Breakfast with the People of the Forest

Breakfast with the people of the forest…it sounds conspicuous, but it is something I had the pleasure of experiencing recently whilst in Singapore.

You may be familiar with the word Orangutan, but did you know it is a word derived from the Malay and Indonesian language? Orang means person and hutan means forest or jungle = People of the Forest which makes sense as the Orangutan species are the closest living relatives to humans. 97% alike in our genetics various case studies have found.

Anyway I’m not here to teach you about nature, I’ll leave that to David Attenborough. What I am here to tell you is how you can get up close and personal with these amazing creatures for a very small fee if you are lucky enough to be visiting Singapore in the near future.

Singapore Zoo has over 315 species of animal with around 50 of them being on the endangered list, you can see white tigers, polar bears, rhino, lions, puma, giant panda and elephants to name but a few. The entrance fee if pre-booked for the zoo is just £58 per person including transfers to and from the hotel aswell as breakfast (the ticket doesn’t mention who you have your breakfast with!!). I almost booked the ticket without breakfast to save myself £12 as we knew we’d have breakfast before being picked up, I assumed the breakfast would be a cup of coffee and a few bits of toast. How wrong was I. Cooked breakfast, pastries, waffles, pancakes, fruit, cereal and a good selection of fresh fruit juices, teas and coffees but the real gem is that you get to eat it with….you guessed it, our fury orange friends. How amazing is that?

The Orangutan live in an open enclosure within the park so can come down from the trees whenever they wish, at breakfast time they are called down by their keeper so whilst you munch on your pancake with syrup and wash it down with a cappuccino from the rustling of the bushes appear a family of the giant ape. We had the pleasure of meeting Ah Meng along with 4 of her children, one of which was the cheekiest little toddler-esque fellow who was only really interested in pinching food and swinging from a tyre but gave us all a good giggle.

You can have photos taken with them and can buy a souvenir keyring of that photo if you wish, but the keeps were asking us for our phones and taking photos on those so there was no obligation to buy the ones printed by the zoo.

After a fantastic hour with the orangutan they disappeared back off to their trees and we made our way in to the zoo. I have been to plenty of safari park type zoos in my time but I have to say I was impressed by Singapore’s attraction. Plenty of wide open spaces and enclosures where the animals looked at home which is always great to see. The Giant Panda’s Kai Kai and Jia Jia were a real treat to see  as was our glimpse of the resident polar bear Inuka swimming in his pool playing with a giant trash can!!

Of all the things we did whilst in Singapore the zoo was my favourite and at such a cheap price for the ticket (remember to pre-book as the gate prices are a fair bit more) it really is a must do. You can also add the River Safari for an extra £20 which gives you a different insight into the park aswell as getting to see animals native to the Nile and Amazon areas which was great value for money.

For more photos and videos of my day in the zoo you can visit my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/isabellelardercruise

I’ll leave that with you there for now, check back in a few weeks for my next blog where I’ll be telling you how to keep dry (without an umbrella) when it rains down buckets in Singapore!!