Around Singapore - Halloween and the Night Safari

Yes, they do celebrate Halloween in Singapore! But mostly only in the expatriate neighborhoods. The availability of decorations and costumes is not nearly as huge as it is at home, but Toys 'R Us did have a few costumes to choose from. Ethan and Jonah both chose the Storm Trooper costumes, and they each got a blaster to go with them. And Liam was a skeleton. So we went all the way up north to a neighborhood called the Woodlands, which is where their school is. The neighborhood surrounding the school is very "American," so they have a huge Halloween celebration. It was a crazy mob scene - I would guess thousands of people! You had to wait in line for the mobs to go to each house collecting candy. After about an hour, and one badly skinned knee on Ethan, we decided to head out. It was fun but a little too crowded for little ones.

Our next adventure was to the Singapore Night Safari. We got there at about 8:00pm and got our tickets. We boarded a tram that drove us through a very dark park where we saw lots of animals doing their nightly things. Lions, hyenas, otters, bats. Then we were able to get off the tram for a while and wander around in the dark. A little scary if the kids start roaming too far, but we made it through with everyone accounted for! After the park, they have an amazing Fire Eating show - lots of burly men spitting fire and tossing fire all around. Great show! We had a lot of fun and will definitely be back. Here are a few photos.

Fun Facts!

• The Singapore Night Safari was the first one in the world! And it has over 1,000 animals.


• The tribal dance and fire-eating shows at the Night Safari are performed by members of the Thumbuakar Tribe of Borneo.


• The houses in the Woodlands neighborhood were all told to purchase at least 50 pounds of candy in order to satisfy the many trick-or-treaters! WOW!


• Most of that candy comes in shipments from the United States but many houses gave out local candies. . . interesting.