Once upon a time there lived an adorable little giraffe named Broke. Broke lived at the Night Safari Singapore Zoo, and although the other giraffes spent their days there eating straw and wandering through the beautiful, scenic green pastures, Broke spent his days napping amidst the other stuffed toys in the souvenir shop. Although Broke felt lucky to have such a comfy place to snuggle into day after day, he longed for the one day that his princess would arrive, rescue him from the bin, and take him away to a magical foreign land where he could be free.
I mean, seriously… what else could I do? He looked up at me with those cute little stuffed animal eyes and I knew…I KNEW what I had to do. He must be rescued from the Singapore Zoo.
I guess I have to mention that Taylor (youngest Robini) LOVES giraffes! And not only giraffes, but zoos as well. She loves going to look at all of the animals, taking photos of all the lovely giraffes and likes visiting zoos everywhere she visits. I’m not too sure about whether or not the animals themselves actually enjoy their living arrangements in zoological centers, but being that they probably aren’t consulted regarding their personal wishes, there they stay.
To escape from a life of shopping while in Singapore, we decided to go explore the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve one afternoon (Wonderful! Wonderful! I’ve added some photos of it in the blog album), and then visit the Night Safari in the evening. It was such a nice escape from all the glitter & skyscrapers. I even saw some monkeys while hiking in the jungle at the reserve! Then at about 9 pm we hopped on a tram that ran through the Singapore Zoo, and the Night Safari began! I’m not sure how many zoos operate in the evening, but Singapore claims to have one of the world’s only night safaris, where you’re guided through a world of nocturnal animals that don’t sit within glassed cages. It was so cool! I kept thinking how MUCH Taylor would absolutely love the Night Safari.
At almost midnight when we were exiting the Night Safari, I was approached with a surprisingly interesting decision. Do I do what I was born to do?... Rescue Broke from the giraffe-filled stuffed animal bin at the gift shop because Taylor would be so giddy to give him a new home???
OR…
Do I forget the giraffe altogether because our bus is leaving in 30 seconds and I’ll miss it if I even take a moment to look in the gift shop???
Hmm, decisions, decisions…
Cute little giraffe that Taylor would LOVE? Missing the last bus going back to my hostel at midnight in a foreign country?
Get excited Taylor… I went for the giraffe! (*side note: Noman, like a sane human being, was NOT for this choice. Although he did turn out to be a shockingly good sport about it!).
So, I figured that maybe, just maybe, the time I spent in the shop buying Broke wouldn’t necessarily mean that I’d miss the last bus.
Yeah, that didn’t happen. Bus MISSED!
So I figure, no worries! We’ll take a taxi, right?
Well, apparently taxis charge TWICE as much after midnight, in an already unbelievably expensive city …
AND THEN I discovered that we were REALLY, REALLY far away from our hostel (kind of like, on the other side of the country far away) . . .
AND THEN I found out another little special piece of info . . . I didn’t have hardly ANY money left because I just spent it all on the Night Safari & a little stuffed giraffe!
SO . . . options, options . . . we need some options here!
We figured out that Noman & I had a collective amount of $10 total. Period. No banks open at midnight, so we can’t get any money out of the bank. Singapore’s super expensive, so $10 won’t get us home in a taxi. No more buses around. We don’t know anybody in Singapore.
What would YOU do? (I’m very curious here… really, what would YOU do? Tell me!).
This is what I came up with . . . Singapore is the safest city/country in the ENTIRE WORLD (reports actually confirm this! The entire world!), so I figure that if we have the taxi get us in the right direction, as far as $10 will take us, then we’ll just hike the rest of the way back on foot. We don’t have to worry about getting robbed in the middle of the night because anywhere you go is super safe, and we’re on vacation so we don’t have to be back at a certain time anyway. If have have to walk for a few hours, it only means that we’ll get some good exercise.
And in the end, that’s what we did… And Broke’s name was inspired by the reality that we actually went completely, literally BROKE by having bought him. So you better pretend you love him Taylor because that was one present that was NOT easy to get!
