Dusit Zoo

This weekend was another fun filled, sight-seeing adventure. We have learned that we need to get all the touristy stuff out of the way, because you get harrassed a lot by people wanting to sell you things when you are a tourist, so we need to limit our camera carrying time. Saturday Ryan and I found ourselves at Dusit Zoo. This is situated directly beside Chitrlada Palace, which is where the King and Queen reside. Unfortunately, other than military police, and high fences, we could not see much of the Palace.

An interesting thing about the Zoo was that it contained a Bomb Shelter. Apparently during WWII, the Thai government had a number of Shelter's built in various public areas so that if need be people would be able to seek shelter - although I am not sure how many people actually would have fit in this thing. They had a whole exhibit surrounding it noting Thailand's involvement in WWII with all sorts of pictures and memorabilia.

We saw a lot of your run of the mill Zoo animals, but we saw some interesting creatures as well - many I am hoping never to run into while we are over here! We saw some very unusual nocturnal animals that I would be terrified of! The animal anclosures were relatievly small, and sometimes housed a strange mix of animals, but you could get closer to the animals than in Toronto. Also, we noticed that the animals here were a lot more active, even though it was the middle of the day and 40 degree heat, and they got really good looking meals! At least they get fed well, maybe it makes up for the cramped quarters.
This is an Asian Black Bear. We were pretty impressed at how close we were able to get to this guy. He and his buddy were seperated from the public by a moat, but if you went around the corner you hit a rock wall with a big window with fairy large bars on it that let you get within 10 feet of this guy. I am pretty sure he could swipe at you from there if he really wanted to, but we have noticed that safety is not as strict in these parts.
The reptile exhibit was the most interesting for us. I don't remember what this little guys name is, but he (she?) appears to be sporting some sort of red lipstick, so we had to throw this picture up for you all to see.

We learned that the large lizards that we have been seeing in the water here are Monitor Lizards, and they grow lots bigger in the wild than at the zoo.