Bali Getaway Part 3 : Bali Zoo

6:01:00 PM

Merry Christmassss everybody!!!

I hope those of you who celebrate Christmas are having the most wonderful Christmas ever! As for me, even though we're Christians (me, hunny and my mum, my dad's Buddhist. We come from a very multi-religious family!), our Church doesn't celebrate Christmas (our Church's very old fashioned and follow the bible strictly, it used to be forbidden for us to celebrate Christmas in anyway, but they have loosen up a lot by now and even hold Christmas parties-emphasizing it as a tradition and celebration instead of a religious connected day. That's just the way our Church is and i am in no way preaching to anyone, so save your protests or rude comments to yourself okay!) so it's just like any other holiday for us hehe.

We did have the weirdest Christmas Eve, went to CW with my 'rents to shop for Baby Boy's Chinese New Year attires (huh, boys stuffs are sooo expensive, spent millions for his assemble every year. I bet i can get a LOT more if he's a girl, girls clothes are a million times cuter and a whole lot cheaper! So unfair...) and have sushi dinner at Sushi Tei, followed by marathon of horror movies. I announced out of the blue that Christmas Eve's definitely the perfect time for a horror movie. Probably was inspired by Rosemary (who was busy BBM-ing me to distract her from Insidious 2 she was watching because she claimed it to be hazardous to her heart's health hahaha) and ended up went to bed at almost 3 AM (on Christmas Day) hahahaha.

I'm a bit annoyed at hunny though, i've been demanding a Christmas gift (well of course, i even demanded for Idul Fitri gifts wakakakakaka) but he ended up getting one for himself. He went ogling at Skecher's limited edition glow in the dark sneakers (PFFFTTTT, what's with this guy's obsession with glow in the dark thingy??? I can never understand zzz), it was almost IDR 1.000.000 after discount (thank God for Citibank credit card and more discount using them hahahaha) WTH. He's been very generous with himself, that guy, after NX-300 and now this *bitter* *bitter*. I'm demanding a double gifts though, for Christmas and New Year, thinking of a Guess bag and Victoria Secret perfumes *evil laugh*. I'm pretty stoked because my Luxola shopping just arrived today so it feels just like a Christmas gift hahahaha.Super happy with my GlamPact, it's definitely the prettiest palette i have so far!

Too much rambling already? Hehe sorry ah... You might notice that i haven't been posting anything for a few days (out of ordinary!) because i've been taking a lot of medications lately (i've decided enough is enough, me not taking medications routinely has seen me not getting well for months, with enough rests now i feel a lot better already!) and always feel very high hihihihii. Then i already tried to upload photos for this entry for a few days, but i always ended up forgetting attaching the photos (40 each time WTF) because i was distracted with other things (you know, latest episode of Running Man, horror movies, etc)-and i do have a lot of reviews in my drafts but i feel like this blog's been too beauty oriented the last couple of weeks and i'm big with varieties! Plus, it's Christmas, need to post something more special than an ordinary review (and family oriented), right?

So after continuous procrastination, i'm finally blogging about our visit to Bali Zoo last month!

Since we're bringing our 6-years-old son on this trip, we knew some sort of zoo/safari would be unavoidable, and we don't mind because we love that kind of places as well (as long as we don't go there too often, then it'd be very boring zzz), but having visited the Bali Safari two times already, we were so not going to go there again hahaha. Decided to visit the Bali Zoo instead on a whim.

The path to the entrance was quite deserted, kinda small and secluded. I was a bit worried of the condition of this zoo judging from the small parking lot hehe

Welcome to Bali Zoo :)

We were shocked when we saw the entrance fee splayed on the information board, it was crazy expensive (it was USD 40 or something! Insanity!)! Thankfully their local tourists' price's about less than half the price stated on the board *LOL*. I have no idea if international tourists' price's really that expensive or they have promotional prices now... Anyway, they asked to see our ID and charged us accordingly. It turned out to be pretty cheap, IDR 82.500 for adults (i don't remember if they charged the same price for Baby Boy)-which was a lot cheaper than Bali Safari, but wait! Don't get too excited yet *LOL*. I find them to really try to sort of rip visitors off in a way so there were (avoidable) hidden costs inside.

I was worried of the size of this zoo judging from the parking lot, but i needn't worry it was pretty large and normal sized for a zoo

First thing that greeted us. No, not the tigers straightaway, but zookeepers flagging you to feed them for a price. This is one of the hidden costs i was talking about. It's not a must, you can always avoid it, but having an enthusiastic little boy with us, it was really hard to say no to this. I relented and let him did it, a single chicken to feed them costed us IDR 50.000 (USD 5) WTF

What's worse? The tigers (a lot of other animals) although didn't look skinny or uncared for (they look pretty well) seems to be kinda hungry and were very aggressive whenever they see any visitor coming!

In a way it made me think if they kept their animals hungry to extract money from visitors who are interested to feed them?

And if you thought it was nothing, you're wrong *LOL*. You'll encounter a lot of other spots where they try to sell you animal foods to feed to them. And every single one of them costs IDR 50.000 even for a tiny basket of carrots and veggies for rabbits! LOLOLOL. I'm not saying this place's no good, i think it's one of the nicer zoos i've been to (i prefer safaris, obviously)-it was clean, the animals were lively, the design was nice-but i really dislike the way they make the place less hospitable by trying to rip visitors off in every corner. Oh yeah, they will also keep on forcing you to take pictures and physically stop you at the entrance/exit (same place) and try to force you to buy your pictures. We avoided it with much difficulties *LOL*.

As usual, hunny managed to make me look like a short and stout teapot. Let me remind you that i am pretty tall for an Asian girl. LOL.

Look at the lazy boar!

For a scary second i was convinced that the boar was dead. Of course it wasn't. Although it did smell like it was.

These little fellas were busy rolling around the sand

Look! A pose that lots of the animals seemed to perfect all the whole zoo. Begging pose. Made my earlier thoughts of them being kept hungry (or at least not full enough) and used to beg to visitors to buy them food.

This one was not begging though, look how prim and proper it was sitting! Hell, it sits more gracefully than i do :p

Cute fellas. I think they were... wallabys? Looked like little kangaroos. They purposefully posed like that when i whipped out my camera hahaha, and they held the pose long enough for me to snap a few pictures! Smart guys!

Over-enthusiastic mummy hahaha

Can you see the lazy tigers?

One of them was actually buntung (literal translation : stump), it had lost one of its leg and was left with a stump!

Can you see the stump?

OOTD in the middle of the zoo hahahaha. Look at my fat legs, damn water retention T^T didn't help that my period's on its full blown by this time! Flight+menses=double bloating agent for me, sorry for looking like a puffer fish in most of my pictures in Bali -____-

Hunny said the bird inside the cage was asking the one outside "How's life out there, bro?". Me, i thought it was asking "How the hell did you get out there bro???". What do you think?

Big birds roaming around freely=total nightmare for me. WTF

Look at this cute bear daydreaming

What was it thinking? Its honey-bear or food?

I like how they designed the place to look very tropical-jungleish

Naughty little Baby Boy... He was trying to scare off chickens -_____-

Baby Boy took this picture and i realized *a bit late* that he can take nice pictures now :p, wah pretty useful huh!

What was hunny looking at so seriously?

He was like "Look up, but don't freak out". Of course i did, a little bit

*shudder*

-____-

Little monkey looking a bit forlorn clutching at its food

Then we stumbled into the "petting zoo". Which was locked and they were forcing you to buy baskets of carrots and other greens to feed to, wait for it... Bunnies and goats. We have to pay IDR 50.000 to pet and feed stuffs to bunnies and goats? I said no, thank you! Of course Baby Boy wanted to go in (and ride elephants, etc), but i told him he can do it somewhere else soon, i'll take them to places where we have to pay more for the entrance fee but without insane hidden costs like this (in most safaris and other parks in Indonesia you pay max IDR 10.000 for animal feed! Please!)! You can go in and play at petting zoo for absolutely nothing in most parks in Indonesia as well!

Sorry guys, but i'm not paying IDR 50.000 to touch you

Bali Zoo was pretty deserted at that time (we were in Bali at non-holiday season, but Bali itself was very crowded as usual. Lots of tourists in beaches and other places so i guess Bali Zoo's not all that popular amongst tourists. No surprise there, i'd also recommend Bali Safari more than the zoo! It's more expensive but the entrance fee's totally worth the visit!) and they were having an animal show with almost no attendance. More people arrived and the little *maybe like, six of them* benches were filled later, and we didn't stumble into a great number of people during our visit either, so it's safe to say it was not very crowded at all.

This eagle (and a few other birds) flew by so low and kept on slapping my head with its wings whenever they passed during the show -____-. I didn't have to participate in the show to interact with them, scared the shit out of me of course -_____-, i'm scared of birds in general-let alone a huge, sharp clawed, meat eating ones!

When they asked for participants, Baby Boy eagerly volunteered himself, naturally

LOL, i think he looks super adorbs

Smart bird that catches food midair

I totally loved this tourist's expression *LOL*

He was clearly spooked :p

This fella kept on shaking and bouncing upside down like this, i thought it was losing its mind or something...

Nursery

I really love most baby animals, but i think baby birds are kinda fugly...

Baby Boy went crazy and insisted on taking pictures with the baby gator -___-. I dunno why but seems like most of the animals in Bali Zoo were less domesticated and wilder than other parks. The keeper was worried and won't let Baby Boy held the baby gator by himself so hunny reluctantly (he was disgusted hahaha) had to held the gator instead. Baby Boy kept on trying to pet the baby gator, much to the keeper's distress *LOL*.

Orang Utan that was as old as CL, hunny went and BBM CL which resulted in her replying "And your point is????" LOL

Little elephants who swung their trunks violently, asking for food *again, at IDR 50.000 LOL*

Scared the shit out of me because they kept on reaching on Baby Boy with their trunks -_____-

Binturong

Then it was time to feed Baby Boy!

The restaurant was located directly beside the elephant ride, which costs the BOMB (oh, again they have special price for local tourists, but it was still pretty outrageous). Sorry ah Baby Boy, mummy take you ride elephant in Thailand better okay.

They held a photo session with some baby animals in this restaurant (but Baby Boy wasn't interested much) and the MC was really really stressed because again the animals weren't tame and kept on trying to attack over-enthu tourists *LOL*

Baby Boy's soto. Food there was... well... It wasn't too expensive though (expensive lah, but not outrageously so)

Fish and chips that weren't made from normal fishes that are usually used for fish and chips. This would taste better served with white rice and sambal hahahaha

Checking out the backside because there was a sign pointing to a souvenir shop (but there wasn't any hahaha. We did shopped a bit at another souvenir shop earlier-by we i mean Baby Boy of course, i did buy another novelty headband though, it's becoming a habit now...)

View from there. Very natural and woodsy still

This is the view from the entrance actually, like i said-it was the same way in and out

Last picture because it was getting late (despite Baby Boy's plea to stay a bit longer, we managed to distract him hihihi) and we planned to go somewhere else (ended up going to Krisna for a hurried souvenir shopping. Didn't buy much, just enough for our employees, my girls and get that selendang my mum asked for (then she bitched for days on end because i didn't buy souvenirs for her maids. WTF. Same old song every single time i travel. I hardly had enough stuffs for my employees-asked for 10 tee shirts and they only gave us 6, we didn't check and i only realized that when i unpacked back home!-and i really couldn't care less about her maids WTH. I really hate that she makes it into a burden, like it's something of a must. This kind of stuffs makes me hate the whole souvenir/gift getting things. Why should i always feel obliged to get them stuffs whenever i travel? Even when i don't have the time to? ARGHHHHH makes me mad everytime!).

Anyway, we only went for dinner at Warung Made (i will include it in another post i prepare especially for the few culinaries we had during the trip) for dinner and go back to the hotel to rest afterward.

In conclusion, i'd say you'd better off visiting Bali Safari if you've never been to either (and especially if you have animal loving kids with you). But if you've been to Bali Safari and wanted to see how Bali Zoo looks like, i'd say it's worth your time (and the decent local tourist entrance fee) to visit this place, however be prepared for the rip-off traps and avoid them. Just skip the animal feeding part (i think this is bad for the animals too, they should be fed regularly and not having to beg off tourists! If we keep on buying the food the management would benefit more from this practice and keep on doing this. I feel like it's totally unacceptable! I'd prefer to pay higher entrance fee and not kept on having to fend off people who are trying to make you buy animal foods zzz) and take pictures with your own cameras, walk off the picture printing booth quickly on the way out too!

Hope you enjoy this entry and i want to wish you a :