In Continuum.

The zoo, I think I visited that place when my primary school brought us there. It was a school field trip, and any field trip meant a whole lot of fun for the children. I don't remember any specific details about going to the zoo with my friends really, but I do remember seeing the animals and the smell of the zoo as a whole. It just smelled a lot like the back of a camel, and perhaps a lot of hay at the same time - not very pleasant, just very organic. It was a hot day I remember, and we were constantly asked to drink water from the bottles hanging from our necks. I think I had more fun talking and fooling around with my friends than seeing the animals, but we were still infinitely intrigued by the animals - especially the ferocious ones. I think I have only been to the zoo for a grand total of four, maybe five times. Before today, my visit to the Night Safari was a grand total of just - one. I guess as I grew older, zoo just didn't feel like a cool and hip place to go anymore. Now that I have spent a night there though, I almost forgot why I was so excited on the bus to the zoo back then when I was a kid. Seriously, the zoo is an amazing place, and so is the Night Safari.

It is all the idea of my friend Janice really, and I truly love her from the bottom of my heart. If it wasn't for her, I don't think I would have enjoyed today nearly as much, her company was priceless, and her friends in the night safari were amazing as well. You see, Janice works in the night safari as a part-time keeper, and she used to work there as a full-time keeper before she went over to Melbourne sometime last year I believe. She made a lot of friends there - humans and animals - which was why I had a very private and very exclusive tour of the whole place, with detailed explanations of the characteristics of the animals and the kind of food they feed on. For some reason, I was very interested to know the kind of food you feed to different animals in the zoo, and she was able to just throw me the answers off the tips of her fingers. All those kind of knowledge from working in the zoo for a mere couple of months, just imagine the possibilities for her in a couple of years if she does decide to take it up full-time. Oh, by the way, Janice is my age, and she is cool as hell. I diminish next to her, and sometimes I would just stare at her in the dark with admiration as she explains to me the names of the animals - she's just such a awesome individual, really.

Anyway, let's go back a little and tell the story from the top. I met Janice in the first three months of Serangoon Junior College - oh, those wonderfully lazy days! She was a classmate of my friend RuiYi, and I remember meeting her for the very first time in the Aquarium, and she had a swollen right ring finger because it was hit by a volleyball or something. It turned out that she fractured her bone there, and her ring finger swelled up to look like a purple mushroom. Anyway, that's how I got to know Janice, and probably one of the last times I ever saw her in person too. She dropped out of Junior College to go to a polytechnic, and I have never met her in person ever since - not even talked. For some reason however, I remember it was the night before she left for Australia when we started talking all over again. I'm not sure why I clicked on her name in the first place, but we maintained a certain state of contact throughout her time there in Australia, and she also promised to give me a guided tour around the Night Safari when she comes back to Singapore - which she did. She's just THAT cool.

The moment I stepped into the Night Safari, I immediately felt like a tourist. Even the people at the counter saw me as a tourist, grabbing me to a corner to take pictures at $15 a piece - a rip-off, like everything else. I had to take the picture alone since Janice was still changing out of her working clothes inside the safari itself, how embarrassing was that. Tucked in a remote corner of Singapore and inside hills of trees and bushes, it was quite a sight to see the amount of changes the place has went through. Janice literally popped out of nowhere with her hair falling all over her face, and there she was - Janice, the kickass girl that I got to know so many years ago. I remember her to be a lot taller though, but I guess it's just that I have grown significantly. But anyway, it was nice seeing her all over again, and she was my private guide of the night - and that made me feel important and rich for some reason. Cheap thrills, but who cares. She almost lost her punch card - you know, the card to prove that you are a staff of the park - but Mr. Albert was nice enough to have found it for her. Crisis resolved, time to move on. 

Janice is the best guide you can ask for. She tells you the names of the animals as if they are song names off a playlist, and she can tell you which Leopard is the male and which is the female. She can tell you why this leopard has a shorter tail, and which country a certain animal was imported from. I thought I know my animals, but this girl was the Steve Irving next time, she was the Tarzan...with clothes, and speaks English too. I was amazed at the amount of passion she had for the animals, the kind of details and care she gave to every single animal we saw along the trails, the kind of concern she had for all of them as if they were her children. Coming from a twenty-one year old, I thought it was utterly amazing that she was able to have such a true passion and knowledge. To be honest, I would be lost amidst her explanations of a certain animal sometimes, and I'd just be looking at her and how her eyes would glitter in the dim lights around the trail. It's just too amazing to see her get in the zone - so to speak - to be completely immersed and involved in a job she loves so much. It's just like seeing a band record an album, there is a certain kind of beauty and gratification in looking at someone falling deeply in love with his or her job.

When it comes to animals, I am interested in the following - otters and sloths. Well, they don't have sloths in the night safari, but they do have otters - a whole horde of them. Otters are awfully cute, they make little squeaky noises when you jiggle your keys, and they just look adorable really. Yes, if I can blog about how much I love adorable little otters, then you have to believe that they are adorable little otters. I am also interested in any animals that are perpetually pissed off all the time, and the night safari has its fair share of pissed off animals. There were the tigers and the lions, which looked pretty dazed and tired from their twenty hours of sleep each day, and the infamous elephant that stabbed a keeper with its tusks a few years ago - or so I heard from Janice. The flying foxes and the bats were really interesting to watch, feeding on fruits and stuff in the trees while swooping above our heads. The Tarsier, which was what I was looking for, was hidden most of the time. According to Janice, they are too small and too shy for most tourists to spot anyway. But she probably sees them all the time while working in the back, and not to mention the intricate details she went into about the time when she fed them crickets and cockroaches. "It took the cockroach and plucked the head off its body, and started sucking them." she said, in a matter of fact way. 

I was also fascinated with the Binturong, the Malay Civet, the Golden Cat, or basically anything that was able to climb trees in spite of their large bodies. They make tree climbing look so damn easy, and the Slow Loris were especially cute. One of them kept sniffing the butt of the other, and Janice was smart enough to figure out where they were in the enclosure after noticing the lights flashing out for a split second on top of the branches. I thought seeing a real Jackal was kickass, but I was a little disappointed in the fact that they didn't have any lynxes in the night safari. Then again, I don't think lynxes are nocturnal, or maybe they just cannot adapt to the tropical environment very well, who knows. The hyenas were especially quiet, unlike the last ones I saw in India that threatened to eat my friends and I alive for supper. The bigger animals were really magnificent, they were really beautiful and graceful to look at. Because of their size, they are slow most of the time, which makes them look really elegant - it's pretty breathtaking I must say. 

After taking the Fishing Cat trail and the Leopard Trail on foot, we took the tram from the East Lodge and around the remainder of the park where we did not visit the first time round. It was a lot faster, but the fun of taking your time to view the animals was discounted on the tram. Still, it was great to hear the commentary from the front, feeling like the young primary school kid at the zoo all over again. The elephants were great, and so were the lazy lions. Another family of otters were spotted, and that got me really excited like a crazy fan at the airport welcoming a singer from overseas. I told Janice what I have been telling my friends, that she has the greatest job in Singapore. She told me about the misconceptions of the kind of life zookeepers have in zoos, and how they don't actually have intimate relationships with the animals in contrary to what we believe. Still, I think keepers in the night safari have the best kind of night life around Singapore for sure, dealing with animals on a day to day basis is definitely something worthwhile. That is not to mention the kind of experiences you gain in such a workplace, the knowledge and everything is just so cool. Of course, you still have to scoop animal dung off the floors and there are the times when you just have to put your head through. But hey, I still think she has a cool job, I'd kill for a job like that.

I don't think I'd qualify for the job though. I have a record of staring at my fish tank for three hours straight, imagine if you put flying squirrels in an enclosure for me to take care of. I'd probably just stare at them every night without doing any substantial work at all - and thus, causing me to be fired after a week or so. Still, I don't think I would mind working at the night safari for a week - for free. It'd be quite an experience, but under the circumstance that I do not get thrown into the moat at the end of the day, like Janice was before she went to Australia. Oh yes, the boot she lost in the moat is still there most likely, how interesting is that. 

All and all, it was a great day - or night - at the Night Safari. Not only because of the animals and the great guides - guides, because her friends came to guide me as well, which was fun. Her friends are awesome - but because of the fact that I got to see Janice after such a long time. I mean, it began with using the trip to Night Safari as an excuse to see her really. I certainly did not expect things to become so interesting eventually. Then again, I think it was because I had Janice around, and she is just amazing. I cannot say enough good things about her, seriously. She is my Steve Irving, the best kind of guide you can have to any tours in any zoo around the world. We didn't take any pictures, since the place is took dark and most areas forbid flash photography anyway. Still, I shall not forget about this trip anytime soon. Thank you Janice, for being such a wonderful guide and a friend, we should meet up again soon. Thanks!