The zoo

A tough day, today as we went to the Jakarta zoo. It was just the kids and I as Marni is still in Malaysia on a conference. So, I thought I would ask the nannies (Fifi and Lasmi) if they wanted to go. They had never been to the zoo before so I thought it would be a nice treat for them.

One thing to understand about Jakarta, in general, is that signs are merely suggestions. That goes for road signs, stop lights or any sort of warning sign. Nobody gets angry if you do something wrong, so, do what you want at your convenience. I bring this up because of the large "Do not feed the animals" signs posted everywhere. What does it mean to the average Indonesian? Feed the animals whatever you have in your hand- potato chips, crackers, fruit. In fact, it can be translated into 'I'll have my three-year old do it for me in case I can snap a photo'. It does not matter that these are potentially dangerous animals.

I'm not going to lie. I have fallen victim to the 'photo op' since getting here. It is not everyday that a person can hold an orangutan or pet dolphins. But, when it comes to feeding the animals that are not used to being fed by the average person, I draw a line. In fact, I got a great one of Caden holding a snake. Not a tiny one, either. I was rather scared for the snake until the owner slapped it in the face to show how docile it was.

I did, at one point, yell at a person who was hanging his child (younger then Caden) over the railing and handing some baboon a cracker. When you see on a sign that these animals are endangered there is little reason why when you see idiots like this. It is similar to the people here on the side of the road with monkeys wearing kids clothes and riding wooden horses. People throw money at them and encourage them to get more monkeys.

Sadly, though, many of the primates come down to the front of the cages and put their hands out because they are used to getting fed. It really is sad. I wished that one of the monkeys grabbed a person and smashed their heads into cage bars. That would have been a good photo!

There was a huge Orangutan enclosure where people were actually throwing food OVER the 'Do not feed the animals' sign. Now I know why monkeys fling shit. They are out of things to throw back.

Overall, though, the zoo is quite nice. They are building some large areas for certain animals. There is a huge variety of animals and they have a beautiful primate park- problem with it is that you walk all over the place and rarely see a primate.

Once more we were followed by the paparazzi. This time I got involved, too. People were friendly about it but with the kids I started to cover their faces when I saw people lining up for photos. At one point there was a huge silverback gorilla, maybe 20 feet away and there were twenty people snapping pictures of Caden and Zoe playing on the rocks. The nannies were very good though. They started telling people that pictures were 10 000 Rp, apiece. Some were actually offended while others got the message. People were yelling at us to stop for photos and I had to tell them to leave us alone. We just wanted to enjoy the day. You would think they can't find white people on the internet.

There was one point where this older lady kept saddling up close to me. It was crowded, so I thought nothing of it. Then she did it again and I could tell by the expression on her face she was posing. When I looked to my right, there was her friend lining up a shot. I should have planted a kiss on her cheek or grabbed her ass!

I tell you, next time I hear on the news that some celebrity smacked a cameraman....I cheering for the celebrity. I know they get paid millions of dollars and have given up a lot of their privacy. But really? Slap the cameramen!