City Island Life

As always, I'm writing a seriously back dated account and I'm sure if anyone was in fact following this blog, they gave up on me a long time ago. Nonetheless it's time I shared some experiences with the great 'cyber void" out there again so here goes...

December's are always bitter sweet times for me because although they're the best time to go away from an industry point of view, they're also the time where I'm least inclined to spend too much money. Fortunately I learnt a long time ago that life is too short to think that way and when we're blessed financially, so long as we feel we've given back sufficiently, we sometimes need to bite the bullet and experience life a little...

With that in mind, it was off to Singapore, Phuket and Perth for the December holidays. It is of course easier to justify such a trip when there is family in two of the three places to be visited. Singapore would never be an option if it weren't for a free bed and meals, not to mention a car and personal tour guide (in the person of my sister). It's a city that like many other cosmopolitans is difficult to define particularly with obvious influences from both the Western and Eastern Worlds.


What impressed me most, apart from the Singapore Slings at the famous Raffles Hotel Long Bar and the cityscapes at night from the river side,


were the vast green belts that surround and exist within Singapore.


As I photographed monkeys in the Mc Richies Reservoir Forest, and strolled along kilometers of paths through the Botanical Gardens, I was so completely enveloped by the natural surroundings that I forgot I was "within city limits". This island city is the epitome of organisation and without compromising the need that people have to escape into natural environments. Singapore Zoo embraces this ethos, particularly the nocturnal Zoo & is something not to miss even for those who have an aversion to Zoos. It was an education for me to catch but a glimpse of the diversity of wildlife in South East Asia. I was truly humbled by my lack of knowledge, in fact, complete ignorance of the animal kingdom within this part of the world... Africa is apparently NOT the only continent with wild and interesting creatures, although even they can be found on exhibit in the bird park offering me my first sightings of the elusive Shoebill which occurs in only two places on the African continent.
I'd like to say one day that my photographs of a Shoebill are taken in the birds natural environment, but for now, these will do. After exploring this "city island" it was time for real island life...