Family Outing - To The Zoo

What we did last week.

Well, as I mentioned in one of my previous post, we had a 4-day weekend to savor. All the things I jotted down in my to-do list...hahahahah...nada, I didn’t do any of them.

Hubby was nice enough to call the plumber to fix the leaking (broken, actually) kitchen tap. Thank god, coz all those drip-drippity-drop noises were driving me mad.

I had planned out exciting activities for the whole family for the four days. Thursday was Visit the Zoo day.

It was rather exciting. I hadn’t been to the zoo in ages. I think the last time I was there, I was about 9. My sister-in-law (who’s been staying with us during her long college holiday) had other plans so we decided to bring the maid along. Initially we had planned to get out of the house at 9.30am, coz the zoo opens at 10am. Hahaha, when you have small kids, getting out of the house is a huge task. Something always comes up when you’re just about to head out of the door.

So, in the end, we ended up at the zoo around 12pm. It was freaking hot, luckily hubby got a shady place to park the car. There was already a long line at the ticket counter so I told hubby to bring the kids under the shade while I lined up to buy the tickets. 10 minutes later and we were all staring at the penguins and big fishes in the aquarium. Man, those fishes are enormous!! We’re talking at least 3 meters long. I forgot what they’re called. I should look it up and name my next child that.

Next, were the monkeys. There was this charming orang utan with her trainer, posing with the visitors for pictures. Alas, no pictures coz Dania was too scared. She was muttering “Monkey big!! Monkey big!!” Well, the last thing I wanted was to give her nightmares, so I let it go. I did get to shake hands with her (her name was Manja) though, so that was cool.

Fact: Did you know that an orang utan has the strength of 3 human adults combined? A slap on the face from an adult orang utan would put you in the hospital with a swollen face for at least 3 days. Believe me, it has happened.

After the monkeys, it was on to the elephants. Dania was excited but I guess she didn’t really expect them to be THAT big. The first 2 minutes, she was just staring at them. After that, she was begging me and hubby to let her get on the elephants. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any elephant rides that day.


Abah and the girls with Mr. and Mrs. Elephant

Next up were the birds. There was this really cool eagle/hawk bird I wanted to get a picture of, but I guess it was already agitated from too many people trying to hold it; it wouldn’t sit still for a pose. So Dania and I took pictures with what Ian Wright would call “Burong Eng-gang”.


Ibu & Dania with Burung Enggang

Mr. Lion was asleep and Mr. Tiger was too busy taking a dip in his pool, so we went straight to the reptile house. Dania lurrvveeed the crocodiles and the snakes. I think she has the talent to be the female Steve Irwin. She was a little freaked out by the iguanas though.

It was nearly 1.30pm at that time, so we all decided to have some lunch. We had ourselves some Merrybrown burgers, which were pretty good actually. It was kind of hard to breastfeed Dina coz of all the commotion, she kept looking up and trying to find out the source of the sounds. But all in all, she was an angel. She hardly cried and seemed genuinely interested with all the animals.

After lunch, we headed off to see the horses, rhinos and giraffes. God, rhinos sure do shit a lot!! No joke!! I’ll never grumble about changing diapers again. Just thank god my kid isn’t a rhino. Sorry, no pictures of rhinos, but we did get some pictures with the horses.


Abah & Dania with Mr. and Mrs. Ed.

The bears were the best part of the trip. I was personally disappointed there were no polar bears (they’re my favorite animals) but we aren’t on an island like in Lost; polar bears don’t live in tropical weather. There were, however, cute sun bears and this gigantic brown bear.


Dania & Yogi bear

The trainer made it stand up on its hind legs and I tell you the bear was at least 2.5 meters high. Wow!!


Give me a high-five!!

After that were the wild boars and flamingos which were really just pissed off at being put in at the end of the road. I mean, after sun bears and gigantic brown bears, how can you stack up with wallowing-in-the-mud faces and standing on one leg. Please people, move along, there’s nothing to see here.

All things considered, I would put the outing as a successful family project. We all got out of the house, and the kids (ok, yours truly included) learn a few things about the animal kingdom.
Needless to say, we were all burned out the next day so Friday until Sunday, we spent in lounging in front of the TV. Maybe next week, we should go to the petting zoo so the kids can experience the animals from up close.