Unlike most big cities, Hong Kong does not have a proper zoo. The closest approximation is the Botanical and Zoological Garden. At 10:00 one night I got a text from my friend Esme asking me if I wanted to go to the garden the next day, which is how I found myself experiencing something unlike anything I had seen before.
The first thing to remember is that almost everything in Hong Kong will be uphill. Every few minutes we took a pause, drank water, at one point sat down on the sidewalk to prepare ourselves for the next leg of the trek, and crisscrossed the road as needed to remain in the shade. On the way up we passed a group of Japanese tourists trying to haul their suitcases up the same hill; it was incredible, even without understanding a word they were saying we both picked up on their sentiment and Esme and I grinned in sympathy at each other as we went by. Twenty minutes after the start we stumbled through the gate to the gardens and both bought ice cold drinks and sat under an umbrella for ten minutes before moving on.
I have never been to a free zoo before. Although, really it was only a semi-zoo. Along with a botanical garden there were almost two dozen primates and a few more birds. We went to see the monkeys first and were happily surprised about how active the animals were. We saw some animals that I've never seen in zoos in the US which was fun.
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| The animals had gorgeous surroundings |
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| Staring at it's friend that just moved away in the other cage |
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| A new creature to me (but a fast little thing that made capturing a good photo of it difficult) | | | | | | | | |
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| A meerkat taking a nap (and apparently considered a primate) |
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| A little guy from home I had not expected to see |
After finishing the primates we moved onto the birds and were stunned due to the fact that the first few we encountered were almost as tall as we were, running around in circles, and periodically screaming at the sky. The birds were very pretty but hard to photograph and so I decided to focus on enjoying them in person rather than trying to get pictures.
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| Big bird. Big bird that just finished running very fast around its enclosure. |
The last part of the park was the botanical area. The park housed a large greenhouse as well as carefully maintained small gardens outside.
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| The inside of the first room in the greenhouse. Fell in love with the roof covered in vines. |
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| The second room in the greenhouse was mainly flowers arranged around a few statues. |
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| A fascinating flower I had not seen before: Aechmea Fasciata |
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| A Japanese styled garden through the bamboo |
To put it mildly, the descent down the hill was so much easier than the ascent a few hours earlier. In celebration of a wonderful day we went out for ice cream before returning to the dorms.
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