Date with Le Le

I had a limited understanding of the panda diplomacy rules, so when Le Le was born, I’d thought he belonged to us indefinitely. I’d thought that I could take my own sweet time to go find him. Hence, when I found out one day that he was going to China at the end of the year, I was quite rudely shocked.

How had 2 years gone by in the blink of an eye? Wasn’t he only just born like not long ago? I couldn’t believe that I haven’t even laid my eyes on him yet and he was already going to leave us. I made up my mind to definitely go find him before that happened.

On the 10th of Oct (yes, this post is super back-dated), after going to the gym in the morning, I found myself directions to the zoo. It also happened to be World Mental Health Day and I unwittingly “participated” in it by spending the day hanging out with myself!

My first time taking the public transport to the zoo! Pretty exciting! I wonder what route the bus was going to take.

The bus was less than a quarter full. I guess that was the perk of visiting the zoo on a random weekday mid-morning. The sun had been pretty tenacious of late so I took the chance to slather on sun cream while riding on the bus. Soon enough, I arrived!

The last time I’d been to River Wonders its name was still called River Safari. But it hasn’t changed much from my memory though. However, since I didn’t manage to catch the animal show here previously, I decided now was as good a time as any!

The auntie sitting next to me kept casting me double glances because I was alone (I think). She wasn’t even subtle about it and I found it quite rude actually. But I couldn’t be bothered with her. The two ladies sitting on the bench right ahead of me were also solo! I was 15 minutes early for the show so I whipped out my Kobo and started reading.

The show was alright. I think the ones at the zoo and bird paradise were better. After the show I wanted to go and take the River Quest boat that I topped up $5 for because what’s the River Wonders without checking out the river right? But alas, it started to rain and they decided to suspend the rides until the weather got better. So I decided to go across the bridge and find Le Le first.

Dude here’s kinda cute.

I don’t know why it never occured to me that aquarium enclosures needed to be cleaned too. I was quite amused to see it in action. And them divers’ got nice legs eh.

Here! I was so excited and slightly nervous as well because the last time I was here, I didn’t have a lot of success seeing the pandas. I knew I wouldn’t be coming back again so it’s all or nothing.

But look who’s there! Awwwwwwwwww…………

I was sooo elated I got such a good view and video of him! He’s such a baby still. He was just totally immersed in his food without a regard for the commotion that was going on around him. My date with Le Le was mission accomplished!

Got myself a panda headband at the souvenir shop!

After visiting the panda enclosures, I went back to try taking the River Quest boat again but they were still not reopened. I’d already covered everything there was to cover, so I decided to go for lunch while waiting. At this point, I was already close to giving up on the boat. If they were still not reopened after I was done with lunch, I would just forgo it.

I got myself a dumpling noodle that was nothing to rave about.

Yay, they reopened the River Quest boat!

Actually, the ride was kinda lame. It was very quick and there weren’t many animals to see. The best part of the ride was probably when the boat took the elevator up to the start of the river. That was slightly fancy I guess.

On my way out of River Wonders, I came across this electric eel. He looked stuck!

I don’t know if he’s really stuck or just asleep, and I tried looking around for a ranger but couldn’t find anyone to notify. I really hope he would be okay!

On my way out…

They were giving away free stickers and enamel pins for World Mental Health Day. 🙂 The dinosaur was cute!

Ended my Date-with-LeLe day with coffee and my book before trotting back home. I was happy I got to see Le Le before he left us to continue his very important mission in life as a giant panda. I wish Le Le all the best and hope wherever he ends up in future, he will be safe and healthy and in the hands of good people who will love him and take good care of him. Thank you for meeting me today, Le Le!

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