Travel: Georgia Aquarium (Atlanta, GA)

In November 2015, I had a work conference in Atlanta. This excited me because I had been wanting to visit the Georgia Aquarium (TripAdvisor, Website, Yelp) for quite some time! And it did not disappoint. FYI, you can get a 20% discount on the admission price by purchasing your tickets online (pre-select a date).

The aquarium has a very different layout than other aquariums I have visited in the past: as you enter the aquarium, each exhibit is off the main lobby area. The advantage of this layout, is that it's easy to get to where you want to go most without having to go through a maze. The disadvantage (to me) is that there is not much sense of exploration. But regardless, if you are a fan of zoos and aquariums like I am, and find yourself in Atlanta, you should definitely check this one out!

The most impressive exhibit, by far, is the whale shark tank. This is the only aquarium outside of Asia that has whale sharks, and they really are amazing creatures.


The enormous tank for the whale sharks and friends.

Travel: National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD

The second day of our weekend DC-Baltimore trip, we stopped by the National Aquarium (Website, Yelp) in Baltimore, which I had been wanting to visit for a few years. The aquarium here is actually very, very good. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Here are a few of the many pictures I took!



This reminded me of the Progressive "rate suckers" ads!

Travel: Jurong Bird Park (Singapore)

I love going to zoos and aquariums, so I had a hard time deciding whether I wanted to go to the Singapore Zoo, Jurong Bird Park, the Night Safari, or the River Safari.

I've been to San Diego's Zoo twice now, and from the Singapore Zoo TripAdvisor reviews, it sounded like it was of similar caliber and extra crowded. (I also didn't pack any zoom lenses for my camera!) I decided to save this for a future trip to Singapore.

I was intrigued by the Night Safari concept, but the TripAdvisor reviews seemed to indicate that it was extremely crowded and not much different than a regular zoo (but open at night time). I figured I wouldn't get many worthwhile photos at night, either!

Finally, the TripAdvisor reviews for the River Safari were not as favourable as the Night Safari, so it was a pass for me as well.

That left Jurong Bird Park, which has excellent TripAdvisor reviews. I've never been to a bird-dedicated park, so I was really excited to go!


Tickets and Travel

Ticket Price: $25 SGD per adult (they have a discount if you purchase online ahead of time, but for non-Singaporeans, it's only a 5% discount, so not really worth the trouble, IMO)

You can get to Jurong Bird Park via public transportation (MRT and bus), but takes about 90 minutes! Taxi, on the other hand, only takes about 20 minutes but costs more. We went for the taxi option since we were having a late start that morning. It cost us about $25-30 SGD (can't remember exactly), and there's a surcharge if you go during peak hours. There are also (not free) shuttle buses from various hotels (information here) that take up to 1 hour, but have a limited schedule.

We arrived about an hour after opening on a weekday and it was not that crowded at all. Although there were quite a lot of cute little school children on field trips.

We left via taxi as well. There's a taxi stand outside the park, and there was one there when we decided to leave (around 1PM, when it started getting a bit too hot and humid).


Picspam


We started at Penguin Coast:


Indoor penguin exhibit. Many school children came up on our heels shortly after this picture was taken.