And they all had steerable axles, so you could do quite good turns. And so when we first opened, we were having a capacity, I think, of like a thousand seats per hour. And you open at 7:30 and you shut at midnight. You’ve got four to five hours, so… Read More
But there were lots of walking trails that were… I think there’s three trails, fishing cat trail, leopard trail, and the forest giants trail. And there was like three or four kilometers of walking. But basically, everybody wanted to sit on the tram. And we also had a nocturnal animal… Read More
We increased the speed of the drive. It was designed to be a more of a leisurely drive where each tram has its own commentator and driver and the commentator kind of sets the pace. If you see an animal doing something, you stop and you… Well, so all that… Read More
Let’s do some basic costing submission to governments, giving us more seed money, trials, field trials, because you’re right, It’s never been done before, so let’s make sure we get it right. And so we built experimental habitats. We built a rhino habitat. We built a fishing cat habitat. We… Read More
And so we did all this stuff. And while we were waiting for the three years for the government to make their decision, we were meeting every week myself internally with my staff designing stuff. The conceptual master plan that we had created, we actually designed it because we felt… Read More
But at many nights, I was there until till late. So it was very strenuous, strenuous time, but very exciting, very exciting time ’cause we knew we were doing stuff which had never been done before. So it opens up to huge success, moderate success. We totally miss our misses,… Read More
But what did the development of the Night Safari have on you both personally and professionally?… Read More
It was draining. It was totally draining. I think it was probably the most… We conceived the project in 1988 and we opened it in 1994. So 1997-’98, we’d already come up with this. We’d had the call from the POB. We’d come up with the concept, let’s do a… Read More
I think its original name was, I think we talked about Shika Knight. Shika is Indian word for Safari. And we realized that nobody would get it, so Night Safari. We totally believed that Singaporeans would get it and come. We totally believe that tourists would visit it. The government… Read More
And every time it came up, we heard from the cabinet secretary, we’d say, like, they can’t believe that Singaporeans would leave the comfort of their homes or their television sets at night to go to the northern parts of Monday to look at animals under lights at night. So… Read More
That’s a great idea. Was certainly a great jump in zoo design and the presentation of animals. Read More
Now, as you mentioned, this was a brand new concept. Yeah. Never been done. Read More
Why did you think that the Night Safari, if that was its original name or what was the original name, why did you think this project would have the great interest to the public?… Read More
Don’t light up moats, don’t light up back fences. We’d drive through Asia, Africa, South America. Lights on, high poles on masks. The challenge was actually… In lighting, the challenge was what happens if you have a power failure. Okay, you’ve got five standby generators around the place. The park,… Read More
So you have to have a mixture of mercury discharge. And in those days, tungsten lights, now you do LEDs, but tungsten lights. So tungstens are not 3,500 Kelvin, so you have to put color filters into… And so basically, you have a mixture of mercury discharge, which are the… Read More
And so we got him Simon Corder and we said, “Simon, come and help us light this thing up.” So he did. And we had a board, but we had a Night safari committee and we said we have all these lighting options and everybody’s got a knows something about… Read More
And so that’s about the depth you want for your exhibits. And so basically, that’s it. We already knew the basic concepts. We have long exhibits. There are about 35 meters deep. Or if it’s a drive through, it’s 70 meters across. Don’t see barriers. Just don’t light them up. Read More
Let’s do the whole bloody thing.” And Lyn said, “Okay, well, 60 a bit much. So we 40 and have 20 hectares reserved.” So that’s what we did. And he said, “You sure it’s never been done?” He said, “Yeah, I mean, never been done certainly.” So we set about… Read More
And we realized that 500 people a night is not sufficient. So we said, “Well, then we have to change the concept now. So it has to be rather than loose animals, you can cite them, you have spotlights and stuff.” We said we have to have fixed enclosures, fixed… Read More
We got all ideas, but nothing really realistic. And until we got Lyn and Lyn happened to be coming through for some consultancy. And so we sat him down and says, “Lyn, what would you do?” And he said, “Well, I’ll just expand the zoo.” So we got 60 hectares. Read More