Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts

Thursday, January 24, 2013

the pehla wehla phoren trip! :p

A lot has happened and yet not much! The Bub turned two, two months ago and I have STILL not written a post! Bwwwaaaaah! :( But it is there in my drafts and I intend to finish it one of these days. Enough whining and to the post I intend to write now! :p


This was my Facebook update a couple of days ago;

"We are back with bags full of dirty clothes, hearts full of happy memories and memory cards full of fun photus and of course wallets that are very empty! :) One week in Singapore was perfect to say the least! The weather gods played truant only after we had done major sightseeing! Cub got his wish of getting pics clicked with his favourite Shrek and Alex. There were animals, birds, roller coasters and boat rides. And most of all Cub and Bub got to know one more of their Buas and Uncles better! :) Thank you Kittu Bua and V uncle for being brilliant hosts and making out trip that much more memorable! We cannot wait to have you in Bengaluru now! Hugs!"


So, now you know we went to Singapore on a holiday. Couple of fellow bloggers on my friends list said that I should do a proper blog post and it was that push I needed. I do hope i finish writing this in a day or so!


We flew with Tiger Airways (the only airline we could afford) and were worried about the whole low cost experience, but we had a really good and comfortable flight - to and fro. Since we had a cousin living in Singapore, we spent a couple of days at hotel and stayed with family another few days who indulged us with some seriously good hospitality! :)


We tried to keep our schedules fairly easy considering we had two kids and one senior citizen with us and we are not great on stamina either. Since we were five us out of whom four needed tickets everywhere, we stuck to using cabs for most part. Cost us almost the same and saved us fair bit of time.


A friend asked me how was Singapore? Well, Singapore is Singapore i said! It is neat, clean, child and differently able friendly and full of surcharges and taxes of every kind! It is also hot and humid and bright sun makes for gorgeous photos, if you are looking for that weather silver line! :p


We managed to visit Jurong Bird park, Night Safari and Universal Studios in detail and did bit of Sentosa and some small shopping at the fun China Town and boating at Clarke Quay / Boat Quay.


The day we reached we stepped out only by late afternoon and had to skip the zoo and went straight for the Night Safari. It was a fabulous experience starting from getting to see some animals right outside (with their care takers) to the tram ride taking us through the whole gamut of nocturnal animals to the short walks one can take within the safari. 


Day 2 was Jurong Bird Park and we had a great time yet again. Cub fed the birds, we managed to catch some interesting shows about Birds of Prey, Penguins and birds trained to perform, like macaws and cockatoos. I loved the stunning colours on so many of these winged wonders and it is something to see over 50 flamingos together. 


Day 3 was the day Cub was excited about the whole Singapore trip - Universal Studios! :) He was looking forward to meeting Shrek and got the whole cast of Madagascar as a bonus as well. He did his first roller coaster ride and surprised us by not being scared of pretty much anything! :) That boy has some genes of mine then. Yayyy for that! I am a big roller coaster type thrills junkie and it is good to have company! :) The Shrek 4D show was good fun and so was Donkey Live. We were lucky to find very little wait time at almost all the rides and performances and could make most of the time we had there.


At Sentosa, we just went to the Underwater World and saw the Songs of the Sea show. And yeah! Did the cable car ride. There was an evening spent with friends at Marina Bay Sands' shopping mall and the lovely open area outside. I was meeting these M's friends for the first time and it just did not feel like that. Add to that some fabulous Italian food and we were very happy people. 

We also did the short boat ride at Clarke Quay and it was a pleasant way of spending 40mins. Relaxing and smooth and you get to see all the lovely sights of Singapore. Clarke Quay is also known for its clubbing scene, but with kids on tow we skipped that. The other side has a long line of restaurants that serve you every kind of food available. Seeing the huge, live crabs and lobsters in tanks all around is not for the fainthearted! :p Almost all the eateries offer some sort of discount or welcome drink etc. You can see folks from all over the world converge and enjoy their meals by the bay side. 


What we missed doing and wish could have was go on the Flyer and see the zoo. We also wanted to take kids to a big water park, but the last two days were pretty much washed out with constant rains. We did go to China Town - a market place for all things sasta, pretty, souvenirs and probably not very teekau. Actually not very sasta considering the exchange rate! :( But it is a really cool place and you should make a trip there if you go to Singapore. We just bought chhota chhota things to give Cub's and Ally's friends and some clothes. 


For khaana, we ate some local food, some ghar ka khaana and some Indian food outside as well esp since ma in law got kinda sick of the seafood smell from everywhere! The kids survived on chips, biscuits, juice and an occasional nutritional meal. Bub had a few yogurt dinners as well! :p


The Cub and Bub were quite well behaved unless hunger or fatigue hit them! The Cub enjoyed most of the stuff and after ages we got some really cute photos! :) The Bub on the other hand spent most of her time greying our hair by running amok all over in crowded places. It was one person's full time duty to just keep track where she was. Phew! Oh and must mention how she kept taking off her shoes just about a thousand times a day and sitting on the ground pretty much everywhere! Oh well!


Here are some photos! :)



well past bed time! At Bengaluru Airport! :)




The Croc-Hunter?! :p




My tail who refused to leave my side! I am talking about the Bub! :p




Yes! That Owl is real! :)





We are same same but different! :) (Idea credit to M)




The very tired Bub after a late night flight, a full day and a night safari!




Errr... self explanatory?! :p




At the Jurong bird park! :)




in the Tram that takes you around the Bird Park.




Cub feeding the birds. He was little scared but soon quite amazed! :)




Then it was the Bub's turn!




But no birds came along!




Till one came and sat next to her to finish off the worms! :)




The Cub and the Flamingos! :)




Some jumping around is always good! :)



Who knew that Karate was a water sport?! :p  (Thanks Richa for the water park tip!)





At the Marina Bay Sands shopping arcade!




Kids loved running around the huge open space! :)




The yogurt dinner!




The tired Cub pretending to sleep Bub style with a Tauiya! :)



Phew! I am tired of adding so many photos. So, the rest of the pics in next post! :) 

Hope you guys are having a fabulous new year. Cheers!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Zebba, Ippo and Eyetaya!

If you come into the Jain ghar these days, you will see a little boy walking around the house saying Zebba! Baergatta! Ippo! Baby! Baergatta! M says I have scarred him forever by taking him to Bannerghatta National Park. That he will be found walking chanting Zebba even at age 20 perhaps. Sometimes, I almost tend to agree. But I am already planning to take him to Mysore Zoo in near future. They even have a giraffe I have heard!


At the entrance. raring to go!

Anyhoo, now that Cubby had started recognizing lot of animals and can walk for fairly long time without demanding "Gooddi" (carry me request said in one word!), we though good time to take him to the zoo. And it was so totally worth it.



Oho! Mummy stop posing for pics! Let's go!

Ofcos the day started funny with rain gods deciding to do their sense of humour bit by making it rain in middle of January! I kept having my intense one on one with God demanding the rain be taken away with immediate effect, but the cludy n cool weather could stay. Afterall you can only bargain as much and the rains did stop by the time we entered the zoo, though cool n cloudy, not really! :p




Bass aise hi. GK ke liye! :p

We decided to skip the safari considering we were not sure if Cubby will enjoy being in a small bus with grilled windows and squinting to see tigers and lions. Plus there was a mile long Q for it. So we bought our tickets for the zoo and camera and went it.

Can you see the python, somewhere down there?!

Bannerghatta is a tad confusing and its not easy to find animals you really want to see. I mean would an 18month old actually care about a huge cobra that lying on the floor or hidden in it's cave with just the tail showing?! Anyhoo, we first found Bear which is an animal Cubby recognizes. There were three of em and one was eating Ganna (sugarcane). So now the series goes Bear! Baergatta. You ask what does Bear eat?! He replies Ganna! :) The grills have very small squares and for a kid it's not easy to make out what is prowling the cage.


That's a Bear! It is eating ganna!

We saw some monkeys, langurs etc and Cubby was quite happy though not as excited as we thought he would be. The leopard didn't interest him at all and the hyena was too stinky to stand there for long. The small tortoises were really cute, but thanks to almost no movement I am not sure how much Cubby noticed. Same goes for crocodiles, who were sunning themselves like statues that even I had a doubt if they are real. Some moved suddenly and we tried to see Cubby would notice it. He does say Cocodile now! ;) So maybe he did.


I think there is leopard somewhere in the background! :p

What really got a reaction was his favourite Zebra. He could not believe his eyes that he was seeing a live Zebba about 50times the size of his toy one. Plus the fencing had enough gap to see it clearly. Add to that it is a good looking animal. The black n white stripes, taut and shiny skin and right there within your grasp. Cubby was totally fascinated. Till date he identifies Bannerghatta outing with Zebba more than anything else.


Isn't the baby Ippo totally cute!

Hippo (Ippo) also became quite a favourite. My belief all babies are cute came true when we saw a baby Ippo. It was adorable and stuck to it's mum (i guess) all the time. They also came and gave them food while we were there, so we showed Cubby how they were having their khaana.


I am bored now, Mommy!

Eyetaya (Elephant) didn't get as much approval as we though. Or maybe it was because he was tired by now. He had been walking with us almost the entire time, demanding godi every now and then and walking again when little refreshed. We saw some birds, but that didn't interest him much, neither did the listless aquarium. I have seen better stuff in homes.

WE took a lunch break and ate some OK types biryani available at the government stall. Egg rice, more like it. Tried feeding Cubby some cerelac. The stall was next to the children's play area and Cubby went absolutely ballistic just playing in sand rather than go on slides and swings which we made him do for our khushi! :p


See- saw! Up Down! Upar Neeche!


I am doing this only for their happiness!


Id much rather play in mitti! One fistful of sand has so many interesting things! :)


Ofcos, playing in it with Zebba, even more fun!


Zebba ROCKS! people! :D

Where is my Zebba?!


Oh my god! What do I do now?!


What the heck?! I will just play with sand again!

We then tried hunting for rabbits which turned out to be futile and we just kept going in circles. Plus we were terribly tired by then and decided to call it a day, leaving the rest to another day. And we will be back soon indeed! :)




Chalo bhai. Ab ghar chalein?!



Haan please! I am so tired. And sleepy.

ps: We don't have too many animal pics because its difficult to click em through the mesh and we were too fascinated by Cubby's reactions to bother taking pics at that time. His expression to me read "OMG! These things exist OUT of books and even move!"


pps: for anyone who wants more details on Bannerghatta National park, here's my review with more practical details! http://bangalore.metromela.com/article/Go+wild+at+Bannerghatta+National+Park/2407