We went to the Zoo!

                Last Saturday morning I got up at 5am to go to the zoo! Yes, that is definitely what you do when the day’s high is 109 F. You get to the zoo at 5:45am. And, of course, the place was PACKED. People were everywhere… and may were exercising! It’s really the first time I’ve seen people jogging and stretching and what not. It was nice. :)

                In the zoo there is a “paid” area and a “free” area. The “paid” part opens at 8:30 so we weren’t allowed there anyway. However, all the signs were in Hindi… so… we did not understand them. And pretty soon we were all by ourselves with lots of fun animals around to look at.. Yay! All was exciting and fun until a guard came around and informed us it was CLOSED. Ok, he might have said more than that but the only thing our party caught was “BAND” (closed) so we said ok and walked back to the masses. I’m not quite sure how we got in there… Because on our way out there were barricades and signs in English saying, “NO ENTRY” everywhere. So I’m pretty sure we didn’t come in that way… :)

                  We left around 7:30am (it was getting hot!) and had breakfast (fruit! I had fruit!) and then on to the bird market (obviously). There we met lots of “talking” birds that didn’t like to talk and “non-flying” birds that could fly (or bird salesmen who bent the truth a little bit?). :)

                We ended up at a friend’s house for lunch and at the end of the day, it was 4pm! Doesn’t seem like a long day except for the fact that we were actually out for almost 12 hours!

A yellow cat (not sure if that's the official name but that's what was on the sign).

So this is the "Jungle Cat"... I though it looked like a big house cat, no?

These birds and cats were in the "paid" area... so we got to enjoy the peacocks all my ourselves.. :)

Who you lookin' at?

The golden pheasant (I think that's the name?) How cool are these colors??

So when we were going here, I thought we are just going to the Botanical Gardens, not the zoo. It turns out they are the same thing... And we had been there over an hour before we actually saw the plants and botanical section.. So I was excited and took a picture. :)

Baby giraffes!

After the zoo and bird market, we still had some time so we went back to the Ganges and it was laundry time! So we got to see all of the saris, blankets, and other assorted clothes drying in the sun.

Beating out the dirt on the rocks in Ganges river. 

A neat little door near the bird market.

A Ganesh collection! Blessing all beginnings.. :)