The Phuket Zoo - Elephants

I think the elephants was my favorite part of the zoo. We got our picture taken with the star of the show. I forgot her name. But she was fun and had a very hairy head.

They are such large, strong animals.

 They are also very smart.

The we went to watch the show.

The captive crowd. There were a few groups of students there who were fun to watch as the shows happened.

One of the little shows was racing elephants. They put out 3 bowling pins in a line and they had to retrieve them all back to the beginning and put them in the basket. The one farther away pulls a tricky move though. Watch for it.

The Phuket Zoo - Crocodiles

This is the part where we watched stupid men do stupid things with dangerous grumpy animals.

There were dozens of them. In the wild they would be killed if found by people.

He did actually pause there for a few seconds. But as we watched them there were certain patterns that would cause the crocodiles to snap their mouths shut, versus to leave them open.

 

The only mouth I would stick my head in.

The show:

Stupid guys.

The elephants were much better.

The Phuket Zoo - Monkeys

Before you all get to the pictures, I need to state a disclaimer.
It's hard to watch animals exploited and I don't support animal mistreatment. At the Phuket Zoo the animals are well taken care of, but they are used to bring in money. They are not hurt or mistreated. I was a bit uncomfortable watching the monkey show, but as I saw that the monkeys were healthy and trusted their handlers, specific handlers for only a few monkeys, I realized that these animals are better off with the care they are receiving than in their endangered state in the wild. With modern development in south east Asia, the wild is growing smaller. So beyond my opinions, which I don't want discussed further on this blog or it's comments, here is our day at the zoo.

Our first thing was to see the monkey show.

 It is a Welcome sign in Thai.

 Getting a refreshing drink.

One of the babies.

 If I look nervous it's because the monkey is hissing.

 Soft little babies. Now I really am baby hungry. Daniel says I am not allowed to kidnap monkeys or Chinese children and that I have to wait until we get back to the states and get an open an adoption profile again. But aren't they cute?

Posing with the fruit he picked. 

Then we went to the croc show. I'll post that one tomorrow.

Please forgive me

Dear readers - all, I think it's now about 40 of you, please forgive my lack of posting. I took a three week trip home to Utah to spend time with family and friends. And that's just what I did. I spent four days in the mountains (earlier post), time with many friends at dinners and just chatting, a day at the zoo, and many dinners with family where all manner of American food was consumed enmasse. Sadly it added to my "masse." But the gym membership will help fix that. It's odd to be back in China. I won't say glad, because I desperately miss the people and familiarity of home (but no, mother, I am not homesick). But I am back delighting in the oddities that are China. I have laughed a lot over the last 5 days (day 1 back we both slept most of it because of sheer exhaustion and Daniel got sick). It's a full 30 hours from bed to bed. Pheew. Rough.

But I am trying to continues to enjoy this with the same enthusiasm I started with. As I would get asked about China and if we are having a good time the only things that came to my mind were the good things. The people, the food, the experiences and the adventures. It's an experience I never expected to have, even in a million years, and we are loving it. So I am at it again trying to create good memories. (Although the pounding upstairs has gone from jack hammer to some sort of fast rhythmic regular hammer pounding in nails sort of sound.)

Here are a few pictures from my fun, calorie burning day at the zoo with  my best friend Eryn and her kids - all three of them.

 Cute little blondies! Wagons are a good idea, by the way.

 Baby Zuri and momma. I hope to pet a baby elephant in Thailand and ride on an adult.

 This guy was so lazy, it jsut cracked me up. I have felt like that too. It was a warm day.

 At the elephant program.

 Last year when we tried this Grace freaked out! We had put her on the large elephant over by where the elephants are and it made a noise and she was not having it the rest of the day. This year went much better. She was still hesitant, but she participated.

 She was so excited to ride by herself, like a big girl. I was only inches away the rest of the ride, (no need to worry Laurie!)

 He was digging being out of the stroller.

 I want a kid like him. he was so chill and go with it the whole time, even in the heat. Handsome little guy. I'm so glad I got to see him while he was still a baby baby. He hit 3 months while I was there. He's going to grow a lot between now and Christmas! Then I will see him at about a year! So crazy.

 Enjoying the shade.

 I'm not really sure what Amelia's face was, but she is little Miss Personality. It was a fun trip.

What's the zoo without measuring against the gorillas?

Such a fun trip. I'm so glad I got to see as many people as I did. If I missed you, Ii'm sorry. We'll try again in December!