Tribolum.com: Jurong Bird Park

It’s the school holidays, and that means that Faith finally gets a break from teaching. We went to Jurong Bird Park last week. Ralph, Ai and Seth came along too. It was my first time there in more than a decade - or two - I can’t remember my last time there.

We’ve brought Anne to the zoo more than half a dozen times already, so the Bird Park was a change for all of us. On the way to the Bird Park, I began to understand why the Bird Park saw considerably less visitors than the Zoo.

Oftentimes the packaging is an important lead-in to the actual product. PCs come in drab brown cardboard boxes while Macs come in beautifully designed glossy pieces of art that’d’ say “Designed in California” as you opened them. There is a tingle of excitement as you marvel at how they included little pockets for the tiniest items like the remote control or the USB cable.

This is no fault of the Bird Park, of course. But as we travelled through Jurong we passed by heavy factories, and we were constantly surrounded by huge trucks and tankers, very unlike the Zoo which was located in the middle of greenery and beside a beautiful reservoir of water.

We turned into the carpark, which was rather spartan. Dead leaves were swept to the side of the walkways, but weren’t bagged and disposed of. When we got to the counter, the entrance fee of $16 was a dollar more than the Zoo. You could take the panorail round the park for an extra $4. Upon reading the small print I discovered that $4 only allowed you one round on the panorail. No thanks.

We rushed to the Birds ‘n Buddies show, which featured the parrots and macaws. Anne seemed more interested in the huge costumed characters than the actual birds.

The Bird Park had been advertising a month-long “Penguin Festival”, so we headed to the Penguin enclosure. It was utterly disappointing as the only thing special about the festival was that visitors could now have their photos taken with a penguin for a $10 donation. I kinda felt lied to.

We made our way quickly to the other side of the park. No way were we missing the “Birds of Prey” show. Hawks swooping down on us with their wings brushing against our heads, this was definitely the highlight of our outing. It was so amazing how these huge birds could fly with such grace.

The woman seated beside Faith and Anne found Anne’s pigtails so cute she asked if her daughter could take a picture with her.

We had arrived in the late afternoon and didn’t have enough time to roam about all the other avaries, but the ones we did go into were awesome. There were parakeets sporting livery of rich green and reds. It was like God toggled full saturation on his copy of Adobe Photoshop.

The kids really enjoyed the open space, demanding to be carried uphill and let loose downhill. Seth burned whatever energy he had running, while Anne worried more whether her hat was on right. They are so different, one so boyish and the other so girly.

The fun doesn’t end when their little legs get weary. Their parents have to swing them by their arms. All in all a great workout for us. It was fun.