I got licked by a giraffe, ewwwwww

Since the beginning of the school year I had planned on taking my kids to Safari World on a field trip for science. I even postponed our animal habitats unit so that we could go sometime other than monsoon season to avoid getting dumped on. Today was finally the day and let me tell you I was wishing for some rain. It was so hot I was about ready to jump into the dolphin tank. Like seriously as I sat there sweat was running down my back. I hate that kind of hot.
On field trip days kids have to get to school super early to leave about an hour before school normally starts because Bangkok morning traffic really is that terrible. After an hour and a half bus ride we (meaning grade 2 and grade 4) arrived at Safari World. The day had been pretty much planned out for us with a guide to take us around so all Matt, Tricia and I had to do was escort the kids around and have fun. The kids were all genuinely and rightfully terrified when at our first stop inside the park (after the bathroom of course) we were charged by two godzilla sized crocodiles. Never mind that they were inside of a gated habitat, you see a lizard that size coming at you you can't do anything but scream. They settled down a little bit at our next stop, the polar bears both because "they're pretty" and I assume because there was a glass wall and water filled tank between them.
Now we had visited two "predators" can we see something a little more tame? Tame yes, but a little gross. We were off to the giraffes. But these weren't just giraffes you look at off in the distance these giraffes come right up to you, stick out their HUGE purple tongues and you can feed them. So silly me I think how cool would it be to feed a giraffe? So a take a banana and hold it out to the giraffe. Tongue meets hand.... sick!!!!!! nasty. I hate slobber from anything. Dogs, babies and most definitely giraffes. Gross. After that I decided to stick to taking the pictures.




After that the day was a whirlwind of animals and animal shows. The Oranguatan show made me laugh so much but was a little risque. The elephant show was amazing to watch. I was jealous of the sealions and decided that if I could be any animal it would be a sealion, but that might just have been because I was so hot and they got to go swimming. I was a little jealous of the dolphins and beluga whales too. Oh to be able to jump into that water.
AFter lunch we had the pleasure of taking part in the "Jungle Cruise." I had pictured a big disneyland style jungle cruise boat but they were more like little rowboats disguised to look like wood. So I sat in a boat with 7 of my kids and one very out of place looking 4th grader. What can I say about this ride???? hmmm... well 1. I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it (foreigners were supposed to pay 200 Baht). It was like a Ghetto version of the Disneyland ride. There was no thrill either, except for the one time a nasty bloodied up boar thing popped out at us from a hole. So I would just start screaming randomly and then the kids would start screaming a long with me. Then when we finished we could hear another one of the boats from our group screaming. When they finished we just started over again.







The last thing we did before getting back on the bus and hitting up the safari track was visit Mini World. Why it's called Mini World I have no idea but I will fondly refer to it from now on as Amazing bird land. You walk in through a plastic green chain tassled doorway and enter a room of colorful birds and oddly enough small Kangaroos. Poor Kangaroos, they don't get much attention because of all the birds. For 40 Baht you can buy a little packet of sunflower seeds to feed the birds. These birds are so used to being fed that you can just stick out your hand and fly into it. AS a matter a fact they don't necessarily always go for your hand. There is of course the arm but even more importantly the head to them is apparently a great roost. After playing host to more than my fair share of birds and getting bit once and I comfortably say I did not get pooped on even once. Matt on the other had did, Twice. :) :)







The Safari Track reminded me a lot of the safari at Disney's Animal Kingdom except for a few important differences. We were in our own bus and we saw like a million more animals than I saw on the animal kingdom safari. Seriously. There were ostriches, Zebras, CAmels, birds of every kind and more Pelicans than I have ever seen in my life. There were Rhinos and Giraffes. Deer, Oryxes and a ton of other deer and cowlike animals that I fail to know the names of. And finally there were Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh MY! sorry, I couldn't help myself. But seriously they were in that order.




Now I am ready for bed but it seems I've brought a little bit of the park to my bedroom. I can hear a gecko calling up somewhere by my slowly fizzling aircon. Hey, so long as it eats all of the psycho mosquitos he can stick around as long as he wants :)