Monks At The Zoo.JPG
Instead of going to the famous Mandalay Palace in Myanmar (Burma), my wife, Gwynne, and I went to the Yadanabon Garden, the Mandalay zoo, instead. It's old, dirty, muddy & run-down but the people don't seem to care because it's packed. More people were actually enjoying the place then we've ever seen before; kids & monks were much in attendance. The kids were dressed in their best clothes: pink dresses with ruffles and flowers in their hair, the boys in pants and hard shoes, all in the jungle mud. They were having picnics, pushing their kids on the swings & whirligigs, and having a lot of fun. The animals were popular but so were we since we were the only foreigners there, folks wanted our picture.Monkies Drinking Coke.JPG
The zoo is bizarre in that there are food stands in front of every exhibit, sometimes kebabs for people but most often food to feed the animals: zebras & bears like bananas, elephants eat cucumber, and monkey's like Coke. (I don't know what monks like?) We fed the zebras & bears, something we've never done before, then took an elephant ride. Another zoo take-away point, monks like to take pictures of themselves with the animals.Riding An Elephant.JPG