National Zoo and more

Malacca’s zoo is even better. Okay, I could finally get myself to do an update, so here it is.

The amount and variety of wildlife there was pretty disappointing in my opinion. It’s not worth it going through the trouble looking for a parking spot just to look at some lethargic animals. They even display goats! How nice is that! Some animals were even sick, possibly due to the very dirty exhibits. Oh yes, something worth mentioning, they have the skin of a Japanese Giant Salamander in the Reptile House. It’s probably from a relatively small specimen, considering these things grow to about 150cm in length.

Okay, photos. Editing was kept at a minimum.

Beware, long post ahead.

I’m not sure of its name, but it probably belongs to the Bison family.

Sun Bear, native to tropical rainforests in Asia, including here.

One huge African Hippopotamus. It secretes a sunscreen called “blood sweat”, but it’s neither blood nor sweat.

Bengal Tiger. There was only one in the exhibit.

White Rhino.

Another one, looking very lethargic.

Indian Elephants reaching for snacks from visitors. Yes, I know, the piles of poop are huge.

Estuarine (or saltwater) crocs, the largest species known.

Some pretty large tortoises.

A Galápagos Giant Tortoise, the same species to that of Harriet, which was allegedly collected by Charles Darwin.

Albino python.

A Green Iguana that’s brown in colour

Another python, with nice body markings. This one’s for petting.

Two Green Tree Snakes.

Dwarf Crocodile, the smallest extant crocodile species.

The same Dwarf Crocodile. Might look more like a monitor lizard, but it’s a crocodile.

The only penguin there. Dirty glass and dark exhibit = rubbish photo. But I had to post it here.

Seal performing tricks. No Orca, dammit.

Same seal doing some pretty simple tricks. Why? Because the trainer throws the hoop towards it, not anywhere and the seal goes for it.

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For those who don’t know what I got for PMR, it’s straight As. iPod touch for that.

It’s pretty good, since it’s many steps up from my nano, although a flood of applications means rather frequent crashing. Fyi, Labyrinth (the app in the iPod) is updating, that’s why there’s a bar on the icon.

Another disturbing thing is that the iTunes store is not compatible in Malaysia, due to mass piracy here. Otherwise I would have got a couple of movies and songs

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Right, something else. I’ve been playing a lot of Flight Simulator, now that I go for ‘training’ at the integrated Learning Center and can land a commercial aircraft with both ILS and visual approaches without any problems whatsoever.

I love the realism of this simulator. You can download real-world weather with updates from Jeppesen for an added challenge. The dynamics of the aircraft is so real you’d be fighting crosswinds if there’s any on approach. You work almost like a real pilot in it. You check the fuel, monitor its usage, crosscheck it with your flightplan, etc.

Emirates Boeing 777-200LR departs Los Angeles International for Dubai International.

Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER approaching Changi.

Singapore Airlines banking south for Singapore after departure from Tan Son Nhat (Ho Chi Minh).

Singapore Airlines Airbus A340-500 landing at John F. Kennedy International.

First Class passenger’s view of a mountainous landscape as the Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER descends to Zurich-Kloten with the spoilers partially extended.

The same Singapore Airlines aircraft on a low visibility (4 miles or less) descent to Zurich.

But that’s not a problem if you use ILS.

Landing at Changi in terrible weather conditions.

Close-up of the HUGE General Electric GE90-115B engines on the 777-300ER. They’re the largest and most powerful single turbofan jet engines (3,404 mm in diameter and 115,300 lbf of thrust, which is about 100,000 horsepower, 100 times more than the Veyron )

The Superjumbo in Airbus colours.

An example of real-world weather, overcast skies over the South China Sea.

Qantas Boeing 747-400ER over Australia’s barren land.

Qantas Airbus A380-800 on final for Melbourne’s runway 16 after executing a go-around due to a Beechcraft Baron 58 not clearing the runway in time.

Okay, that’s it. I apologise if the flight simulator part bored you to death.