I was really excited to go to the Bali Safari and Marine Park. They had many different attractions. Instead of a normal zoo, where you walk from enclosure to enclosure to look at the different animals, you rode in an enclosed, air-conditioned jeep to see the animals in their somewhat natural habitat. There were electric fences to keep certain animals apart for obvious reasons, but it seemed more authentic than a US zoo. One thing I really like about the safari park (which some people may not like) is they pretty much make a schedule for you. They have a variety of shows and events. Most of the shows had 1 showing or maybe 1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. We got there around 10. They had events at 10:30, 11:00, 11:20, and 11:45, and 12:30. Then there was a couple hour break which gave us time to eat lunch and do the safari ride before a 2:30 show.
The first thing we saw was the piranha feeding. They have a small "aquarium" which consisted of several tanks of fish. I don't know if I had ever seen piranhas in person before, but they don't look very intimidating. To feed them, a worker put a whole, raw chicken onto a string. They lower it into the tank and instantly all the fish attack it. In less than a minute, the whole chicken is gone, you can only see a few fish swimming around with chicken bones hanging out of their mouths. It was unreal.
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| Charlotte and Tommy in front of the piranha tank |
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| The worker putting the chicken on the string |
On our way to the next show, we saw some animals to take pictures with and there was a mama and baby elephant to feed. Charlotte and Tommy were both excited to feed the elephants.
Next we went to an Animal Education show. It was well done. This day was hotter than any of the previous days we had been in Bali. We were sweating just sitting waiting for the show in the shade. I bought some homemade popsicles for us to eat while we waited, the kids had pineapple and Tom and I had strawberry. While we were waiting for the show, an orangutan came out and pulled down a sign that said, "The show will start in 5 minutes". It was pretty cute. They brought out a variety of animals while the presenter told us all about them in English. The orangutan came back out at the end with a friend and performed tricks. They were the stars of the show.
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| Orangutan lowers the sign |
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| Guide walking around with a huge snake we could touch |
Then we watched some elephants being bathed and headed to the elephant show. We weren't sure what to expect and were afraid we might see the elephants being mistreated to perform tricks, but the show was very good. The elephants, along with a group of performers, told the story of how in different parts of the world the elephants and people are trying to live on the same land. It was a good message. The elephants were really good actors.
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| The elephant carrying an actor |
Then we had lunch and did the Safari Ride. We ate lunch at the Tsavo Lion Restaurant. The food was good, and the restaurant was full of windows overlooking the lion's den so you could see the animals playing. We even got to see them being fed. When you went to the bathroom, there was another enclosure where you could get a really close up view of a lion.
We had a lot of fun on our Safari Ride. It was on an oversized, enclosed jeep with probably 4 or 5 rows of benches. Our guide did a good job of telling us about the different animals and answering questions. We got a good view of the animals. All the animals were from Asia or Africa, there were some new ones we hadn't seen before and many we had never seen up close.
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| Tommy was excited to see a white rhino. He had written a report about one at school. He brought his picture in to share with his class. Fun fact: the difference between a white and black rhino has nothing to do with their color, it is the shape of their mouth. |
After the Safari ride, we attended the Bali Agung Show. I had read it was worth seeing and it did not disappoint. They took our cell phones during the performance, so I don't have any pictures, but the costumes, dancing and acting were very well done. We all enjoyed it.
After the show we were all tired, but our passes had also included a few amusement park rides so we told the kids we could ride some on our way out. The rides were pretty lame, but the kids had fun. They rode 2 rides. The first had cars in a train. Then we all rode a boat ride. Finally, it was time to head home. It was a fun, but tiring, day.
