Terrific Tuesday, Hivians!
Lately, my son has been bugging us to visit places such as historical sites, museums, and zoos because it's all in the book that they were studying and he was so curious about it. His favorite subject is science, and he had a lot of questions to which I sometimes no longer knew the answer. After the last day of his final exam, me and my husband announced that we would be visiting the Manila Zoo in the Capital. The keyword zoo made his eyes shine and his lips smile from ear to ear.
He immediately ran to his brother, saying, "Didn't you hear that, Jayce? We will be visiting the zoo, and we can finally touch some animals at the zoo," he said to his brother as they began singing the Animal Alphabet together. Hold on, youngster! I simply stated that we would go to the zoo; however, I did not indicate that you could touch them or approach them. I also let them know that not all of the animals in the alphabet would be found there because some species cannot survive in a tropical climate.
They are both excited about the next day, and it was evident in the conversation while we were having dinner that night. After finishing our dinner, my firstborn exclaimed, "Okay, let's go to bed early tonight because tomorrow we will go to the zoo!". I was so happy to see them excited like that, and they cannot wait for the next morning.
Here comes the morning. My alarm clock started ringing, and my firstborn heard it first before I could even switch it off. He usually wakes up late, and waking him up early is a struggle, so this kind of scenario rarely happens.
After eating a light breakfast and getting ready, we started traveling to the Zoo. Their eyes were at the window, looking for any landmarks that said we were near the Zoo.
When we arrived, there was already a line of people waiting to enter the zoo. My oldest son eagerly approached the elephant statue as soon as we disembarked the car and requested that I take a picture of them.
After granting his request, we proceeded to the "ticket booth" to secure our tickets. However, to our surprise, there was no ticket booth there; instead, they only had a self-service kiosk or machine there for the payment after making an online booking. There is a desk available to help the elderly and those with disabilities make bookings online. The process is simple if you are aware of it and have made a reservation before visiting, but since we were unaware, we had to sit in a corner, scan the code, complete the form, and head to the payment kiosk.
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Although the location had internet to help with booking, the speed wasn't great due to the number of people trying to complete transactions, so we went to the kiosk and waited in line instead.
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It took some time for us to get to the front of the queue to pay for our tickets. Half off for city residents, but as we don't live there, we had to pay the whole 300 pesos, or roughly $6 each, for the ticket.
We now have our tickets! My sons are rushing enthusiastically in the direction of the zoo attractions' main gate in the background.
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As soon as we came in at the zoo, the first thing we did was take a picture of the map so we could be sure we didn't miss any attractions and plan our exploration to make the most of our time and energy. It's a huge place, after all.
The elephant was the closest one to the entrance, and my sons were running hurriedly to come closer to the fence of its cage. The laughter and their ecstatic voices as they ran are music to my ears.
They were happily waving and saying hello to the elephant while the animal was shaking his trunks in the branches of the tree next to it. My youngest even requested to be carried, hoping to get an even better view, and my sister happily obliged his request. They were asking where the Hippopotamus was because they saw the sign, but I guess the Hipo is no longer around.
We stayed there for a few minutes because the kids were hoping the elephant would go closer, but it was preoccupied with that tree.
Funny how we were all looking up when we went inside the aviary expecting winged animals flying above, but we were a bit disappointed. We saw two eagles fly past us, and that's it. Most of the birds are either on the ground or in the shaded branches of trees, maybe because it was the hottest time of the day.
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Since we didn't see much flying in the aviary, we came out of it fast and went to the next attraction, but before that, we stopped over at the food kiosk right beside the exit of the aviary to get some refreshments.
I believe this is where the kids enjoyed a lot, not because it is a play park but because in this attraction they finally made an interaction with animals, even if there was a glass barrier. They were watching the monkeys from the glass window when the two monkeys approached them; the first one just jumped away after a few seconds, but the second one stayed longer. It is even touching the part where my kids point their fingers. "You're a monkey whisperer now, Jayce,", said my firstborn. Laughter could be heard throughout the room.
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My kids fled in the direction of the play area when the second monkey jumped off the glass pane. We allowed them to play for a bit so we could take a seat in the corner, gather our strength, and rest our feet.
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I only snapped a few pictures before joining my sister and husband in the corner to take a rest. After a short while, my oldest kid came up to me and asked about the next attraction on the list. His desire to discover more outweighed his desire to enjoy the play area.
We still have a few attractions on the list, and I think I've already flooded this with photos and text. This blog post turned out to be longer than I had anticipated because my kids' excitement as those images were being shot was contagious. Should I continue writing? Are you going to read on, or should we cut it here and try for part two?
Alright, let's continue the tour next time. Upon checking my photos, those images from the other attractions need to be highlighted too.š
I've got to go to bed because it's past midnight where I am.
Thank you for reading this far.
I hope you join me again in the next part!
I won't promise, but I'll try to do part 2 tomorrow!
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All photos were taken by me, unless stated otherwise.
The lead image was edited using Canva.