Day 2: Zoo in Trivandrum

Our driver picked us up at 10:00 am to take us to tour Trivandrum today.  There is a holiday today and tomorrow, and there were flags out in our nearby village and along the highway to celebrate the holiday.  I think it's a religious holiday.  Marshall and his new company will be working tomorrow so it's not a holiday for them.  The zoo had a nice canopy so it was shaded but still very humid and hot. The cost of admission was 20 rupees for locals but they charge extra for foreigners so we paid 200 rupees. This is supposedly the oldest zoo in India and has been on this site since the middle of the 1800’s.



This was a really cool river that ran through the zoo.  We saw carp in it and we watched black ducks dive down and come up with fish or small minnows and the would flip them up and into their mouths.
We didn’t see a single Caucasian and the kids at the zoo would stare at us and then have a conversation about Americans. One little 5 year old girl came up and rubbed my skin and then held my hand for a minute. She had henna tattoos on her arm.  Later, a boy about 12 asked if he could take a picture with me. His father took it and he was so happy. 

We saw others taking pictures in front of large bamboo.  This is typical of how Indians dress. 


Many of the older men wear a dhoti. It is basically a skirt and they were sandals or bare feet.  It’s typically white and they would wear that to the Hindu temple.  Our home owner who welcomed us had one on when we arrived. 

We saw many animals that are similar to ours. We saw a sloth bear and a Himalayan bear that we had not seen before.


After the zoo, we went to the Natural History museum.  Imagine the Smithsonian but on a much smaller scale.  We saw bones and replicas of animals. One room featured African region, Asian region and American region. We saw many birds
and fish that we don’t typically see in NC.  We saw cartilage structure of a King Cobra and we learned how it expands to make its hood flap out. 


Traditional Kerala attire

We enjoyed seeing traditional clothes for different regions of India and picture is of a traditional woman in the Kerala State.  

That was our morning and then we went to lunch. More on the rest of the day in another post.







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