Now we’ve seen a lot of bats on our travels thus far -- although never a fan, I’ve never been as scared as our interaction with these little beasts on the Night Safari at the Singapore zoo. I guess we were probably asking for a little thrill, since the sign denoting the enclosure of fruit bats read “Beaware of low-flying bats:  Enter at you're Own Will”. I thought if the zoo had an open enclosure where you could be around free-flying fruit bats, they’d probably be off doing their own thing.

WRONG! All I know is one minute into our walk (mind you it’s night and dark out) I feel a “woosh” by my head, and low and behold a fruit bat has just side-swiped me. Jason was behind me and saw the whole thing. This is of course when my fear of being infected with rabies started to surface, to which Jason replied he’d keep his eye on me. Although I was ready to bolt from the enclosure, Jason was taking his sweet-old time, getting as close as he could to these non-caged creatures hanging off the trees.

The night safari is quite a unique experience, providing close encounters with animals you don’t typically get to have interaction with -- sometimes to close. There are no cages or bars, just enclosures that are natural to the environment (most of the time we were asking ourselves if there really was anything keeping the animals contained). The crazy thing is as you’re walking through the zoo, many of the animals are freely roaming (mainly deer). There is no doubt the night safari is a must see while in Singapore, and it certainly got us in the mood for our African Safari’s in just a couple weeks!

This is how our new-found friend, John, described Singapore. After spending four days there it’s easy to grasp this. The ease of everything in this land is what first comes to mind – effortless access to shopping, efficient public transportation, not an over-abundance of people (relative to most other Asian countries), and food venues for every taste.

With American fast food restaurants on more corners then we have in the Bay Area, a California pizza kitchen (that we ate in our first night craving the familiarity of home), strip mall after strip mall (even more insane than Scottsdale), and most everyone speaking English, I would have thought I was back in good ole CA. Let’s just say this was a great place to recharge our battery without the struggles of trying to figure out a foreign culture.

There were some areas that made the country feel distinct, just not unique to Singapore. Little India and Arab Street were two neighborhoods we walked around and had meals in – lovely food, great atmosphere, but I felt like I was in India or the Middle East. This eclectic feel seems to sum up some of the culture we experienced in the country, being that of a melting pot of many different ethnicities.

The stereotype of Singapore being a very clean country was certainly true, although not to the point where I was scared of a flogging for littering. I was expecting litter police on every corner, or some sort of disciplinary sense to the country, which thank goodness we were far from experiencing. AND, gum chewing we did all we wanted.