ZOO DAY

Guys. Today we went to the best zoo probably in the whole world. We got there at about 10 am and left around 3:30. It was so gr8. This zoo is actually an organization that protects the wildlife. It's called Wildlife Alliance. They take animals out of dangerous situations and 80-90% of the animals they take in get released back to the wild. There are some animals that stay there permanently because either they have too much damage psychologically to survive again in the wild, they are too accustomed to humans to survive in the wild, or they were born at the zoo and wouldn't survive in the wild. We heard a lot of stories about the animals being abused in their earlier living situation. It really is a cool organization and our two tour guides were very sweet. One of them is from Australia and the other is from Canada. So the first thing we did was see some elephants.

The one with the tusks is a male and the other is a female. They were both being abused in the wild because they started eating crops (because people started to feed them human food then they realized the crops were the same thing). This led to the locals being unhappy because they sold the crops to make money. They actually would pour battery acid on the female's head to get her to stop. Thankfully though she was able to get rescued by Wildlife Alliance. 

We then saw another elephant named Lucky and she's very tamed. We were able to feed Lucky and later go on a walk. And boy, what an experience! It was definitely a highlight of the trip. 

After we fed Lucky, we went to meet another elephant who had a foot cut off by a trap. The organization was able to get connected with a prothstetic company and after a lot of begging, agreed to make a leg for this elephant. We were able to see them change the prothstetic and we learned about their positive training methods. 

You can see he has one on and the one in front is the one he'll change in to. 

You can see where he lost his foot.

And here's the fresh one! They change it twice a day since it gets sweaty in there and some leaves get stuck. 

We had a private tour with our guides so these are things not a lot of other people get to do. We toured around the other parts of the zoo to see tigers, monkeys, leapords, bears, and some other animals that are native to Cambodia. After this we ate lunch. There are some vendors in the middle of the zoo, kind of like a Cambodian food court. Our guides ordered us food and we sat down and relaxed in hammocks while we ate. There was a breeze and a lot of local children running around. It was wonderful. 

Yummmmmm

These were also the only bathrooms that were available throughout the zoo

And you dump water in there to flush.. Quite an experience. 

So next was our walk with Lucky! We saw some otters and other monkeys on the way to her enclosure. Of course I had to take some selfies with an elephant (and Iahly).

She is so gorgeous. 

Then we were able to play with some monkeys!! We went into their enclosure and they climbed all over us. OMG it was great. We were told a lot of rules before we went in though. We took off bracelets, headbands, watches, earrings, and anything else they can steal. We were told not to show our teeth, scream, or laugh because that's a sign of aggression. This was probably the hardest part because when monkeys are climbing and jumping all over you it's hard not to let out a little squeal and smile. There were 3 monkeys in the enclosure but one was very young so she stayed out of the fun. The other two were very playful and spent most of the time running around on us and fighting with each other. We had some fruit to feed them too to distract them from the things we still had on like glasses or hair ties. 

I think today was definitely grandma's favorite day and definitely one of mine. So we left the park after this at around 3:30 and it's a little over an hour back to our hotel. 

We had a chance to shower and rest for about an hour then we went to a very delicious restaurant! I ordered the crab fried rice. My meal had eyes

Haha it was soooo good. We laughed a lot about the day, looked through funny monkey pictures, and enjoyed the evening. Another absolutely fantastic day in Cambodia. :) 

••Lauren••