Arrival in Malaysia & Negara Zoo

Currently in an I-cafe somewhere on the outskirts of KL, about 20 min walk from the zoo, & I've had a truly awesome day. But more of that later.
Maybe?

The flight from NZ was uneventful, & I caught Ballad (Japanese film), The Duchess, the 1st hr of 24 series 6 (now I want to see what happens to Jack, so I guess I'll have to buy the DVD's), & some of another film about aliens in South Africa (District 9?) before I fell asleep.

As promised, I was met at KL airport & went to our B&B with another volunteer, Penny, from Willsdon.
Once there, we were introduced to the others, who'd already arrived (more of them later). We also had our temperatures taken, & were given our Introductory Chat & Welcome Dinner.
The latter consisted of a plastic bag of food & a bottle of water!
As it was after 9, I just had the water, as I didn't want to keep roommate, Sally, up by coughing due to eating too soon before bed.

Next morning 5 of us were up, breakfasted, & out by 9 - on our way to Negara Zoo.
This is somewhere in KL, but not sure exactly where - you can google it if you really want to know.

We'd met our WOX co-ordinators, Mazrul & Denice the night before, & they met us at the zoo & showed us our house for a fortnight.
Then we had a walk round the zoo - including the Ape Centre where we'd do most of our volunteering, & a trip to buy food as we'd be self-catering in our 'little house in the zoo'.

After that we were free, but as it was so hot & sticky, we just lolled about for a bit & then went exploring around the zoo again!
We also watched the 'Multi Animal Show', which was a couple of parrots, a bird of prey, a seal & a sea lion (Californian) doing their stuff. The commentary was mostly in Malay, so it was a bit weird, but the animals were OK.

BTW, the 'we' includes Penny, Jon & Emma (who are doing a month at the zoo) & Steph.
All are from 'down south', & apart from Penny, Jon & Emma seem to be from Cambridge (at least they did their degrees there), & Steph's from somewhere or other south of Watford, is 18, & wants to work in TV.
Sounds like an introduction for a Miss World contestant, doesn't it ;-P

Jon is a good cook, so he's been chefing - helped by Em. They've all just left the I-cafe to go & get tea, & I promised to be back within the hr, so I'll press on. . . .

On Thursday Jan 7th (yesterday) we had to meet Denice & Mazrul at 0750 & work with other animals. Steph & I were doing the 'mammals' with Denice, & Mazrul took the others off somewhere else - mostly birds, I think.

First job was sweeping up the leaves in the Tapir's enclosure. There was Mum & 3 babies. dad was separate as he had a poorly foot, but we did him too.

Then it was the porqupines - more leaf sweeping.

Denice then took us to meet up with the others & we had a break for 1/2 hr at the staff canteen.

Post break we spent a while chopping up fruit & veg & then fed the tapirs & porqupines. This included some by hand, which was pretty cool & I go some neat pics & vids.
I also got some cast-off quills.
These are really sharp!
I know this, as I put the 1st one in my pocket & it stuck itself into my leg!

After the 2 bigger mammals, we hand fed the squirrels - big black jobbies with lovely golden under-fur, & I managed to stroke one a bit.
Then it was on to the racoons. One was pretty fat, but he was the keenest to be hand fed, & they had LOADS of food for 24 hrs - no wonder he was a bit porky.

The cute 'small-clawed otter' was fed fish by one of the keepers -more of him later (the otter, not the keeper), & we weren't allowed to do the leopard cat - they're too unpredictable.

After that, Steph got to clean the poo from some cages, & I got to sweep more leaves.
I almost felt like the Karate Kid ;-)

Then it was lunch in the staff canteen & I was so thirsty I had 4 cups of tea!

Aftyer lunch we were taken to meet some of the big cats, including an obese black leopard called Gir, & 2 pumas.
I should point out there were thick bars between us & them, but it was exceedingly brill to be less than 3ft away from such awesome creatures.
I'd've loved to have been able to do a Joanna Lumley & get close enough to touch. How cool would that be?

There were also some adorable little things called 'slow loris' (I think that's how it's spelt?)
They look like bushbabies & were in quite small cages - the keeper said there wasn't enough space to exhibit them in the bigger 'viewing' cages.
They were sooooo sweet, & we gave them food & a tickle/scratch. One licked my finger - sweetie. I wanted to hold them & give them a cuddle - they looked so sad & fed up in the cage, but it may have been their normal expression, I don't know.

Then Denice brought some bread out for the fish in the moat, & we gave some to the otter. He was amazingly strong for such a wee beastie - he grabbed my finger in his forepaws (through the bars) & pulled my hand to the cage. It was surprisingly hard to pull away from him.
I was well impressed.
He also did a clever thing by taking the dry bread to his water & wetting it to make it easier to chew.
Clever otter!
But then they are aren't they?

After the fish feeding we were done for the day, & we went back to out 'little house at the zoo' AKA Home, where we got 1st dibs at a wonderful cold shower.

Once the others got back, we lolled, had tea & went to bed.

Tomorrow would be our 1st day at the Ape Centre -weeeeeeee.

So that was yesterday, & today we did spend all day with the Orangs & chimps - but mostly Orangs.
As a result, I found myself on the cusp of tears quite often, it was so awesome.
However, it's now 8.30 & if I don't rush back home, they'll be sending out a search party, despite my assurances I'll be OK
So I'm off - no time to spell check etc., so apologies if there's gobbledegook.

Hopefully I'll be able to come back hear tomorrow & tell you all about it.
OAO