Kickapoo

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I'm back in KL, meaning that my trip is nearly over. It's been a while since the last blog, so I'll try to cover everything I've been doing over the last couple of weeks.

I last let you know that I was set to go on to the big cats section of the zoo. I only spent two days here, but it was rather brilliant. It's hard to get close to the cats, as you may imagine, what with them being huge deadly carnivores and all. The lions are the easiest to get involved with. They can be surprisingly docile. There are three cubs, approaching adolescence, who are still young enough and playful enough to deal with. Although it's not easy to get in the cage with them properly, it is possible with the keeper around. Sadly, there's only limited room in there with four large cats, so I stayed out while Kirsty and Elina went in. They had to keep the cubs at a distance with sticks (no hats with lion-tamer written on though). Myself, I was content to stay outside, and play with them through the bars. You can still stroke and tickle them, without having to fight them off if they get too excited. One of them absolutely loves water, so I spent quite a long time splashing him with the hose while I was supposed to be washing out the cages. Aside from teh cubs, most of the lions are quite quiet, with the exception of one very grouchy female, and one male who wants to get in with the cubs so he can shag the elder female in there. Their strong enough to shake the cages and give a good impression that they're going to escape. And, no matter how safe you know you are, when one of those things roars at you, you jump!

The tigers are more dangerous, and we really couldn't get very near them, save for one old female who was laid back enough for us to stroke her through the bars. While the lions have quite long, course fur, the tigers' fur is very smooth. We got to feed them both days - frozen buffallo meat on the thursday, and chickens on the friday. Live chickens for the tigers, which was an interesting but grim thing to watch. They don't like to make it quick for them, and they all have different tastes - some like the guts, some like the crunchy bits. One thing I didn't like was that they were shut in the cages at all. They're far too large for the space they're given. Some of them are let into the enclosures during the day, with others let out at night - the lions in particular have a very nice Pride Rock set up - but the more dangerous examples never get to leave their cages. This is understandable - one of the tigers is a known maneater - but I have to wonder why they're in a zoo in the first place if they're so dangerous.

I also got to get into the clouded leopard cage - while they were snarling at me from the safety of the enclosure, seperated by a wire fence. They're very beautiful creatures, surprisingly small, and it's rare to get to see them, since they're so very endangered. The zoo also has black panthers, again very beautiful, but far too dangerous to get near without years of training. Interestingly, black panthers are really a kind of leopard, but clouded leopards aren't.

Over the weekend, I took in a little day trip to Ipoh, the capital of Perak. Aside from a pretty impressive shopping mall, it's an absolute dump. Nothing interesting to see, and most of it is crumbling into ruin. Following that, we stayed in Taiping, taking in the Muzium Perak (nice building, but housing barely any exhibits, and most of the ones it did have were inaccurate - calling an orang-utan a monkey, for crying out loud), numerous Chinese and Hindu temples, and also Maxwell Hill, AKA Bukit Larut. This involved a pleasant but challenging two hour walk up through the surrounding jungle to the hill station at the top. In honesty, we never quite got to the top; we got as far as the abandoned tea gardens, by which time we were standing in a cloud. Extreme rainfall ensued, and we made our way back down the main road as hurriedly as we could. Less interesting than the jungle route, but a whole lot safer.

Rain has been the bane of these last two weeks. Every day it has poured with rain at least twice. Although the rainy season has officially ended here, with the rain mostly moving upwards to Thailand and Burma (Burma being especially badly hit, of course), there's not really a wet and dry season - more a very wet season and a not-quite-so-wet season. Taiping also has the distinction of being the rainiest part of the whole country. So we've had two weeks of torrential downpours, usually lasting an hour or two. I'm glad I brought my big coat along. However, when there's a storm on, with bolts of lightning flashing around you, it doesn't do your confidence any good to realise that you're standing inside a huge metal cage. And it's unnerving to hear that a tree has blown over onto the tiger cage, with the maneater very close to being able to escape during the night...

The last week was elephants and rhinos! Two days with each. Being with the elephants was particularly fun. Although I'd got to spend some time with them in Thailand, here I got to get properly close to them - getting up and stroking them without them being chained up. They're incredible creatures, highly intelligent and sociable, and also surprisingly soft to the touch. One of them, an older cow named Jayah, is particuarly friendly, and likes being scratched behind the ears. The only really dangerous one is the big bull, who needs to be kept on a chain most of the time. He obviously hates it, and I aks myself again why they have such a dangerous animal if they can't keep it properly. However, he does spend some time loose, when Ravi, the head elephant keeper, is in the enclosure. The man has an astonishing affinity with the elephants. Still, fun though it was, it was a lot of work. They're fed six times a day, with the corresponding amount of poo coming out the other end.

The white rhinoceroses were a surprise treat. We're the first group to be allowed to work with them. There are three - a male and two females - and they're released from a pen into the main enclosure in the morning, after we've cleaned it. Although we couldn't actually get in the enclosure with them, just in case they became agressive (there's really no defense against an angry rhino), we could feed and stroke them throught he bars seperating the pen and enclosure. They're actually very friendly and curious, enjoying being scratched and petted, although one did push me out of the way with considerable strength when she's had enough.

Over my last few days, I also got to meet the seladang, or Malaysian gaur, a huge cattle-beast, feed the hippos some more (no sign of that baby, still), play with otters, and learn to handle a snake. I've also spent some time with Julie the chimp, and a lot of time with Wasabi. She was clearly sad when the other group left - poor thing must get attached to every group who comes in - but she cheered up soon enough with some attention from us. We used a knackered pair of my old trousers to make her a new toy; filling up the pockets with fruit and buttoning and zipping them up, to make a sort of activity fun pants game for her. She liked it.

After the final day at the zoo, it's been a simple case of drinks in Taiping (saying goodbye to the town in some of the naffest bars on Earth), a minibus journey to KL, and here I am now. The rain has decided to follow me, but I've had a good wander around the city centre. I had a little jaunt to Chinatown today, but I have to say it was rather disappointing - just a crappy bunch of stalls selling the usual tourist tat. I'm hoping to take in the butterfly park tomorrow, if there's some good weather. Other than that, it's really just a case of biding my time - I'm home on wednesday!

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