Zoo Negara, at last!

After returning home to the most adorable house trooper in my life:
Troy le miniature Schnauzer ...

My first morning back in Malaysia was unexpectedly awakened by ... phone calls. :/ I'm not one of those people who live (and let live, hehe) by their cellphones, so phone calls to me are pretty infrequent, with the exception of a few close friends. Anyway - before, like, even 8am! Look, you guys, you know I love you, but calling me anytime before 9am on a non-school day is sinfully early - save for life-threatening emergencies and important immediate stuff that you need to fill me in on a.s.a.p., which is totally unlikely, because I'm not a undercover FBI agent or anything. Hahaha.

First it was An Nie - who I am truly sorry to, because I pressed "decline call" without even thinking (I only slept at 3am, after 7 hours on the plane so you can imagine what sleep deprivation can do to the mind, haha!) - and about a half hour or so later, it was Leila. I answered this time, because I was already somewhat awakened by the first blast of "That Thing You Do" by The Wonders (i.e. my cellphone ringtone). (Note to An: Please don't feel bad though, you probably thought everybody wakes up at a healthy 7am or something, haha)

Anywayy, Leila said her cousin Mahshid wants to go to the Zoo today!! :D It's Mahshid's last day in Malaysia, she's flying back to Iran tomorrow morning. :( So Leila was like "I'll come pick you up in 30 minutes". So I had to fly out of bed and into the shower, etc etc - grab a yoghurt for breakfast (desperate times call for desperate measures HAHA) - then hurtle into the backseat of her blue-grey Vios... for a nice long day which culminated in 231 photographs and 1 video, in my camera alone (they both took loads of pics on their cameras too!).

Part 1: Zoo Negara

The Madadi cousins. :)

Leila drove to Zoo Negara (we passed by the Muzium Orang Asli and Batu Caves on the way, and to Leila's horror I made a mental note - out loud - to visit those places in the near future ;P - hey, any one of you been to those places? Any reviews?), and on the way, Mahshid rolled down the window and snapped various pictures of the scenery - entitling us to a blast of anti-airconditioning from the glorious Malaysian weather. Hahaha.

Looking at the picture above, I had to think to myself: Not so different from Swiss scenery, right? :) Minus the car's backside jutting into the photo.

Fresh off the boat plane from breezy countries like Switzerland and Korea, I think the difference between their temperatures with Malaysia's is stark. But, believe it or not, I wouldn't trade our sticky, humid weather for theirs - because our weather, while it is hot, keeps our skin from drying up and keeps us from becoming wrinkly prunes. :) In this lovely baking country, we do not have to slather moisturizer on our hands and legs - our lips do not crack at the slightest deprivation of lip balm - etc, etc, etc.. Bear with my pro-Malaysian sermon, every time I go on holiday I fall in love all over again with tanah tumpahnya darahku. My ibu pertiwi. Haha. :DDD

Although my foreign friends beg to differ (that's an ice-cream on Mahshid's head, a snack doubling as a cooling aid):

Reliving our second childhood

Considering that I'm 5 months shy of turning 20, Leila's about 2 months away from turning 23, and Mahshid is 27 - I think I'm right to say that we were among the oldest visitors of the Zoo Negara who were not accompanied by minors. :D Heheheh.

But that didn't stop us from going to the "Multi-Animal Show" like everybody else:

Yeah, I know my cap says "Rock Hard Cafe" instead of "Hard Rock Cafe". Hahaha. I reckon it's either a good sense of humour, a careless printer, or the fact that it was bought off a ciplak stall in Phomn Penh.

The sea lion was my favourite act, and the most popular (ie. the children cheered the loudest):

Hey, I highly recommend would-be-zoo-goers to check out the Bee Museum - especially if you're going this weekend (7th & 8th June) because they're having live bee exhibitions - like, trained professionals will be allowing their bodies to be swarmed by bees before your very eyes! My friends and I missed it by a day :( - but I don't want any of you who want to check it out, to miss it either! :) I suggest you check out their website or call the zoo for the times of the live exhibitions - it's not an all-day feat, only twice a day, I think.
We also got to check out the Akuarium Tunku Abdul Rahman. It was only so-so if you ask me, but that's because I'm not a fan of the seaworld. I like penguins, but there was only one penguin in sight. Leila said it looked suicidal. *Cue Sean Kingston's famous track* Haha.

But I would probably recommend going to the aquarium (not only because you've already paid the entrance fee), as an educational experience for the young-ins, because the marine life there were all divided neatly into saltwater, freshwater, this-level, that-level, etc. And plenty of explanations about all the stuff we had to learn up in Standard 5 Kajian Tempatan, or Form 2 Geography - all of which, I have conveniently forgotten. :D

Then we saw the usual zoo animals, e.g.:

And here are some of my favourites:

I think Mahshid wanted to prove a point that not only monkeys can climb the trees in the zoo:

At the end of the trip to the National Zoo, you may ask, what educational lesson did we learn from this?

:D :D :D Hehehehe.

Oh, and bring your own food! :P