Dearest blog-readers - Sorry for the delay, we are currently staying at a hotel without internet, so our posts have been behind a little as of late.  Our hostel in Bangkok will have internet, so we'll catch up then.  In the mean time, I'll post with text and upload the pictures when I have more time. :)

Anyway, the adventure continues...

Singapore to Chiang Mai
6/30/2011
So, we woke up today and it was pouring outside. Like raining-cats-and-dogs kind of pouring. Like the floodgates were fully open... Anyway, I think you get the picture. Bridget woke me up at 9:30am out of a deep sleep. I was pretty tired. We had our standard (by now) toast with Nutella and instant coffee. And a "water apple". This is a fruit that one of the SSB fellows recommended to us. Anyway, it was kind of like a very juicy apple. Didn't have a strong "apple-ish" taste, but it was pretty good.

Water Apple!

We ate our breakfast and then packed our stuff up before deciding what to do. Now, rainy days normally encourage people to do activities like watch TV, take a nap, curl up on a couch with a good novel, or sip a latte at Starbucks with a friend. Maybe shop or go out to eat if one is feeling unusually adventurous. Well, as you already know, we aren't very typical in pretty much any respect. So, we decided to... go to the zoo. :) Yep. We donned our rainjackets, splashed in puddles on the way to the subway, and headed for the zoo. Singapore actually has a few animal-related activities. There is the Singapore Zoo, which is what you normally think of as a zoo. However, there is a Night Safari, in which you go through a zoo-like area at night in an open Jeep. There are no barriers or cages; you are literally in the wild with the animals. However, it as to night for this activity, so that wasn't going to happen today. There is also the Singapore Bird Park. Large aviary for all of your bird-watching, bird-listening, and bird-spotting desires. Pretty self-explanatory. :) There is also an aquarium / water animal park of some sort. I didn't see a whole lot of information about it, but I know its there.

Anyway, back to the day... We were going to take a shuttle bus directly to the zoo from our hostel, but it never came, so we had to take the subway and then a bus to get there. It took around an hour to get there. But it was definitely worth it. The rain slowly subsided and we were able to put our raincoats away by the end of the day. But the exhibits and all were very nice. Everything was grouped in topical areas, so the big cats were together, the snakes were together, etc. Some highlights include seeing the white tigers, watching a massive boa constrictor eat three rats simulatenously, and seeing all kinds of monkeys. But most of the animals were a highlight, so its not really fair to only list a few, but space will allow only so much. Anyway, here are some pictures. :)

Rhinos!

Striped Deer-things and a cool bird with crazy mohawk!

Cheetahs!

Zebras

Leopard getting some exercise (he just kept doing laps around his area...)

Horned frog

Ring-Tailed Lemur

Bat (very close...)

Big croc tail!

Our friend Sarah feeding the giant tortoises

MASSIVE pythons.

White (or almost white) tiger

Bird just walkin' around

Orangutans

After the zoo, we took the bus and subway to get back to the hostel. We made it through the zoo in just enough time to make it back to the hostel, run to a local indian restuarant for a quick, cheap dinner (Bridget had one of those pancake thingies and I had curry squid with white rice), and grab our bags. We made it to the subway (for the third time today) and headed for the airport. The check-in process was pretty smooth and took like 10 minutes (mostly just waiting in line for our turn). The security went smoothly and there wasn't even a line! And I didn't have to take my shoes off, which was nice. :) It still takes me a few seconds to put them on since my toes have to fit into their individual "slots". Anyway, we made it to the gate area about an hour before boarding started. I say the gate area because we had to sit outside the actual gate sitting area at first. There was an actual enclosed area to wait before actually boarding the plane. So, we had to go over there, pass our bags through a scanner, have our boarding passes checked twice, and then we sat and waited for our turn to board. When our section was called, we didn't have to show our boarding pass again since it was already checked. So, we just walked onto the jetway. We did have to wait to actually get on the plane (as always), but it was an interesting way to board the plane.

The flight to Chiang Mai was around 3 hours, although we gained an hour, so it was only a "2 hour" flight. A friend of the family picked us up from the airport and took us to our hostel. Which was a good thing, because the hostel was quite well-hidden. There was only a small, sun-bleached banner and a half-cracked painting on a wall. Pretty obscure markings to find at night. But we made it safe and sound.