Ragunan Zoo through my eyes

We went to the Jakarta Zoo last Saturday. It's called Ragunan Zoo. I heard from a Malaysian friend staying here in Jakarta that it's pretty popular with the locals. To quote her, "everyone and their uncles go there during the weekends". Well, I wish I knew this little morsel of information before I went there.

Anyway, that wouldn't have stopped us. Me and my hubby are Zoo people. We go to the Zoo of most countries or cities that we visit. So, that being said, I'm fairly certain that I have enough exposure to review this beloved Zoo that the Jakarta people love so much.

To begin with, we took forever to get to the Zoo because of the traffic. Jammed on this road, a long row of cars parked on the side of that road, a gazillion motorcycles taking over a lane on the other road. You get the picture.

After enduring the jams, we finally got to the entrance of the Zoo. Nice big arch with the name inscribed on it. Pretty impressive I thought. Then I looked to the left. Holy Crap! Another gazillion motorcycles parked there. OK. So parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunties and probably long lost relatives flock to the Zoo here on weekends. I asked my driver, "Alot of people like to come to the Zoo on weekends?". "Ya, ya!" was his reply. That doesn't sound good.

The only thing I could possibly not like about Zoo's (cause I LOVE ZOO'S) is the poor condition of the animals and all the screaming children running around the animal enclosures. Little did I know that I wouldn't have to worry about that here. The children in the Zoo couldn't be bothered much about the animals. Most families go there to picnic and play at the playgrounds.

We pay the entrance fee, Rp4000 for adults.That's only about RM1.40. Parking on the other hand, cost us Rp5000, RM1.80. What?!? Parking is more expensive than the entrance fee? That's so absurd. Not that I'm complaining that it's costly or anything, cause it's dirt cheap, but it's weird. Then they hand us this bunch of tickets and receipts.

One of them is an Insurance Premium receipt! It says:
Dengan membayar premi sebesar Rp. 500,- setiap orangnya pengelola mengansuransikan pengunjungnya terhadap risiko kecelakaan diri kepada Ansuransi Kerugian PT. Ansuransi bangun Askrida dengan nilai pertanggungan untuk:
Meninggal Dunia         : Rp 16.0000.000,-
Cacat Tetap                : Rp 10.000.000,-
Biaya Perawatan        : Rp 1.000.000,-

To be honest, I only noticed it after we got home and my hubby showed it to me. If I had known earlier, I probably would have been freaked out and not gone inside. What in the world did they expect could happen in the Zoo? Do the animals regularly escape and wreak havoc with the visitors? Are there monkeys jumping around freely in the Zoo? Such thoughts would have been running wild in my head. But thankfully, I didn't know as hubby was keeping all the tickets and documents and we continued into the Zoo after we found a parking spot.

The first thing we saw when we got inside was ALOT of people gathered at a rather big field and really loud music blaring. Is that people I see playing games? Yes!! After conferring with my driver, I found out that the Zoo regularly rents out this place for company family days or gatherings. OK. I'm thinking all that noise can't be too calming for the animals.

Next thing we see is a bunch of street vendors littering the streets of the zoo. ALOT of vendors!! Selling snacks and drinks. One thing people in Jakarta are, are industrious. They sell snacks even on the roads, while you're stopped at the traffic lights or during traffic jams.

Ah! And there's a playground there. Nothing strange about that though. Alot of European Zoo's have playgrounds to entertain the children. Oh, but wait! Towards the end of our trip to the Zoo, we come across an amusement park! Seriously, an amusement park filled with rides and games etc. Now, that's weird.

Now, we've been walking quite a bit now and we haven't seen a single animal yet. Notice anything wrong with this scenario. I'm starting to think this Zoo doesn't have much animals. Still, giving it the benefit of the doubt, I just figured that this was a really really big Zoo. That fact was true. It's really big (space wise). It has three exits; north, south and main. That's how big it is.

Their collection of animals we notice are not too great. Just the more common ones like flamingoes, storks, bats, reptiles etc.

An interesting exhibit is always the lion exhibit. We find a lion all right. A balding male! BALDING. I wish I could upload the pictures for you but my laptop is not here yet. Be sure to keep an eye on this space cause when I get it I'm going to upload it for sure. This is not a sight to be missed. I'm not sure if it's because of old age or the stress of all the noise, but that lion sure was balding. *insert pic*

They had Komodo Dragons there. That was interesting as we hadn't seen one real life before. Four full exhibits. You could have your pick. Giant, small, fat or thin.They probably have so many because it's native to them I suppose. It's like seeing kerbaus, sang kancils and cows in our Malaysian Zoo! There was this really fat (maybe he's just giant but he does look fat) Komodo there as well. *insert pic*

We moved on to the Orang Utans. Always entertaining. They had both types there, the Sumatran and the Bornean.


Other than that, nothing much more to mention about the zoo. They had some bears. I saw an Elephant (yes one!). We were walking round and round and round searching for the Gorilla they supposedly have (I think they do la, just that we couldn't find it).

After an hour or so, we gave up and left the Zoo. Even searching for the correct exit proved to be a problem. There was the exit sign that brought us in circles around the zoo. When we finally found one, that exit was apparently only for cars. Continue on our search and found an exit, but not the one we came in from. Took it anyway. Got a little disorientated when we got out but found our car.

In a nutshell, if you were going to the Zoo to see animals, I wouldn't recommend the Ragunan Zoo. If you were on the other hand looking for rides for kids, that's probably the place to go. There is also no KFC, I repeat, NO KFC at this Zoo. I found this hard to believe, as from young I was taught that the Zoo had a lot of things to do and the food was finger-licking good. That totally destroyed my illusion. It's like being told Santa Claus is not real (children, if you are reading this, HE IS REAL! Continue being good and writing your letters to him).