Chinese Garden

Melissa here...

Jazzy stayed home today while Chris and I went out for a day adventure to "Chinese Garden." We have noticed this stop off of the train many times as it is only a few stops from home so we decided to check it out today.

I know what you are thinking....HOW could we leave Jazzy behind and have so much fun without her??

Well a few reasons-

1. You can not take pets on the MRT (mass rapit transit) 

2. You can not take pets into most natural areas, such as public gardens (bummer, right?)

We were surprised at first that pets are not allowed in gardens or botanical areas, but then we realized why......

Picture it.....me resting naturally by the river....so calm and peaceful......

Chris snaps a picture and I turn my head to the right....and see THIS........................

 Is it a crocodile? Is a dinosaur? No, it is a HUGE Monitor Lizard!! (actually two HUGE monitor lizards!!) Look how big and long that tail is! The big guy was shading his body under the bush.

This was me immediately after seeing these guys....

"they can't get me up here, right?"

this smaller one came up out of the water. The baby?

Can you imagine what Jazzy would have done if she saw these creatures? Or what they would have done to her? Singapore has such vast and varied wildlife, that domesticated animals, like Jazzy, could compromise their habitats or affect their behaviors.  We also saw a sign posted in the park of a certain monkey that had been harassing parkgoers and begging for food. It was quite a funny poster, actually. Kind of a mugshot of the poor monkey saying "Do not feed this monkey. Please report him immediately." I am sorry we did not take a picture of that sign! 
We continued through the park visiting a 7 story pegoda that you were able to walk up to the top and look out from. it was actually kind of scary, but it was my favorite part of the walk. Next we visited a small garden with over 100 bonsai trees. That was Chris' favorite part of the day. 

We continued through the "Zodiac Garden" and took tourist pics with the Horse (celebrating this Lunar New Year) as well as our respective birth years.

1979- year of the goat 

1982- year of the dog

 We stopped to watch a game of cricket and then at a hawker center for food and a beer before heading back home to Jazzy. All in all it was a great day!