US Trip: Cincinnati Zoo

Let's go to the zoo

There's lots of things to do

And the food is finger lickin' good

...

Mari kita pergi zoo
Bergembira di situ
Makanannya sedap sehingga menjilat jari
...

I seem to forget the rest of the lines.  Sila sang it right before we left for the zoo.  I believe there's the "Burung cantik, monyet riang" (beautiful bird and playful monkey) line in the Malay version.  But how about the other lines?  I vaguely recalled that the gajah (elephant), zirafah (giraffe), beruang (bear) and sang kancil (deer) are mixed in there somehow and somewhere.

Oh man, I thought I could just google the entire KFC commercial, but nothing close came up.  There goes my plan for just inserting the Youtube video and be done with the post.  Hahaha

O-kayyy then...

The plan was to reach the Zoo at 3pm so that we have ample of time before it closes at 6.  Unfortunately, we only left the house after 3.  It was pretty understandable.  As much as you'd like to have it all planned out nicely, you have to bear in mind there are 2 kids in the family.  Vin was even having doubts if we should even attempt to go.  We were already in the car, so we might as well.  We got there with just over an hour before closing time.  Sure we couldn't take our sweet time, but we agreed that the zoo was just the nice size for adults and the kids.

The map of the zoo and the route that we took

Yaya loves elephants and it's very convenient that the Elephant Reserve is close to the entrance.

Gajah

Then we were off to the "Wildlife Canyon" which houses the rhinos, hogs and camels.

Sumatera Rhino

Babiiii.  I'm not cursing, mind you.  It is a hog :)

The camel was camera shy

Next is the Gorilla World.

I wonder what he could be thinking?

Strike a pose

We stopped briefly to see a sleeping cougar, before heading towards the "Wings of the World".  Yaya also loves parakeets and parrots, and I knew this fact before hand when we were going through the Zoo newsletter together in her room.

Obviously, I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for the glass ;) (Photo courtesy of Sila)

Yaya wanted to see the tigers, so we took the route that passed through the bear enclosures, including those of the the polar bears.

The bears lepaking

Polar bears

This polar bar was pacing back and forth

She'll be taller than me, say ... in 2 years' time? :D (Photo courtesy of Sila)

Unfortunately, the zebras were nowhere to be found, and the Malayan tiger exhibit will only open at the end of June.  I knew that Yaya would be disappointed but Vin and Yaya handled the situation nicely - explaining to her about it and gave her substitutes which were the petting zoo and the giraffes.

The giraffes are inside

On the way back, we passed by the Swan Lake.  I was expecting a lake full of swans, but I could only see a couple.

Dubbed the 'Swan Lake'.  But where are the swans?

It was a just a brief stay, but the Renstroms have yearly passes, so they could just come back anytime they want.  To end the blog post, check out Yaya's drawing of the Red Panda, inspired from the trip.  Ain't it cool?

Stole this from Sila's Facebook album