But on the day before the movie date, Lucas said he changed his mind and did not want to watch the movie.. That threw Mommy Me off the feet as I had to quickly do some homework to see where I could bring him to.
Remember that Daddy Sky ever mentioned that he read somewhere on the papers that there is a Live Turtle & Tortoise Museum in Chinese Garden. Mommy Me downloaded the driving directions and off we went to Chinese Garden...
When we reached there, alas, we had to pay to get into the Garden... =.=''' Usually it is free but due to the lantern festival, the garden had been decorated with the lanterns and therefore, visitors have to pay to go in..
ok, since we are there liao, just have to pay bah.. Lucky it is free for Lucas since he is not yet 3 years old.. Mommy Me paid $12 to go in... ouch...
Mommy Me self-consoled that we could see the lanterns since we were there anyway.. And it had been a long long time since I last visited this place.
First, we came to this main arch building, there are two courtyards, namely the "Early Spring Courtyard" and "Garden Courtyard". There is also a fishpond in the center, named the "Fishes Paradise".
Past this koi pond, we reached the museum and since we were there at 9++ am, there was no one and we had the whole place to ourselves... There are more than 1000 turtles and tortoises of more than 50 over different species.
Check out the big big ones below:
The photos might not do them justice.. They are all more than half a meter long and it was pretty cool seeing all these turtles and tortoises... ^^
Lucas was pretty apprehensive initially.. He kept thinking that the turtles and tortoises would climb out of the tanks to chase him...
See how scare he looks when taking the photo and he makes sure his eyes are fixed on the tanks... lol...
There is a big pond in the middle of the garden where we could feed the turtles.. See how many of them are swamping near us...
A couple brave ones even climbed onto land to be fed and of course, they made Lucas scream... Hahaha... but it was really a good experience to be so up close with them...
We decided to be safer and used the higher bridge where no turtles could reach us...
See how confident Lucas was trodding on this bridge... ^^
After an hour and half, we went to the main entrance and looked at the baby terrapins which were born in this garden...
Mind you, these little fellows' mommy had dug the hard soil and laid them in there as eggs before they were hatched... I was speaking to the lady in charge.. She told me the mommy turtle would first secrete lots of fluid and make the soil muddy, den she started to lay the eggs and buried them.
In fact, there were 2 spots where Lucas and me spotted covered with a metal mesh cos there are eggs in there waiting to be hatched!!! We felt so excited seeing them... ^^
We then ventured out to the Chinese Garden to take a look at the lantern exhibits...
Frankly, not veli impressive... but it was still a nice walk round the garden... Mommy Me was thinking of leaving for lunch and wanted to go back to the Turtle & Tortoise Museum once more... We passed by the yard and saw this big big lizard!!!
It was trying to make it way back to the bush and both of us were very brave cos we went near it to take photo... hahaha... of course, we were scared as well =.='''
Must give special mention to this 'Pai Hung Ch'iao' Bridge (the white rainbow, 13-Arch Bridge) at the Garden which follows the style of the 17-Arch Bridge at the Summer Palace in Peking.
I was pushing Lucas in his stroller up this bridge and god, it was so steep and I could really feel the tension to do so.. Hmm, I really need more exercise... ;p
Take a look at the mega lanterns on this bridge.. the cowherd and the weaver girl & of cos the magpie bridge..
If you wish to visit the museum, come after the lantern festival to avoid paying the entrance fee...
Here is the web-link:
http://www.turtle-tortoise.com/template.jsp?pg=home
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