At the time, Eitan and Nathan were 23 months and 10 months old.  Nelya wanted to take a nice relaxing vacation.  Her ideal vacation was resting by a beach, but she wasn’t against shopping.  My ideal vacation was exploring an exotic location.  I spent months searching for the ideal destination, with the end result being the island of Sentosa in Singapore.

Sentosa is a small island literally connected to downtown Singapore.  While it is very close to sites to see, it is geared towards families and has an aquarium, animal enclosures, a man made beach, and paths going through small patches of jungle.  The merlion above, which is the symbol of Singapore, is also found in Sentosa and at night there is a laser light show near it.  The following shot came from our hotel window.  Of course, the background leaves little doubt that we were in one of the busiest ports of Asia.

Singapore is a great place to photograph animals.  They have three zoos, seashores, and a large patch of tropical jungle called Bukit Timah.  Unfortunately my camera fogged up there so I don’t have any shots of it.  I do have shots of the other zoos.

They have an ‘ordinary’ zoo, which is a large form of the zoos we have near us.

However, they also have two very unusual zoos.  The first is a night zoo, which is located right next to the normal zoo and opens right when it closes, making it possible to do both in a long day.  The night zoo contains only nocturnal animals.

Finally, they have Jurong Bird Park, the largest zoo devoted to birds in the world.  The zoo is humongous and features the largest aviary in the world.  I would love to go back there with better lenses someday.

Singapore is extremely safe and about as clean as possible.  Everyone there is very friendly and helpful (friendliness is part of the schooling there) and I was rather taken back by the fact that whenever I looked lost, someone would stop and actually ask to help me – without any ulterior motives of selling me anything.

Nelya loved that her favorite flower, the Plumeria, was everywhere around.  Actually one of the most famous varieties of it is called Singapura.

Nelya also loved shopping, particularly in nearby Malaysia where she picked up the latest in fake fashions.  I liked the electronics malls, though the prices were higher than in the US – even after bargaining.  As for what Eitan and Nathan thought of the trip, the pictures tell more than words.

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