Friday the 13th was an action packed day full of wonder, fun memories, and happy laughter. At 9am, 13 kid’s ages 2-6, 5 nannies, and 8 volunteers packed into a 15-passenger van and took the Chiang Mai zoo by storm. Everyone was so excited and I am positive that the inside of that cramped van was the happiest place in all of Thailand that morning. The kids belted their favorite songs all the way there ("I've got the Joy" and "Father Abraham" are on the top of their list!) and enjoyed looking out the windows and soaking in the view.
The
zoo was SO beautiful! It spirals up the mountain and is absolutely HUGE! We were there a little over five hours, walked
through quickly, and didn’t even see half of it! The Chiang Mai zoo has so much
to offer as well! They have a “Snow Dome” which is an imitation of the North
and South Pole complete with penguins and the occasional “snow storm.” Their aquarium
has over 2,000 species of marine creatures and is home to South East Asia’s
longest sea tunnel! They also have a “Panda House” and the opportunity to go
into their habitat and take photos with the Pandas. The zoo also offers zip-lining,
(from the top of the zoo to the bottom) elephant rides, a huge ATV course and a shooting
range. It was amazing!
The kids LOVED the zoo! It had tons of animals and we were able get so close to them! I have never been so close to most of those animals in my whole life! The Zoo doesn't have a rule against feeding the animals, so whenever they see people, they figure they are going to be fed. The coolest part was when we stopped to look at the hippos. They swam right up to the wall and opened their mouths for us to feed them. The few times I've seen a hippo they are always sleeping, so this was pretty cool. :) These hippos were swimming around really fast and came so close to us! The kids were so excited!
The kids were a little scared of the giraffes,
which was totally understandable seeing as how close we were to them. If you
pay 10bhat for a huge stalk of bananas, they let you walk in and feed the
giraffes! It was amazing to just walk in and have the giraffes all around you, bending
down, and taking food right out of your hand! We also got to pet a young elephant that was
walking around the zoo and we got to feed some of the larger ones. The cutest animal
of the day, by far, was the 15 day old baby elephant! It was SO tiny and
CUTE!!! None of the animals were shy
around humans at all which was both intriguing and terrifying when you are with
a bunch of small children. The kids also loved the Kids Zone and the koala exhibit.
At
the end of the day, we got to ride the sky train that went around the whole zoo!
After the 45 minute ride, we ate a lunch
of sticky rice and pork before we all piled into the van once again and headed
home. We all had a great time! On the
way back to Agape everyone (expect Pon-Pon and I) feel asleep in the van. By
the time we got back it was two hours past the kids nap time, so we led them to
their naptime mats and left them to dream away the afternoon.
Friday was also a very special day because it was Brittney’s 20th
birthday! After the evening shift, we went out to celebrate. For her birthday
dinner, Brittney picked our favorite “Mexican” restaurant Salsa Kitchen. We meet
up with the other ACU team and had a great time of fellowship and food. We
surprised Brittney with two Thai music CD’s, which she was very excited about. :)
After Salsa Kitchen, we went to one of our new favorite coffee houses, iBerry,
and had some Oreo cheesecake.
Friday the 13th was a happy, happy day indeed!
