Suzhou Zoo

This was actually one of my worst experiences in Asia, period.  Apparently I am some sort of tree hugger (probably because I was born in CA).  I was pretty upset by the conditions as well as the way people were acting at the zoo last weekend.  Rebecca said I was visibly unhappy, which is interesting.  Reid finally asked me what about the zoo I didn't like and I said "Why do you think I wasn't happy?"  He replied "Maybe how the animals were kept and treated?"  Nine years old ladies and gentlemen.

Yeah, so things didn't start out well trying to swim upstream to see the snakes.

Birds in rusted out cages.  At this point, I was thinking things weren't so bad, just needing a little maintenance.

Then I saw the majestic lion in it's concrete jungle.

Followed be a black jaguar covered in sores (no, that's not smudged glass over it's flank).

Next, came the squirting of drinks into the grizzly bear's mouth.  This was probably the beginning of the end for me.  The sores you can blame on the zoo, this is just people acting badly.

So is this, a monkey chewing on a candy wrapper.

Another monkey playing with a plastic bag.  So cute.

This was the elephant "area".  I don't even know what to call it.

Apparently the zoo knows how bad it is because you can rent your own boots to kick someone with.

It wasn't all bad, this was a beautiful view of a scenic waterway.  Yes, those are flamingos in a pen with a five foot strip of water to dip their toes in.  Who could ask for anything more?

OK, so it wasn't all bad.  The wisteria smelled amazing and transported me back to the WB winery...

Not wanting to end on a total downer: there was at least one healthy animal there that day.