Chimelong Safari Park

Monday, May 22, 2017

Today was another free day. The suggestion from our guide was the Chimelong Safari Park. Just three of the twelve families decided to go. Some of the children are having difficult transitions so a day to keep their world small and fear-free was the best option for them. 

We were thrilled that Ruth has been doing well so we took advantage of the day! It was about a 30 minute drive to just outside the city of Guangzhou. 

Merlin, our guide, fetched us some tickets. It's always fun to see the translations. Trent took the pictures today so you'll notice lots of signs in today's blog. 

 

The safari on wheels was by far Ruth's favorite part. We hopped on this little train that drove us through all kinds of wild animals. 

 

Kangaroos, lazing about. 

 

Peacocks in trees and some walking on the road. 

 

Ruth pointed and screamed (a happy/excited scream) every time she saw an animal. 

 

Elephants!!

 

Ruth screaming. 

 

Lions. I feel I should note that little of what we saw seemed safe compared to what you would find in the US. 

 

Happy Ruthie pointing at zebras. 

 

The baby giraffes were so cute!

 

We didn't eat at the Mr. Sleeve-fish stand. 

 

You could feed the giraffes for 30 Yuan, which is about $4 US dollars. We didn't feed them. Ruth was getting a little antsy at this point. 

 

I think she really just wanted to walk but there were way too many people. Plus we were sticking together with a family from Virginia and their 5 children. 

 

Spotting the Koalas was a lot of fun. I kept saying, "I wish the girls were here! They would love this!"

 

This park is known for their pandas. We didn't take a single photo of pandas, however, as we got stuck between an enormous queue of Chinese school children. Likely they have never seen Americans as they seemed more interested in us than the pandas. 

 

Somehow the noise of the school children lulled Ruthie to sleep. 

 

Unfortunately we didn't let her sleep too long since it was lunch time and the panda cafe was the only place that served non-Chinese food. We got the "family platter" which came with two chicken wings, three chicken tenders, what we thought was a burger but ended up being chicken on a bun, a few fries and a plate of spaghetti. The spaghetti seemed like an odd addition but Ruth actually really loved it. I'm not sure if she has eaten spaghetti before or not, but I'm glad she likes it because we eat it a lot at home!

 

I do regret not at least trying the "Grill Dried Squid". 

 

About this time it started raining. We really wanted to find the snakes but were having trouble locating their spot. 

 

Ruth would have been quite happy if we just let her play in the rain and puddles for the rest of the time. 

 

 

 

 

She was extremely angry at me when the rain slowed down and I made her get back into the carrier. 

 

We had an up close view of the tigers since we braved walking through a little rain. 

 

And, of course, an amazing tiger sign. 

 

These school children were throwing raw meat to these tiger cubs who could very likely jump out of this enclosure. It made me nervous watching it. Only in China. 

 

Another great sign. 

 

They had wee little lion and tiger cubs in a little den right after the medium sized cubs. 

 

I'm pretty sure the other mom, Andrea, and I were more excited than the kids at seeing these babies. 

 

We came across "animal kindergarten" which was full of completely adorable baby animals playing with toys. This fox in a baby bath was amazing. I was wishing so much the girls could be with us!

 

We went through "Dragon Hill" where there were enormous dinosaurs making loud noises along with lasers, smoke and flashing lights, and FINALLY found.....

 

The snakes. 

By this time we needed to race back to get our bus. This place literally makes you go through a gift shop after exiting every section of the park. Before you could fully exit the park you had to go through not one, but two gift shops. And for that, I was glad the girls weren't with us to ask for trinkets. 

It was a fun but exhausting day. We got back to the hotel and ordered room service for dinner. We gave Ruthie a good warm bath and a large bottle and tucked her in for an early bedtime. We have an early morning appointment tomorrow with the US Consulate. Early as in we need to be ready to leave at 7:20 am. Looks like early to bed for Mama as well.