Sunday- The Safari Park

I think this was a favorite day so far- at least for Evan.   After getting the bed ripped apart and skyping with the family briefly, we headed to breakfast.  From there we changed some money and used the bathrooms.  We met our guide and one of the other families who recently came to Guangzhou from another province at 9:00 a.m. in the hotel lobby to head to the Safari Park.  We got there and had to measure the boys- if you are under 1.2 meters, you are free.  If you are between 1.2-1.5 meters the cost is 125 RBM and the cost is 250 RBM for adults not matter what (prices recently went up).  Lucky for me, both boys were 2-3 inches shy of the 1.2 meters mark so they were free! Score!

 A view of the Canton tower on the way there.

 We made it!

 Measuring the boys!

The first thing we did was jump on a train that went around half of the park.  I didn't realize it at first, but this train take you through half the park and then the other half you do on foot.  I thought it was like the zoo train here where you just go around the zoo and then walk and see all the animals.   Cars use this path too- trains stay to the left and cars stay to the right.  It seems that most people have sun roofs here and people were just hanging out the sunroofs parading through car by car.   It was crazy.   It reminded me of all the cars that check out Christmas lights at places that have a display/show just in warm weather with sunroofs open and kids and adults half out of them.   It was a pretty cool experience- we saw a lot of great things.  The African safari part was the neatest- animals would just walk across the road and right up next to your car. 

 Our first views.

Waiting for the train.

Time to go!

Watching from the sun roof- above.

Once we finished the train ride, we had about 2-3 hours to walk around.  My camera died after the train part- I was so bummed.  I thought the battery was more full. I was able to get a few pictures.  Another family took some and will email them to us so I will add more of our 2nd half of the visit later.   We saw the cutest orangutans- they were in nets above our head and they were within an arms reach- it was so neat!   We also saw pandas, tigers- many different kinds, koalas, elephants, and giraffes.  One of the highlights was feeding the giraffes!  We also wanted to get a picture holding a baby tiger, but they were sleeping and didn't re-open until much later in the day.   We also went through a dinosaur exhibit- Evan LOVED it.  Reid was pretty scared at one point.  They did a really great job making it feel somewhat real.   We also went through snake facility.  That was pretty neat- Evan also enjoyed that a lot.  We had a great day, but between the walking and humidity, we were pretty ready to be done when we met our guide around 1:30 or 2:00 p.m.  We waited out a little rain and then headed back to the hotel via the van.  We rested for a couple hours and are now off to dinner and then for a boat cruise on the Pearl River.  I have been warned about the food on the boat, so we specifically asked to take one that did not include a dinner.  Looking forward to it!

 Feeding the giraffes above.  Checking out a baby koala in a tree below.