spirit, the first thing we do is eat before seeing any birds at the bird park.
Found these cute little children chairs!!! Tried to sit on one and almost fell over HAHAH.
And I guess that's my impersonation of an elephant?...
And this is me looking painfully awkward. I know my outfit looks terribly mismatched, but whaddya want from me???
If the weather was extremely humid yet hot at the same time, and you know you're gonna be super tired and sweaty but still taking lots of pictures... plus there's a good chance of it raining - wtf?
What would you wear?
My brother acting cool.. he's one of those people who would never let you take a candid shot of him and every photo is so posed and vain.
It's almost annoying to take photos of him coz he checks every one and tells me not to post it or to photoshop him but I post em anyway haha
I post the nice looking-ones only of course!!! One of the pains about being a blogger - finding good looking, spontaneous photography subjects. -_-
Sam is a lot less poised as you can tell :P
Doesn't his hair look ridiculous!!! We got a haircut yesterday (colored my hair a darker brown and touched up my roots) so we look a lot better now lol
Om nom nom!
My energy supply for the day!!
And we enter the bird park!!! Admission fee was about $16? Totally worth going!
I'd go more often if it weren't for the fact it's on the other side of the island and taking a cab there costs 30 dollars :3
With our tickets!! All set!
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The first "birds" that we saw were.....
Lil penguins!! Aww!
Just splashing about merrily in that refreshingly cool blue water... I almost wanted to jump in myself. 10 mins in the bird park and I wanted to take a shower already.
What is it about penguins that make em so cute?
Is it the way they swim like tiny torpedoes underwater? Or the fact that they waddle clumsily on the ground when they walk, and seem to be completely harmless?
I wonder how they'd react to being stroked... I could reach out and touch it but it might bite my finger off :P
Jan, Jer and Sam learning about bird facts...
No prizes for guessing which bird the largest egg belongs to!
If you didn't know... I was trying to act like a penguin so yes, that cock eyed expression IS intentional!!!!
He could blend right in!
Walking into the penguin enclosure!! It was dark and air-conditioned and very welcomed by us
This puffball is so aptly named the "Puffin!"
Ta-dah!!! Family of Penguins!
It's so funny how they just stand around the whole day... aren't they tired? Why don't they lie down or do something else besides stare into space?
I LOL-ed at the Rockhopper penguin!!!
Looks so badass like it's gonna take out an electric guitar and put on a rock concert, with its beady red eyes and mohawk hair do.
Cuteeee soft toys @ the souvenir store!!
I'm such a sucker for both souvenirs AND soft toys, it was really hard for me to resist and say "No, I'm not buying one."
I love all things fluffy and cute and even better if they're brightly coloured!
On a side note, that fake penguin behind me looks effing scary. Almost sinister... like a stalker or a serial killer penguin OMG I bet they're so gonna make a movie out of that one day
Picture perfect backdrop, where you can pay 10 or 15 bucks (around there) to get a professional picture snapped with parrots on your hand / shoulders, or you can be cheap and pay nothing to get a shot of the birds alone.
But why would I wanna pay money for those parrots when I could take close up shots of THESE BEAUTIES!!!! :D
They are soooooooo gorgeousss... can anyone tell me what species they are?? They're really small and I love how they come in threes! They look like three musketeers birdies!
Now I wanna keep birds as pets!
A trainer and her parrot.. she was very friendly to me, happy to make the parrot talk when I asked her to and to tell me more about their habits, etc!
"O RLY?"
More of the three orange cute weetle birdies!!!!!!!!
SQUEEE THEY R SO CUTE I WAN 2 HUG THEM!! ^.^
The weather was nice and cooling for a bit coz it started drizzling a bit, a perfect time to take a quick birdie nap!
CUTE OVERLOAD MAX.
Cute birdies backsides :P
They kept waking up and falling back asleep, whenever one would wake up it'd accidentally nudge the other one so they all wake up / fall asleep at once. Adorable!!
Thought this necklace would be appropriate for that day - wings, geddit?? LOL ok I know it's kinda lame.
But I haven't worn it out before and Wendy gave this to me!
If you like active, brightly coloured fancy animals that are neither dangerous or smelly and ones that you can get really close to - you'd like the bird park!
I get really annoyed when I can't see the animals in their enclosures (coz they're hiding / sleeping etc) but never had that problem here.. they were always proudly on display :)
Beautiful feathers!!! They are all so exotic!
I was never really into birds that much before this, but after watching a few David Attenborough documentaries, I'm hooked - both about learning of birds and watching his shows. He's such an admirable and charming host!!
And possibly one of the most knowledgeable person I can think of.
Parrots of different kinds!
Compared to other birds, they're not really that interesting or fancy but some of em can TALK!
I adore talking parrots - they always make me giggle and smile!
Haha I want to punch my own face for pulling such an annoying touristy pose :PP
More walking and more birds... didn't take photos of the ones in ugly cages or ugly birds in general.
These look like the bird version of the Rockhopper Penguin we saw earlier!!! Yes no??
YES!
Pelican! (redundant caption but there's nothing else to say lol)
Since this is a bird park obviously there's gonna be lots of pics of birds..
Stopped for a short rest at a pavilion and some self-timer shots!!!
Hehe
Oh wow I love this shot!!!!!!!!!!!
It looks like it was taken with a much more expensive DSLR than the one I have right now, (which is an entry-level beginner's DSLR)
♥!
It's not a very pretty plant but I reckon it's a pretty photo nonetheless, just because of its clarity! :)
Sam posing with my ancient China fan LOLOL my saving grace in the blistering heat and even that barely kept me alive
WORK it sista!!!!
His "top model" poses alwayssss crack me up!
Lucky for us, the drizzling stopped and the Sun came out to shine and it turned into a pretty nice day after all!!
Something I'll miss when I'm studying in Australia.. evergreen plants
Sam snapping away with the Nico Digi I did an advertorial about previously!
Yup it's THAT small.
I can't resist taking a photo of any decent looking flower if I have the time to stop for a pic.. do you guys find it unnecessary though??
I think I prefer this sort of composition much better for flower shots
Another well-received air-conditioned pit shop where we learned more facts about birds nobody else cares about LOL
Like how long an ostrich egg takes to cook!!!
I wonder what it tastes like... :333
Never did I imagine one day I'd post a picture of bird innards on my blog. How's this for original content??
And my favourite thing about this bird park - their walk in aviaries!!!
Instead of viewing the birds from outside their enclosure, you get to WALK INTO their habitat now and if you're lucky enough, they'll fly over to say hi and even land on your shoulders.
So fun!!!!!
I love watching them fly RIGHT past me - literally 4cm away from my face and I can sometimes feel their feathers and the gust of wind that follows them!
Before we were able to get a proper glimpse of birds close up, we saw THIS BIG FELLA:
Holy shittttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!
It's an iguana, people!!!! What is it doing in the aviary?? To freak guests out?
I was just strolling along leisurely when this big fella came out from behind the bushes and crossed my path, forcing us to stop dead in our tracks coz no way we're going near that thing.
I doubt it's potentially dangerous if they let it roam freely in the aviary but still.. it looks so freakkyyyyy!!!
Very cool though!!! Got us all excited, going "WTF" coz it was just sitting there in front of us lol!
We saw it another time while leaving the aviary... I think it followed us O_O
Second cool thing we saw - a tinnyyyyyy yellow birdie sitting in a mini waterfall!!
SO CUTEEEE!!!
Look at it!! It was just standing there, chirping, soaking, splashing as if taking a nice bath ^.^
It's so small and bright yellow and fairytale-ish, kinda like those birds you see flying around Snow White!
I liked walking through the aviary very much.
It's surprisingly soothing, with tall trees shading you from the sun but still allowing golden rays to shine through its separated leaves, with colourful happy birds chirping and flying past you and with the sound of man-made waterfalls' rushing currents, the ambience is perfect and complete!
Popping in and out of their bird house!!!
I love how brightly coloured they are :) Makes me happy just looking at em ♥
Really blurry crap pic but I was amused at how this bird could "stand" upside down LOL
It should've been born a bat instead
Sam showing how much he's enjoying himself!!!! LOL
I told him to pose since I knew there were gonna be a lot of bird pictures so I wanted to break it up a little
We got out of the aviary and saw a very different kind of bird:
An OSTRICH!!!
WTF. I can't remember if I've ever seen them in real life before, but when I did this time, I ran over going "OMG." coz they were just sooo big, much taller than ME even - and I'm 1.7m!
An ostrich and my brother :3
I am constantly amazed by how a zoo, or in this case, a wildlife reserve could obtain animals from all around the world, from different climates, habitats and continents and just house them efficiently in one large combined habitat!!!!
Isn't it amazing?
Where the heck else could I see a giant rare ostrich this close? This particular one in the photo above came RIGHT UP to me and my bro, face-to-face!
Sam and his love for Dinosaurs!
And THIS was probably my FAVOURITE part and place of the day - the Lory Loft!
Where you get to touch, feed and play with Rainbow Lorikeets!!!!!
We bought a feeding cup for $3 which was money well spent because you could feed so many birds with just 1 cup and the experience is really quite thrilling!
HAHAHAH what a wuss.
I was trying to smile but I ended up showing a mixed look of terror, bewilderment and excitement!!!!
I know it doesn't look like I was THAT close to the bird, but trust me, when you're right in front of the bird's face you feel like it's only 5cm away from you...
No shit!!!
I'm not particularly scared of the birdie, but being the morbid person I am, I imagined that it was fully capable of pecking my eyes out or poking a hole in my face with its beak so I didn't go TOO close to it.
I wish I'd been braver and gone closer to them!
Sam took over the feeding and I took over the photography!!!
See, why couldn't I have had a shot like that? He was holding the bird just as far away as I did, but it seems much closer because of the angle I'd taken it from!
I always get really frustrated whenever people can't take nice shots for me and I conveniently take MUCH nicer shots for them :(
...Is it really so hard for others to get the basics right?
It's not that hard - just angles and light sources!
Everything else I can fix with image editing.
Anyway the funniest thing happened while we were walking away from the previous bird we were feeding -
this other random Lory just flew right into Sam and landed on his CHEST!!!
Ahahaha it's clinging onto the collar of his polo tee!!!
A bit too close for comfort I reckon. If you were him, you'd be looking down at your chest wondering why the heck there was a bird in your face :P
The guy behind Sam's pretty funny too, he looks like he's getting attacked or something
Sam looked at me with a giant "WTF" expression on his face as the bird casually latched itself onto him, still feeding from the cup and he was like, "HELP ME!!" and I'm like, "LOL what do you want me to do???"
So he managed to gently shake it off but once that one flew off....
But right after the first one left, TWO MORE FLEW OVER AND LANDED ON HIS BACK!!!
LOL you shoulda seen Sam's reaction - SOOOOOOOOO FUNNEH
I couldn't contain myself - I burst out in laughter and kept laughing and laughing!!!!
I could tell he almost wanted to scream and run around going "GET THESE BIRDS OFF ME" but he had to maintain his cool in order not to freak everyone else and himself out :P
I think the most alarming thing about these birds is how quickly they take flight and land on you!!!
They are neither graceful nor gentle - they're fast and furious!
Their movements are so sudden and dramatic, what with the furious flapping of wings in your face and the unpredictable factor of animals, you feel like you're being attacked when all they really want is a nice human perching stand :P
Him trying to smile but still very worried about the one behind his neck, as you can see!! Haha I would be too!!
It kept nipping the gold chains of my bag... Sorry birdie, it may be shiny but it ain't tasty!
Sam finally calms down and smiles for the camera properly! :P
I think he didn't like em on his back... said their claws dug into his skin and hurt quite a bit!!
Isn't it just GORGEOUS?
Lorikeet heaven!!! Dozens of rainbow birds flying around whilst you walk among tree tops on suspended bridges, and the best part is you get to feed em too! ^.^
Felt like I was transported to paradise... one that happened to have a lot of birds in it.
For a moment, though, it was a great grand getaway.
This particular lory was really aggressive - shooing away a friend that wanted to share its feeding up and when I put my finger near it, it'd try to nip me!!! DEVIL!
I wonder what'd happen if someone caught one and put it in their bag o___O
We left Lory Loft's aviary and took a tram ride to the other side of the park, where a performance show and another aviary awaits us!
Sam and his african friend LOL
....Ok, maybe they're more than just friends :((
Sam, are you cheating on me with a black dude?!
I saw a nice spot that had good lighting and a good background for pretty photos so I told Jeremy and Janice to stand there and pose but they didn't want to, so Sam volunteered and thus came about more epic modeling shots of his:
It IS a nice spot, isn't it!!!
Me yelling across to him: "Not good enough!"
YEAH, that's what I'm talking about!!! ♥ ♥ ♥ Wee-u-weet!!
Walking towards what is said to be the world's TALLEST man-made waterfall!!!
Sigh... so beautiful and magnificent.
If a man-made one can be this awe-inspiring, I'd love to see the Niagara Falls for myself in person!!!
Just the sound that a waterfall makes is enough to make me feel completely relaxed.
Two nerds taking a picture of a waterfall with their iPhone 4 while I take a picture of them taking pictures with my DSLR :P
But the iPhone4's camera is indeed quite impressive, I must say! Vast improvement from the 3GS.. makes me wanna get an iPhone 4 now dammit! What am I gonna do with my old one then?
Mandatory dreamy shot by the waterfall...
Jan and her candy floss as we sit down to watch some birds put on a show for us!!!
This woman got picked from the audience to hold up a hoop which the parrot would fly through!
Lucky her, how come I never get picked as a volunteer even though I always put my hand up??
...Is it my face??? T_____T
It'd actually be quite funny if the parrot's aim was off and face planted into the hoop LOL.
Other cool tricks included holding up a dollar bill and the parrot would fly towards you, take the bill from you and fly back to its trainer, depositing the dollar into his pocket!
Watching them throwing fishes at the birds made me think of how they throw fishes at dolphins and killer whales in Sea World!!!!!
I miss Sea World so much and there'd never be a better place to learn about marine animals AND have fun at the same time anywhere else in the world! I'm dying to go back there...
Why does it have to be so god damn far away? 28 hours in the plane and a 3000 dollar ticket! Gah. Not to mention the currency differences.
We caught another performance, this time of Birds of Prey and Sam got chosen as volunteer!!!
His task was to shoot a piece of meat with a catapult into the air, and some eagles / vultures will try to snatch it from each other mid-air before it falls to the ground, all this happening within a span of a few seconds!
The shows were entertaining, and definitely an eye-opener for Sam who had never seen so many different kinds of birds in such close proximity and in such a hands-on environment too :)
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Our last stop for the day was "World of Darkness" - or in other words,
"World of OWLS!"
A hedwig lookalike snowy owl!!!
I wonder what material they used as the fake snow (or is it really ice?) and what temperature they keep that room in!!
Gahhhhhhhh... something a LOT less cuter - gray owls!!! Motherfucking scary seriously most owls freak the hell outta me.
They look like they're staring right into your SOUL, and the way they sit so perfectly still until you make a noise then they're suddenly bolt awake is frightening indeed.
Their eerie calls through the forest (supposing I am in one) doesn't help either.
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And that was the last bird picture of the day!!!!!
Saw this in the souvenir shop, and although it has nothing to do with birds it's so funneh!!!!
Rabbits made out of carrots. Quite ingenious really.
And pigs made outta cauliflower!!! LOL who would've known?!?
Random cut out of a penguin near the exit - this is how Sam measures up next to the tallest penguin in the world!
He looks just like one, with his black and white outfit and hunched back and bulging tummy ahaha
THE END!!! Of our day at Jurong Bird Park.
A total whopping number of 108 pictures for this post!! And so many bright, happy ones, I love it!
I'd definitely recommend people to go if you haven't been in awhile, or if like me, have never been there before at all. It may not sound like fun, looking at birds, but it is!!!
I had a bird of a time (can I substitute whale with bird?? same thing right? just asking) and I now have a new-found fascination for birdies.
I've always envied their ability to fly and would dream of flying like a bird when I was younger!!! And to be truthful with you, sometimes, I still kinda do.
It's fun to learn about the different nests they build, the calls and sounds they make, their preying techniques and of course, their courtship methods and mating rituals!
I've always thought of bird-watchers to be a silly "cuckoo", but now I can understand their fascination this much more!!!!
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P.S - For those of you who don't know yet, find out more about the next Live Chat timing and potential Blogger-Reader-Meet-Up in my post below!!
xoxo,
Jess
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