Nyan loves animals – what kid doesn’t, of course – and we’d read that Singapore has one of the world’s best zoos. So last month, a few days after we arrived here, Daddy and Nyan spent a day at the zoo. We weren’t disappointed.

It rained heavily that morning, but the skies were clearing when we arrived at the zoo, shortly after it opened at 10am. The rain meant no crowds, which meant we had the animals mostly to ourselves. We started out at the polar bear exhibit, where Nyan was wowed as he watched the bear dive under the water and eat fish. (He still talks about that today, more than a month after our visit.)

A small sampling of some of the other animals we saw: zebras, giraffes, crocodiles, lions, birds, monkeys, kangaroos. And a cheetah.

And pygmy hippos.

And organutans.

And turtles and fish.

Monkeys too.

The highlight, perhaps, was the elephant show. All morning long, Daddy had been promising that we’d make it to the elephant show, which somehow in Nyan’s mind became ‘We’re gonna see the elephants dancing!” Well, they didn’t actually dance, but they did put on a nice show for us.

Video from the show:

He looks less than enthused, but that’s just ’cause he was paying close attention. And perhaps because the midday heat, the humidity, the jetlag and the hours of running around were all catching up to him: after the elephant show, we made our way to the exit, and he fell asleep in the car within a few minutes of driving off.