Ark Avilon Zoo

Richard and I took the day off on July 14 for Neil's birthday.  Between having a party and just spending time with our son, we chose the second.  We took him to Ark Avilon to see the animals.  Our fist visit was in March 2010, before he was two.  It's high time we came back for more close encounters with the animals.

Ticket prices: P300 for adults and P200 for children below 3.5 ft.

There are large animals in cages located on both sides of the building on the first level (tigers, puma, sun bear, gibbon).

Birds

Close encounters

There are 2 fish tanks also on the first level.  One has koi and the smaller one has the 'doctor fish'.  You can immerse your feet in the water with the doctor fish and they will eat your dead skin cells.  It was my first time to try this and I didn't stay long.  It tickles!=)

On the second level are more birds, reptiles, and farm animals that you can feed.  Neil and I fed the hamsters.  One carrot is P20.

Goats, pigs and sheep are on the second level.

I think one of Ark Avilon's highlights is Jenny, the orangutan.  You can take pictures with her.
 

It's a good thing to go there on a weekday.  There's very few people around and you can be at a more relaxed pace.  One thing to watch out, especially if you're bringing kids, are the mosquitoes.  It's a bit dark inside so you can't see them.  We noticed that Neil had several mosquito bites only when we came out. :(

Although there are fewer animals now compared to last year (no more tapir, one big fish tank is empty), it's still a good place to visit and have children see animals up close.  The location is very accessible, too, which is always a plus.


Before I end, this zoo business is controversial right now, especially with the clamor from some groups to close the Manila Zoo.  We can always argue that animals are better left in their natural habitats but I also appreciate facilities that allow us to experience them up close and with minimal risk.  I guess the middle ground is to keep only the zoos that take very good care of the animals...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Filipino Friday 3: Reading Habits and Book Formats

Image
Reading Habits and Book Formats . Where and how do you read? Can you read anywhere and everywhere, or do you need a certain place/mood/state of mind to get reading? Do you read more in the morning or at night or any minute that you can? Where and how do you usually read? Are you exclusively for print, or do you go for ebooks more than print? Have you ever tried audiobooks? I am old school.  Even as most books now have digital versions, I still prefer the physical, ink-on-paper variety.  I like holding a real book, flipping the pages and being able to see my progress based on the thickness of read/unread pages.  Somehow, I feel more engaged and focused reading a physical book vs. from a gadget. I very rarely reread books so most of my collection just sit on the shelf after I'm done with them.  I feel it's a waste of precious trees if they are not shared with others.  So I started a Google doc at work where the team can list down their collections and anybod...
Read more

Trivia and Reading

Image
I am currently reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and I am inspired.  It’s about the author’s year-long quest to be happier.  It’s purposeful and practical and has lot of tips that I can apply or have started doing. Rubin focused on different areas every month and for May, it was Be Serious About Play.  The author was trying to go back to activities she enjoyed as a child. This led me to also think about a favorite childhood pastime, which was collecting trivia.  The Philippine Daily Inquirer used to run a trivia section by Bong Barrameda and I would religiously cut and paste them onto scratch papers, which I would then collate and read again and again.  Nerd zone! Not only that, I also kept a trivia notebook where I researched and wrote down interesting information like areas of study, capital cities, historical figures, scientists and discoveries, everything!  That was fun for me.  I was about to say they were useless info, ...
Read more

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

Image
There is something to be said for collective recommendations like bestsellers list.  I found this title on such list at Fully Booked, read a few pages and decided to buy it.  I was intrigued by the theme of the book which is memory, specifically, how the author started as a journalist covering the US Memory Championships and ended up as a contender in the finals of the same competition one year later. It claims that with proper training, one's memory can be improved to be at par with the top mental athletes of the world.  Memory training has become an esoteric discipline because we practically do not need to remember a lot these days.  Information is very easy to retrieve from electronic devices and what not.  You just need basic search terms and the Google provides the information you need and more. Photo from Rainy Day Books I have to admit I rely on external memory a lot.  I can recall birthdays of my very close family members but outside of tha...
Read more