Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

As of the date of the latest census, in 2000, there were approximately 200 million people in Indonesia. Of those, 86% are Muslims. So, it makes perfect sense that Good Friday should be a national holiday.

Of course, I'm only joking. Indonesia's constitution grants religious freedom and the country is mostly proud of its reputation for religious tolerance. Most of the people on Java, where I live, are Muslim. Bali has a large Hindu population. Places on Sumatra and Flores are largely Catholic. Other places on Sumatra and Sulawesi have many Protestants. Atheism isn't recognized as a valid choice, so I don't bring up religion very much and when asked, I generally say that I was raised as a Christian but am not religious.

That said, I certainly do not mind having days off from work because of Muslim, Christian, and Hindu holidays. There are only two months of the year that are holiday free and twice--once for the end of Ramadan and once for Christmas--I get an entire week off. Last month at Nyepi (Hindu), we had a free Tuesday so naturally we had a barbeque. This month, it't Good Friday.

Taking full advantage of a day off is important and, yesterday, I had the good luck to be invited to go along with some friends to a safari park outside of Bogor. I'd seen the park before, on the way to Cibodas, but since the only way to see the safari is to drive through in your own vehicle, it wasn't an option. But my friends have access to a car and driver, so off we went!

Riding in a comfortable cross between and SUV and mini-van while an experienced driver worries about negotiating traffic and directions is a luxury I could get used to. We left early and missed most of the holiday traffic so the trip only took a couple hours. It was well worth it.

The road to the park entrance is lined with kids selling very fresh, very orange carrots. We bought three bunches and off we went. The drive through the safari park took about an hour and a half and we saw a multitude of different types of deer and antelope and water buffalo. Many of the deer and antelope roam freely between the slow-moving parade of cars, begging for carrots at the windows. The first elephant enclosure was fenced in by a wide stream, but if the cars got close to the edge of the road and one of the bigger elephants reached out with her trunk, she could grab the carrot out of a hand. The camels could too. The zebras walked right up, took the carrots, ate them, and stuck their noses right into the window to get more. There were bunches of little monkeys--the kind Ross had on Friends--and they were freely moving around their area, but they didn't come up to the cars. They also preferred oranges to carrots.

About half way through the trip, the car entered a gated area where the animals were sectioned off, at least from each other. Before entering, we were warned to stay inside the car and keep the windows rolled up. First up, lions. They were all sleeping on raised platforms and didn't look too interested in the cars, so we rolled the windows down half way and snapped some photos. I don't imagine anyone would be stupid enough to get out of the car but there was a park ranger nearby sitting in a jeep, presumably with a tranquilizer gun just in case. The tigers were equally uninterested and so we rolled the windows down again. They also had black bears, which looked like they'd be more at home in North America than the tropics. The bears were allowed to roam between the cars. We rolled the windows down to snap, but as they walked closer, the windows went up in a hurry! At the hippos' lake, I took a picture of the largest hippo as we drove by. His mouth was open and in the picture it looks like he's about to take a bite out of our car. But he just stayed there, by the water's edge, with his mouth wide open, waiting for the cars to drive by and the carrots to be thrown in. Hilarious!

After the drive was over, we went on foot into the other section of the safari which was part zoo, part amusement park. The rides were mostly for kids, so we headed for the baby zoo where we got our pictures taken with tigers and a baby orangutan. Then, we had a bite to eat and explored the other animals. There were exotic birds flying around in an aviary, close enough to touch, lots and lots of monkeys, a creepy reptile house, an enormous Komodo dragon, and another picture station where we got to hold a python and another, older, orangutan. For the record, I had my picture taken with the baby tiger, the baby orangutan, and the adolescent orangutan. The python was too big and scary for me!

I didn't care that much about the pictures, although I'm glad I have them. The best part was getting to touch the animals. The tiger wanted to play. The baby orangutan was curious and, just like human babies, immediately wrapped one hand in my hair. The adolescent orangutan was friendly and weighed a lot. At first, she sat on my lap but then the trainer had me stand up and hold her on my hip. I couldn't believe how heavy she was.

There were elephants all over the park. Some of them were in the enclosed area on the drive. Others were available to ride through the park, with a trainer of course. We came across the paths of several during the drive. The trainers have taught them a neat trick. They put their trunks into the windows of the cars they are walking past. At first, we thought they wanted carrots, but they don't. They are looking for money. When you put the bill in their trunks, they immediately lift their trunks and give the money to the guy on top. It's a riot. In cars that didn't have the windows down, they hopefully knocked on them with their trunks. When we ran out of small bills, we closed our windows. The next elephant to come by trumpeted his disappointment when we didn't open up. The way an elephant grabs something small, like a bill or a carrot, is to close the very tip of its trunk around the item. When it grabbed from my hand, I got to feel the tip, which is moist and slimy but so cool. At other places in the park, elephants were hanging around with trainers and we got to touch them. The rest of the skin is dry with wiry hair sticking out everywhere.

The whole day was just another to add to the list of incredible experiences I've had since I arrived in Indonesia. I have mixed feelings about zoos because I think it's sad to see animals penned in and held captive but I also think it's important to be able to learn about them. I felt equally weird about interacting with them so intimately. But the one thing I noticed was that all of them looked very healthy. Their noses were moist, their eyes were bright, and their hair and skin were shiny. Must be all the carrots.