A lot of pictures, probably very harmful for dial-up connection.

Well, like I said in the previous entry, or rather the entry before that, the zoo was great fun. The exhibits were well done, with a theme to each. Like, if you were entering the elephants exhibit, you really did have to walk through a Thai-themed elephant museum thing, and like a oil palm plantation thing. Made me feel right at home, aside from it being about 13 degrees out. Lol.


Quinnie and I upon entering the zoo.

First up were the gorillas. Quinnie has a thing with any animal of the monkey family. They'll be sitting there nicely, facing you, all ready for a photo opportunity. But once Quinnie comes, they'll get up, turn around, and show you their less than fine behinds. I have no idea why, but time and time again it happened. Proof, I tell you.


A gorilla, nicely posing.


Gorillas have to dig their noses too.


You see what I mean?


A lazy pygmy hippopotamus.


A mandrill. They're awfully colourful. Their faces are a rainbow myriad of colours.


Even their asses.


I'm just completely fascinated with the colour.


What did I say? Showing their asses off to us again.


Next up are an assortment of tree-top apes and monkeys. There were way too many, and I can't remember all their names. Lol.


Another angle of unidentified monkey.


Tok Janggut of the monkey world.


Lovebirds. They were seriously so cute. Tittering to each another, it looked like they were whispering sweet words to each other, hee.


Us four girls after exiting the monkey area.


Next up was the feeding area, where we saw all the food being prepared. And in there, we saw THIS. OMG. It was so bloody gigantic. Scary shit. It's hee-ugee. At first we all thought it was fake, because it's so damn big, but then it stirred a little in its sleep and all of us jumped. Lol.


Seriously. Damn. Kau. Big.


Entering the elephant zone. Hee, hati-hati.


In the little elephant shrine thing, with the cutest little kid with the rosiest cheeks ever. Aww.


We were having so much fun, pointing out all the Malay words. Hah, how much do we miss home?


Possibly one of favourite exhibits. The butterflies!


The friendly zoo guide pointed out the male and female butterflies, but I can't remember which is which. But we asked him if there was a specific way to differentiate between the sexes, and he said it differs between species.


It was just so cool, because you walk into the exhibit and the butterflies are just flying about everywhere. So many, just taking flight casually. Not behind glass, or anything like that.


Loved it.


Sook Yan and a friendly butterfly.


I was talking on Skype to my entire family last night, and I sent them this picture, and the first thing was...

Evelyn: Ooh, I like your fingernails, babe!
Mummy: (at the same time) Haiyor, cho meh see lei ke sau chi kap HAK SEK KEHH? (Translation: Haiyor, why are your fingernails black?)

-_-"

Me: ASK YOU ALL TO SEE BUTTERFLY, YOU SEE MY NAILS PULAAAA.




There was this peacock just roaming round the zoo. This was at the cafe at the elephant village. I spoke to the guy who was feeding it a bit of his lunch, and he told me that that peacock just went up to a kid before that and grabbed a sandwich from him. Aww, poor kid.


This very same peacock then started leading us towards the elephants. So, we followed it, and it happily hopped over the electric fence. Phwoar. See that yellow sign on the right? That warns us its electric. So either it's just to con us, or peacocks have high zappppp-tolerance. Lol.


Elephants! I so respect this woman trainer.


The peacock, still not scared amidst the elephants.


Still casually and cockily (no pun intended) strutting its stuff. There was one part where the elephant looked like it wanted to run after the peacock but was too slow for it, lol. Unfortunately no one got that down on film.


Jumbo playing with a log.


More elephants.


Seriously, they're completely obedient.


The peacock exhibit was next, and we wondered if that brave peacock in the elephant exhibit escaped. But then again, the elephant trainers looked so unfazed at the peacock next to the elephants, so we have no idea. Doesn't this peacock look grand, though? I love its colours.


Ladang kelapa sawit, it says. Hee.


You can't see them very clearly, but those are pelicans.


A closer shot at the pelicans.


Before entering the orang utan exhibit. I thought it was very nicely worded.


Even orang utans get cold in winter, y'know.


Nit-picking.


While everyone was busy snapping away at the orang utans, I syok-sendiried with a huge carving. Quinnie says I should put in on Friendster and scare everyone, lol.


Hee, this picture makes me giggle a little. The poor orang-utan looks so emo, all slouchy like that.


Swinging about from log to log.


My already small eyes are closed. Bengang.


I liked the carvings.


It's not easy to squeeze four big heads into one picture, but I have skill. :P


Here the giraffes come!


I told you, I have a new affinity for giraffes. They're cool.


Quinnie and I with the zirafahs.


I'm particularly proud of this shot.


The ostrich and the giraffes share a home in the Melbourne Zoo, oddly.


The ostrich.


More giraffes. Don't ask me why I like them so much, I just do. Lol.


Oh look, here come more pesky humans.


Cute, aren't they?


Climbed over the small fence to take this picture because my camera's zoom function really sucks. Quinnie was like, "Wei, after jump at you then only you know."


Emus doing yoga.


Before entering the wombat caves.


A big snuffly, sleepy wombat.


Koala!


YK and I at the seals' place.


Seals are also freaking adorable.


They're so well trained, and their movements are adorable. I'll see if I can upload YK's video to Youtube or something.


You know how guys do this fist bump thing when they see each other? Well, seals and their trainers do the same thing. The trainer puts out his fist, and the seal bumps its nose against it. It's adorable.


In the underwater display room.


The lion trainers hanging an animal between two trees. We couldn't figure out what it was, but poor thing, it got devoured.


It was not light, trust me. There were three of them, and they nearly couldn't hoist it up either.


I sure as hell wouldn't like to be that.


We could hear all these grunting and chomping and slurping noises. Ugh.


A bear!


And another one. Before they let the bears out for their feeding, there was this trainer, tossing blocks of wood and tires over the fruit she had scattered on the ground. We were all so confused, but it turns out that bears have an excellent sense of scent, according to the exhibit info, and true enough, the bear pushed aside all the stuff, and ate its fruit. Very fascinating to watch.


There still was some fruit in that container, and the bear pushed and tumbled it around until the bits of grape and watermelon fell out.


A jaguar, all stealth-like.


A very pretty snow leopard.


"I like to move-it, move-it. You like to move-it, move-it. He likes to move-it, move-it. We like to...MOVE-IT!" Lol. Lemurs, they are.


These are called peccaries, but we're all convinced that they're part of the pig family, because of its distinct snout. Anyone know?


You can pay to have a digitally altered photo of you and a Melbourne Zoo animal at the Photo Shop, and I thought this one was cute. Hee.


At the Japanese Garden. I think it looks so regal.


At the Jap Garden with Quinnie. We told YK to take a picture of the little waterfall by the side, and hey, look where it is. That's right, it's NOT THERE. -_-


The pretty garden.


Smooches at the Great Flight Aviary.


Taking a group shot at the Great Flight Aviary. Quinnie's hoodie is up because she's afraid bird poo'll splatter on her head. -_-


A meerkat.


Another two. Quinnie thought the bottom one was a rock. Hah. It must've been so terribly insulted.


Penguin pic-spam ahead.


Seriously, I so want one.


I wish I had taken a video instead, because the way these lil things waddle are ADORABLE.


And this, is Phillip. Of course I remember which one he is. -_-


All in a row.


So bloody cute. Eeee.

There was a school trip from Quambatook (which the little boy told me was about a three hour bus ride away from Melbourne city) and the kids were all so cute. There was this little girl, Fiona; she quietly came up next to me and waved shyly. So, I said hi, and then started talking to their teacher, Mr. Miller, who immediately bid me 'Selamat Datang' once I said I was from Malaysia. And then after awhile, all the kids just started crowding around me, and one girl secretly snapped a shot of me with her cellphone. Lol. It can't be that they've never seen a Chinese girl before, could it? There are so many in Australia! I wish I'd taken a picture with them all, they were so cute.


A wish, anyone?

The first time we walked through, the tiger wasn't there, so Quinnie wanted to go back to see if it was there. So, she brought us to this long-assed route back past the gorillas, the hippo, the mandrills, and the damn kau long walk through the tree-top monkey and apes exhibits, and was so damn adamant that there was no shorter route to the tigers but it turns out that there was and she brought us on a big wild goose-chase for twenty minutes back to the tiger exhibit.


It was happily feasting. Can you see the bloody bits?


In the zoo shop just before the exit. Yes, I know no shame.

The zoo day out was awesome, to put it mildly. I had tons of fun I didn't think I could have at the zoo, of all places. Definitely a recommendation.

We saw so many young Aussie couples on a date, aww. It was actually pretty cute, bringing your girlfriend to the zoo and all. However, not recommended if you're in Malaysia. Lol.

Tomorrow's the start of Monash Abroad orientation, and I've got to get up super early to catch the train to Huntingdale, and then a bus to Clayton. Ugh. I haven't gotten up so early in a long, long time. Hopefully I don't oversleep, ack. But the bright part is that Monash Abroard serves the yummiest pancakes and they have a coffee cart there, brewing fresh coffee for us. Yay. 299 students from all over the world, so that should be fun. Talk to you guys soon! :) Love.