IKEA?!!

So one of the Canadians works for IKEA right, so on Monday we decide to go for a wee trip across town to the IKEA store. I know its not particularly Singaporean but who cares, I'd never been to IKEA before and the way the Canadians talked about it, it's the best place in the world so I was pretty excited! Turns out its just a big department store...plus the best restaurant in Singapore, it's so cheap! Apparently they don't run at a profit theyre just there to keep people in the stores longer. I had an American hotdog for $1 it was amazing. Didn't really do much else that day as the Canadians were leaving so just came back to the hostel for a bit and chilled, after they left I was going to go to the night safari but I wouldn't say I got lost, I knew where I was...I just didn't know where the bus to the night safari was so instead just hung around Orchard Road again.

Since the Canadians left it has been pretty quiet here, not the most social bunch of people so yesterday I went on a trip by myself to Singapore Zoo. It was a good hour train trip away (lucky it only cost $2) then had to take a bus. This was my first experience with the Singapore buses and I assumed they would be like everything else in Singapore, perfect...however after arriving at the bus station I specifically asked if I needed to buy a ticket first or pay on the bus. I was told that I would need to pay on the bus. After waiting half a frickin hour for this bus to come while every other bus came twice I climbed up the steps to the bus and handed the driver $10 only to be told that it was $1.50 and you have to have the right change! I was rather pissed off but searched my wallet and came up with $1.35 which the driver was pretty pissed about but let me away with anyways. Would have been nice if one of the two people that I asked had told me that you had to had to have the correct change!

Made it to the zoo though and it was well worth the trouble. As soon as you walk in there are cotton topped tamarin running around just minding their own business, no cages or anything. Saw all the typical animals but one of the highlights was the Polar Bear feeding, it was truly amazing! Have some pretty cool videos of it. Had KFC for lunch, it's not my fault they don't have traditional food at the zoo! Though the combo does come with a coleslaw (which was funky) and a potato and gravy (goooood) instead of chips. After lunch I watched the Splash World tour which had water animals from all round the world like African penguins, californian seals and those weird things that apparently write family guy (manatees?). It was a really good show. The absolute highlight of the day though was the Butterfly walk...but instead of just butterflys there was ring-tailed lemurs which would come up and grab you, and sloths that would walk on past and bats swooping overhead and some weird tiny deer like things...it was really really cool seeing how the animals act up close and interact with each other. Got an awesome video of a lemur licking my finger!! After a long day at the zoo I headed back to the hostel no dramas with the bus or anything this time. Had a couple of beers and watched some tv then went to bed.

Today I am just doing some washing and then might head out for a bit..am worrying about Frankfurt as haven't had any luck finding a couch yet and don't really want to fork out $45 per night!! One girl said she would check with her flatmate and get back to me, so hopefully her flatmate is cooler about couchsurfing than mine were (just kidding). Heres hoping anyways. Not looking forward to my 12 hour flight leaving at midnight tonight and arriving at Frankfurt at 5.45 am. So unless I can get some sleep on the plane looks like Ill be awake for about 40 hours!