Virgin River Safari Trip for the Family

We finally brought the kiddos to River Safari on Sun, after postponing the trip for the longest time due to work and other activities.  Actually I must really take my hats off to my wife as she was the one who suggested bringing the kiddos there, despite the C-section already being planned for in 8 day's time.

To most fish-keeping hobbyists, many of the fishes displayed are rather commonly found and not that interesting.  However the kid were rather awed by the sheer sizes of some of the gigantic carps and catfishes and I must say that the display of the Mekong River Catfishes and giant rays was quite nicely done up. 

The manatee enclosure was impressive with the many specimens of varying sizes being displayed together in the giant enclosure.  It is however quite difficult to get any decent photos due to the dim lighting but as we moved up along the enclosure, we could catch the feeding actions of the "sea cows" from the top instead.

Lastly, how can we forget about the main attractions of the place? They are non other than the two giant pandas, Kai Kai and Jia Jia.  Steffi and Stacci got to see the red pandas up close first before seeing the two main "monochrome" bears.  The red pandas are equally adorable I should say and looks rather friendly too. 

Kai Kai and Jia Jia were housed separately and luckily for us, they were rather active when we were there, at least for Kai Kai and we managed to get a few shots of the kids with them, albeit from quite a distance.  No chance of a family shot too as there was quite a big crowd gathered viewing the pandas.  I half suspected that it was also because the enclosures here was fully air-conditioned and provided a relief to everyone in the scorching sun!

We skipped the boat ride at Wild Amazonia because probably only Steffi and myself could take the ride due to height restriction and physical condition and I would really rather view animals leisurely on foot, which I erroneously thought I could.  I only realized that one HAVE to take the boat ride to view the monkeys, tapirs, capybaras and jaguars.  So that means paying an additional $5 per adult and $3 per kid on top of the park admission fees of $25 per adult and $16 per kid. 

I guess the River Safari is good for a first time visit but having to pay over $100 (inclusive of boat rides) for my family of four, I think I would rather go to the main Zoo instead.  The kids would probably enjoy the Rainforest Kidzworld more than watching the giant panda chew bamboos.  Luckily for us, the tickets were prizes courtesy of TLK Confinement Nanny and we are thankful for that!  The kids have had fun and we ended the day happily with a family photo with the mascot.