The Live Turtle & Tortoise Museum

It cost SGD5 to visit the museum, but it was most definitely worth it. At first, I was a tad disappointed to see that the museum was so small, but when I got down to checking the animals out, I really had so much fun.

There were rows and rows of aquariums- rather like a pet shop, but not every tank featured a different species (many of them were pig-nosed turtles(!); which were rather strange looking creatures).

Star tortoises- aren't they beautiful?

I learnt that turtles can live on both land and in water, while tortoises cannot come into contact with water (apparently, they can catch a cold). Heh.

It was fascinating to see so many different types of turtles and tortoises. I saw alligator snapping turtles (which are extremenly dangerous), soft-shell turtles, star tortoises, golden turtles, side-necked turtles, and many others. Seeing all these wonderful creatures really made me praise God for the wonder of His creation!

Snake-necked turtle; a little scary, no?

I also got to feed some Malaysian turtles! I tried to feed them with my left hand while trying to take some photos with my right- now that was tough (especially since I had to watch for those snapping jaws)! As soon as the turtles caught a glimpse of food, they started rushing over (yes, surprisingly they can be quite fast), and started climbing onto one another to get a bite!

There was one particularly agressive turtle trying to hog all the food, so I tried my best to 'distribute' the food evenly. Their jaws were amazingly strong- they would latch onto the cucumber, and tug at it so hard their heads retracted back into their shell! It was quite funny to watch!

I finally lost the 'battle' when the cucumber got too short; one turtle latched on, and I decided it just wasn't worth risking my fingers (they were being threatened by the other fast-approaching turtles) just to win the 'tug-of-war'!

All in all- the highlight of my visit to the Chinese Gardens! :)