Joe Louis meets a relative
After settling into Yangon, I joined up with an older German couple also staying at my inn. My travel partners had a remarkable nonchalance and unhurried approach to tourism. While I also enjoy aimlessly meandering through new locations, it was my first day in Burma and I was eager to get out and see some special and unique sights. In any case, we decided to spend the day together roaming the city by foot, taking in the streets as opposed to going directly to attractions. We opted to experience the city, instead of touring through it.
Our wandering journey started off slowly. I really enjoyed walking down city streets, inhaling the fragrant vapors of street food, interacting with curbside vendors, and watching kids run around in mischief. But somehow our path ended up following a freeway and anywhere in the world a highway is a highway. Fortunately and surprisingly, this road led us right to the Yangon Zoological Gardens. Admittedly my list of activities to do while in Yangon did not include a zoo. That’s one of the reasons I was so excited to check it out.
The zoo only cost a few dollars for entry. Upon walking inside I got the feeling that this was a civil institution built for locals and not tourists. There were no crowds and the few people scattered around looked Burmese. The buildings, structures, and signs all appeared outdated. That’s not to say they were in disrepair, just not updated in a while, like a fully functional Windows 98 computer.
The gardens are large enough to house a good variety of creatures including land, water, and airborne animals, but not big enough where we had to make decisions on which to see in a limited time. We weren’t in a hurry anyway and so just went ahead walking and greeting they chirping and howling inhabitants.
I enjoyed seeing the crocodiles and water animals in the big central pool. Of course the bears were my favorite. The yawning hippos were amicable. The deer were frisky.
I can’t comment on the treatment of the animals, but two sections in particular did make me feel sorry for the animals. The elephants, there were four, hung out on platform that didn’t seem large enough for what elephants would want naturally. They were friendly as people fed them, but I just imagined breaking their shackles and leading them to free open space. Similarly the tigers were kept in smallish rooms. Perhaps they didn’t care and liked getting fed and cared for. It just seemed odd seeing such a ferocious animal in a little pen.
We had a leisurely lunch in the center of park where there is a small outdoor restaurant. Some music played in the background and we just took it easy. There is also a natural history museum located by the gardens, but we decided after spending a couple of hours here it was time to march on. We headed towards the Shwedagon Pagoda to try to make it in time for sunset.
See what other bloggers are saying about the Yangon Zoological Gardens:
“Today I took a trip through time. How you ask? By visiting the Zoological Gardens in Yangon, Myanmar! Seriously, this place was a time warp from the 80’s. It looked like an abandoned zoo; though someone had forgotten to get rid of the animals or stop charging customers to enter the gates.”
–Mike Meets World!
