Turtle Whisperer

At the Chinese Garden in Singapore, there is also a turtle and tortoise rescue shelter of sorts.  Well, they call it a live turtle and tortoise museum.   They take animals that have once been pets but are no longer wanted and they save them.  Upon entering you feel like you have wandered into a petting zoo or farm of sorts, but only with turtles and tortoises.  There are small ones with exotic shells . . .

There are large, funny-looking ones . . .  and I dont' mean the 10 year old girl

But the best ones of all were . . .

the Pig-Nosed Turtles. 

First off, just the fact that they have to be a turtle with a pig's nose makes you like them, right?  There were several water tanks with these turtles.  I was in another row (trying to figure out how not to have nightmares about large turtles invading the earth.  Also, how I was not going to step on the many turtles that were just walking around the place. Ummm people, shouldn't these be in cages or something?   I started thinking that everything that touched my shoe was a man-eating turtle (or probably just an Asian Box Turtle.)  Oops, no that was a leaf, and that was just a piece of grass touching my ankle.  Gotta get a hold of myself.)  The girls were loving it all. 

Ok, so I was in another row and Keylime calls me over to show me that she has taught the Pig-Nosed Turtles tricks.  She would walk to one side of the tank and they would follow.  She would walk back and the piggy-nosed guys would follow her back.  She tells me that she can get the turtles to stick out there tongues.  Huh?  I am thinking, oh my, I really hope she doesn't lick the side of the tank.  Good news, she remains calm and a safe distance from the tank while she is taming the wild beasts known as the Pig Nosed Turtles.    The turtles are following her back and forth.  So instead of the Dog Whisperer, in our family we now have the Turtle Whisperer.  Who knew?

The sign gives you a little insight that the Pig-Nose Turtles are quite friendly. 

In Singapore, there is a heavy Chinese influence.  The majority of the people are of Chinese descent.  From our trip to Beijing, we had learned about some of the symbolism within the Chinese culture.  As we were touring, we learned that color is important and carefully selected in the Chinese culture.  Red is a favorite color and symbolizes good fortune and joy.  Green means health, prosperity and harmony.  Black corresponds with water (for example at the Forbidden City in Beijing, the roof of the library was black.  Since black means water is it to ensure that the library would not burn in a fire.)  Gold is also an important color and goes with royalty. 

At the Chinese Garden in Singapore, we see red as a predominant color everywhere including the pagoda roofs.   

The girls loved the spiral stairwells in the pagodas.  Yep, that's right when I snapped the picture there were two monks on the stairs also.  (OK, I think the Monks are Buddhist)  Hello Mr. Monks.  Sorry about the flash! 

So as Confucius says . . .

well, I don't know what Confucius would say but it sounded kind of cool to start the sentence like that, didn't it?  I guess you will have to go to the Chinese Buffet and get a fortune cookie ('cause you won't find those in Singapore or China) to find out what Confucius has in store for you.