I decided to have a wander around Thu Le Park which is across the road from my hotel. I quickly discovered that the zoo prevents you from walking the whole way around, and from my previous post you can see there is an island in the middle of the lake: that is part of the zoo as well. I didn't really want to go to the zoo, so I back tracked and went around the other way.
Voi Phuc Temple is a façade! Literally. Here it is from the front:
Behind the façade are the temple grounds, with a few more buildings further back. The temple was built because the people worshipped a Prince that vanquished some pirates back in the 11th century. He then did some other nice things, so they made him a God. Not a bad job description I reckon - Godprince.I've been told there isn't enough electricity for everyone, and so there are rolling blackouts through out the day. Being good proactive people, the Vietnamese use energy saving bulbs - even in their temple lanterns!
After wandering around the temple grounds for a bit, the zoo then extracted its revenge on me for avoiding it at the start of the walk. To continue my walk I had to enter, and pay the extravagant entrance fee of 2000 Vietnamese Dong... which is an entire $0.15 Australian... : )There's a back entrance to the island which I couldn't see from my room, and it's guarded by ferocious red crocodiles!... of the concrete variety.
Inside the zoo, the vast majority of exhibits were Vietnamese animals, which is great for a tourist, but all the signs were in Vietnamese too; not so good for a tourist! But then again, I was the only westerner in there as far as I could see, so they've got their target audience correct. (The relativity cheap entrance fee might also be an indication that it's for locals.)Vietnam is home to many species of Macaques (lets just call them monkeys for simplicity), and the island housed all their enclosures. Because monkeys are cute, I took heaps of photos of them:
There were also the usual such as elephants and tigers; the ordinary such as goats and deer; and the more interesting such as the Malaysian Porcupine (below), and the Binturong - otherwise known as the catbear, which of course is neither a cat or a bear (just like the platypus isn't a duck or a beaver!)
The elephants were a bit sad, as the were chained down to the spot by their legs - except for the one that was currently being exhibited, it was being fed, but was made to stand on a ridiculously small stand, like in an old fashioned circus. The goats on the other hand had an awesome enclosure, with a temple like construction for their protection from the elements. If it's not colloquially known as the temple of the goat, then it should be!!The porcupine was looking a bit sleepy, so I suspect it might be a nocturnal animal... It was kinda rocking on it's feet with it's eye's closed, while it's mate snoozed in the corner. The binturong's were the weirdest animal I'd seen in a long while (excepting the oversized red coloured cockroach-things I'd seen in the street the other day...). Cat-bear goes some of the way to describing what it looks like; have a look at the photo instead! : )
3 comments:
It's awfully depressing to see the elephants chained down. Unfortunately it's a sad fact that what we consider to be animal cruelty will be something you will be seeing very often in your travels, particularly in Asia. Less developed countries tend to have more pressing concerns, like how its citizens can feed themselves and stay healthy etc.
On another note, you should get your own monkey. In fact, teach it how to route cat 5 cable lately in order to improve your operational efficiency. Monkeys can't speak so you don't have to worry about them violating non-disclosure agreements. Should be sweet :)
"Route cat 5 lately"
wtf was i thinking? maybe it was meant to say "neatly". who knows!
Good times indeed it seems. Zoos are fun. On another note, you're now 'atomed' from me webpage.
:)
Eat some spicy noodles for me!
gruz.
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