My benevolent dad sent me and my friend, Jeff, to the train station, our pre-arranged rendezvous. There we caught up with another two of my friends, Gin and Yiet Hean. That was my very first time I was gonna board a train and I was kinda excited. I wore completely black: black attire, black jeans, which made me stood up among my friends cause they dressed rather casually.
The train was fine, better than I expected, and was smoother than I imagined. At least the journey wasn't bumpy or shaky. We sat on the first row, and all the other spaces on that carriage were occupied by some students from a kindergarten who, ironically, never watched Harry Potter before and seemed to be enjoying silent cartoons.
The entire journey took about an hour and twenty minutes, and once we arrived Taiping train station we alighted and moved to the main entrance, and that marked the genesis of our trip. We didn't record phone numbers for taxi in advance, and therefore we were lost for a moment until we managed to get a number from an Indian at the stall there. I made a duly move and dialed the number. Since the number wasn't a mobile one, I thought it was a taxi company. They said they would send a taxi with the number plate 4007, and so we waited patiently despite the heat. However, later, when a taxi came and waved towards us, I realised the number wasn't 4007 and was something else, so I thought...well....maybe the company sent another taxi to pick us up. How naive we were. The moment we boarded the taxi, my friends told me another taxi with the number plate 4007 came and watched us left with this taxi. I believed that Indian would sure go berserk and think he was fooled. =.=
Then the taxi driver brought us to Taiping Zoo, the sole tourist attraction in Taiping. The ticket cost us RM12 per person, not exorbitant, but ain't cheap either. Then we entered the zoo, saw all kinds of animals that were either sick, half-dying or devoid of animal characteristics. Taiping Zoo wasn't well taken care of, and the maintenance was really poor. Just look at the water for the animals and you could only see a patch of green algae or a pool of muddy colour water.
The price for any goods in the zoo was exorbitant. They did not sell any meals so I grabbed a bottle of extra sweet fruit juice (three bottles per day for a week is enough to cause diabetes), a bottle of mineral water and a packet of junk food to fill my stomach for I was hungry. Then we continued our journey. It was pretty fun seeing all those animals traipsing in the zoo, or lazing around, or just lied on the ground endeavoured to sleep but was constantly interrupted by tourists.
I had to admit: the visit was fun. Not because the zoo was entertaining or the animals were enlightening, they weren't be any entertaining when their supposed home was in an almost dilapidated situation, but because I went there with my friends, and it's the feelings that was enjoyable, and not the zoo. If I went there alone I might have hightail it as soon when I caught sight of the severely tainted window cages for the animals.
We left the zoo around 1pm, approximately half an hour before rain began to pour.
*Photos will be uploaded soon*
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