Day 18: The Zoo!

I visited the zoo with Randy T. and a new arrival from Brian's company, David. I hadn't heard much about the zoo, except that they had a white tiger that was pretty interesting. So, without anything else to do, we went to the zoo to see the white tiger.

Upon arriving at the zoo, we were greeted with a big King Kong statue and then a Tigger wannabe statue pointing down the walking path. For a few minutes, I was scared all of the animals at the zoo would be carved and painted and not actual animals. You never know in India!

After walking down the shaded path, we did find some animals- a pygmy hippo, a giraffe, a zebra, a hippo, an aquarium, and a few monkeys. There was nothing too exciting, and actually the animals looked quite lonely because there was only one of each.

We finally made it to the white tiger exhibit and were amazed to be up close and personal with a white tiger mom and her two cubs. The two cubs were born this June and the three tigers were so awesome to watch. They play-hunted and stalked each other and roamed around in the surprisingly natural and well-kept habitat. We were mesmerized and watched them for a good 30 minutes. I was so in awe I only snapped a few pictures and didn't get any good ones.

Besides the tigers, the other really cool unofficial exhibits were the termite castles. The zoo was in a forest area and I suppose the termites really like all of the trees because there were so many termite mounds. They ranges in size from little like an ant hill to 5 feet tall castles!

There was one more attraction at the zoo that I didn't expect- us Americans! I'm pretty used to people staring a little, waving, snapping photos and wanting to say hi when we go out. At the zoo, we were the main attraction for lots of the kids who parents would push up to us to say "hi, how are you" to practice their English. At the tiger exhibit, I actually had to move away from a group of ladies who kept touching me because one lady wanted to be really close to me the whole time and I was feeling a little weirded out.

On our way out of the zoo, there was a group of guys in their teens or 20s and I could see a few cell phone cameras aimed in our direction taking photos. One guy got up the nerve to come and ask if we would pose for a photo. We said sure and stood there for the photo and then all of a sudden we were swarmed! There were are least 20 people with cameras surround us taking pictures. Then they all wanted to get in the picture with us. So we stood there for a few more photos and then politely said thank you and started to walk away. It was an odd experience, but I'm glad we made someone happy by taking photos with them!