CWA Coffee at the Zoo

Well, here I am again pretending to be Canadian. The Canadian Women's Association decided to try something new for their monthly coffee get together. Instead of just sitting, chatting and talking, a small group of us met at the zoo and walked around while chatting. I hope they do this again. I enjoyed it, though when I mentioned that a start time of 7 am would be better, it wasn't met with enthusiasm. By 9:30 it's hot already. However, during the week, it wasn't very crowded like it is on Saturdays.

An interesting conversation preceded this trip. My driver pointed out that it was due to be raining on the day of this walk. I let him know that an alternative plan was already in place: we would simply meet at a restaurant instead. He paused a bit and then asked, but what if it's not raining and you go to the zoo and then it starts raining. I replied back, "Then I guess I'll get wet!" He laughed. I went prepared for sun, rain, insects, you name it.

The entrance fee situation was really funny. We got charged different prices. The last time B and I went to the zoo, the "ticket" was a piece of paper. Now they have plastic cards like a credit card. Anyway, the most one of us was charged was Rp 30,000. The least was Rp 4,000. The range in US currency ranges from 29 cents to $2.23. Some of us paying Rp 30,000 apparently paid for our driver as well and while they did enter the gate, they didn't go anywhere. They visited in the parking lot. (My driver hadn't seen a friend's driver in quite a while so he had a good time.) Another factor seemed to be the type of car being driven. Some vans were treated as busses- and charged a higher parking fee included in the total amounts I've mentioned. Also, even though all of us have a permanent resident card, we think most of us were charged tourist rates. I should mention that this confusion didn't really have anything to do with language issues. In fact, one of the ladies in the group speaks Bahasa Indonesia fluently and she couldn't get a rational explanation. The last point is that because my driver didn't enter the zoo, there may be another entry still available for use on the plastic card. Guess I'll see next time I'm there.

There is a Primate Center on the zoo grounds and I hadn't been there before. There is a small additional charge for that section so it was pretty quiet. Here is the entrance to the Primate Center (Pusat Primata). The Primate Center covers 32 acres. There is a very lengthy tunnel with viewing windows that look out into the outdoor orangutan exhibit area.

We ended up spending most of our time there. I was able to play zoo docent a little which was fun. We also found a viewing tower to climb some stairs! It overlooks the orangutan outdoor exhibit area but the animals were inside on that day. I didn't really take many photos on this visit so no animal photos. This might have been due to the fact that it was due to storm soon.  In fact, moments after I closed the car door it started raining very hard. Perfect timing except for the traffic that gets worse when it rains.

These mushrooms were really neat. They would great in any garden. Probably 4-5 ft tall.

No we didn't ride it!

Interesting signage in the Primate Center:

Our walking group at the zoo.

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The CWA provided cut up fruit, cold water and some cookies for the post-zoo walk snack. As a group we weren't that interested in the cookies so it was decided to give them away. What was at first a small group of students quickly swelled as my friend handed out cookies.  Yes, the adults with the kids encouraged the kids to take cookies from the non-Indonesian ladies in the zoo parking lot. All of the cookies were given away! Soon after the cookies were all distributed, we hopped into our cars and it started pouring rain. Fun trip home!