Day 19, 12/12/2011:
One of the first things asked of me when I got off the plane this morning was how did a Westerner like me ever find out about a place like this? The place being Bhubaneswar, India. The story goes like this; I run a photography business and earlier this year when I was planning this trip I had a family from India as a client. Getting to know one another I mentioned my trip to travel the world and see different zoos. They insisted right on the spot that I had to travel to their home city and visit their amazing Nandankana Zoo. Nandankana means "Garden of God". Intrigued, I promised to come here and check it out. I must say that I am glad I did.
We're staying at the Trident Hotel, Bhubaneswar tonight and the food and service is excellent, and we are still awestruck by the Zoo itself. Tomorrow we're off for Thailand!
Day 20, 12/13/2011:
The Khao Kheow Forest and Wildlife park was a great deal of fun, with a large variety of ecotomes and animal groups represented. Feeding the Eld's Deer was delightful. The Chimpanzee and Orangutan territories were a nice surprise; they can be depressing, but these creatures were active and engaged. My wife's favorite part was the Cat Complex, which is advertised as the largest collection of wild cat species in Thailand. Personally I found it on par with Nandankana and so impressed with these two zoos. While I loved the Vienna zoo, it was more about the ambiance of Christmas and Austria and the Alps and Vienna itself. Here though it's all about the zoos.
Pattaya City is just off the Indochina Peninsula at the foothills of the Himalayas which affects the weather here severely. Rainstorms have come and gone with a quickness I've only seen in Alabama and Florida and it is very balmy and humid.
