When it comes to weekend planning and you check with me for ideas, you’d get an answer like this:
Leo: I’ve got nothing!
Lamia, however, always has something. Sometimes something big, sometimes something small – but always something. For today she suggested we could try the Animal Resort, a place that reads like some kind of petting zoo. It also had been a destination for an excursion from Oskar’s school a while ago which ultimately had been cancelled. So if you look at me, …
Leo: I’ve got nothing!
… I did not even remember about that cancelled excursion (though I was supposed to join Oskar back then). Lamia, of course, still knew.
So we packed a diaper bag, the stroller, two car seats and the kids and called a cab to take us there this morning. This resort is located sort of inbetween crack-of-the-ass and I-am-lost, but luckily the level of being lost in Singapore is still very manageable relative to other countries, so it took only 15 minutes or so to get there.
Here’s the entrance:
Turns out this place is free, which I appreciate. But a little later I understood why: this is just not such a nice place. I had thought this would be sort of like a cozy farm setting where you can sit and give a back rub to a rabbit or lock horns with a goat or something.
But this place is more of a random collection of run down shacks and the stink around here is not helping either (yeah, I know: it stinks on a farm… but make it at least look nice!).
Lamia bought a few bags of food for the animals. I grabbed the plastic bag they came in and my fingers were immediately grimy from some shit that bag had been sitting in. This is when I decided I did not like this place at all.
Oskar, however, begged to differ…
He happily fed some birds, a horse, the rabbits and chased pigeons. I cannot argue with that – the boy seemed to enjoy himself well enough.
I kept on being a grumpy ass until I saw a marvelous peacock in the last wooden shack. Seriously – this beast seemed to be out of place here. I have rarely seen such a magnificent specimen, even in much more prestigious zoos (where the peacocks often look tattered). As a matter of course, however, this one was sitting behind a grid of rather thick bars. Being in a grumpy mode, I was not too motivated to take a photo, but this peacock was in show-off mode. He was presenting his feathers so frequently, that I could not refrain from at least trying and do some large aperture / make-the-cage-disappear magic.
And by golly!
Holy cow! Tack sharp! I gotta say I love my 24-70L f2.8 II lens. What a great shot, particularly under these circumstances. At this point I decided that I had been a bit harsh and that I might not like this place but that it could be worse.
Soon we were done with our visit and we called a taxi. Or more accurately: “tried” to call a taxi. Remember, this place is located somewhere inbetween crack-of-the-ass and I-am-lost. And as it turns out, not many taxis pass by inbetween crack-of-the-ass and I-am-lost.
After we had tried for a while, we decided we would have to make the walk to a larger road and hope for catching a taxi there. This would not be a big deal if we did not have to drag all the gear with us that is needed if you leave the house with two kids. But a diaper bag, the stroller, two car seats and two kids are quite something to take on a walk (even though the stroller and one car seat with one kid inside can be conveniently pushed, of course).
At this point I decided that I had been too soft and that I did not like that Animal Resort place at all, fullstop!
We tried to get taxis while we were walking and Lamia had a stroke of good luck and a few minutes later a cab pulled over and rescued us.
I guess we won’t be coming back anytime soon.
But I do like that peacock photo…
