Exploring KL Phase 1 - Zoo Negara (National Zoo)

An entire night of debating on where to go the next day. A conversation on MSN with 6 participants (trust me this is not a good idea), with everyone trying to make themselves heard (or rather seen, in this case:-).
Our options - Sunway Lagoon, Genting Highlands, The National Zoo..
Its awful when u have equal numbers of people; u never seem to be able to get a majority on anything. Everyone (except me, i must admit) seemed keen on going out somewhere but "Where?" was the all important question. With Geeshath turning into a dictator, Prishila founding an "Anti-Zoo" Society with Mubeen as her right-hand man, Inthisham with his mind set on going to Genting, the conversation got extremely heated. It got so intense that i'm sure Jaring sensed it and cut off our connection so that most of us couldnt go online for a while. In spite of the untimely end to our conversation, a final decision was made by our Royal Highness The Dictator of Vista a.k.a Geeshath, to go to the zoo. Despite much protest from the Anti-Zoo society, they were overruled (as will be the case in any dictatorship) and they eventually succumbed to the dictator's wrath. We were all set to go at 10am on Thursday morning.
Morning came and all of us, being the nocturnal creatures we are, overslept. The scheduled departure time had to be postponed to 11am.
Prishila's refusal to join us didnt come as a suprise but was a great disappointment none the less. Hiruni and i left the house with a heavy heart, a good 15 minutes past 11am, to meet Inthisham who had been waiting since 11am, only to find that the dictator wasnt there yet. Following the footsteps of all great Sri Lankan politicians, Geeshath too was a dutiful follower of being fashionably late. Hiru and i suffered our next great disappointment when we heard that Mubeen was down with the flu and hence wouldnt be joining us. That made us wonder; Being ditched by both the President and Vice-president of the Anti-Zoo Society..Coincidence?? Hmmmm... I think not but I shall refrain myself from commenting further for fear of consequences. Prish's forearms and mubeen's muscles are not to be messed with (these two are perfect examples of "looks can be deceiving" - never judge prish by her insignificant size and mubeen by his anaroxic physique). I shall forever hold my peace. :-)
The discovery that none of us knew the way to the zoo was made when His Highness finally arrived (wearing his contacts thank god! Otherwise we would have had to point out even the elephants to him) and as always, neither of us had the foresight to bring a map. Maybe it was the exessive faith in Geeshath as our leader that made us trust his jurisdiction. Eventually with directions from the security guards, we set off for the zoo.
Following an hour-long ride in two trains and a taxi we got to our destination. Once inside i think all of us went bonkers. Must have been the effect of seeing so many families around us.
It was in this lunatic state that we came up with the script of "One big happy family - Season 1" starring Geesh as Daddy, Ime as Mommy, Hiru as the baby girl and Inthi as Geesh Jr. The opening scene involved the baby girl throwing a tantrum asking daddy for a drink and mommy to buy her a hat.. to be continued.. :-)

The Zoo, i must say was quite a disappointment. My main reason of going there was to see Asian elephants and i was treated to a grand total of 3 elephants *rolls eyes*. I was surprised by the modest number of species that were on display. I can't say we were caught off guard because Prish warned us in advance, having been there a few months previously.
The chimpanzees and the Oranutans - so cute; the camels - so mellow; the hipos - oh my god, those asses!; the birds - Wow! the Rhinos - man, they look like rocks!; the gigantic buffalos - they re-define the word massive... Here comes the critisism. Where do i start!...
The reptile park - Let me first express my disgust at the size of the tank they had used to keep this medium-sized crocodile in. The poor animal couldn't even turn around! I wouldnt be surprised if it suffers from extreme claustrophobia. Attention-SPCA!
The Mammal kingdom - This misleading to little kids who would assume that there are so few species of mammal.
The savannah walk - A couple of Ostrich, Zebra and Rhinos, One Lion, Three tigers? A tad bit inadequate don't you think?
The Aquarium - 3 penguins? *sigh* ..
I could go on but i think i'll stop here. Let me just say that it wasnt the best zoo i've been to. (Please pause for a moment for the full effect of the sarcasm on the previous line to sink in....... ok.. now you can continue.. lol)

We are now back from the short commercial break for Scene 2 of "One big happy family" :-)
A hen-pecked dad takes his kids around the zoo while the mom tries to enlighten the kids with information on various interesting facts about the animal kingdom. The teaching sessions by the parents and the occassional tantrums by both children coupled with the long walk, made everyone hungry. When the son refused to see the bears until his hunger was satisfied, daddy took a stand and decided that it was lunch-time. So off we went to "Marrybrown-the family restaurant" where we had soggy fries but satisfactory burgers. After lunch, it was time for the snake show which the baby girl watched with disgust. She couldnt understand the logic behind the snake-charmer kissing the giant king cobra on its head. The children greatly enjoyed the Children's park where the got to pet the cute ducklings, the adorable guinea pigs, the minature horses and the goats after which the dutiful, responsible parents, spotting that there was a rainstorm approaching, decided that it was time to leave. Another tantrum by the baby girl ensured that we did get wet and waiting for a reasonable taxi resulted in the family being soaked through and through. The drenched family reached the Wansa Maju station from where they reached home safely..
End of episode one! Stay tuned for subsequent episodes... :-)
And there ended our little tour to the zoo.. We might have been a little to old to be going to the zoo, but we sure did enjoy it. The company made it enjoyable (wish the africans were there too *sob*). Gave the Lankans a time to bond.. LOL! Anyways Geeshath, Inthisham and Hiruni - Thanks for your company. Looking forward to exploring KL Phase 2. Where would that be now? Sunway Lagoon? Shall we debate on that too?? ;-)