From the distant view in the photo the elephant exhibit looks like it may be of the same quality as elephant exhibits in western zoos - did you find this to be true?
What was your impression of this zoo overall? It looks like it has a lot of old cages, but how is the quality of animal care and visitor treatment of the animals?
From the distant view in the photo the elephant exhibit looks like, it may be of the same quality as elephant exhibits in western zoos - did you find this to be true?
I'll post some closer photos of the exhibit in the next batch. It's not as good as it might appear from here, but it could be worse (I can't give too definitive opinion of it as there were works going on around it so it was hard to see how it normally operates).
What was your impression of this zoo overall? It looks like it has a lot of old cages, but how is the quality of animal care and visitor treatment of the animals?
There were no particular issues with visitor treatment other than feeding of the macaques (who were getting a awful lot of crisps). The zoo as a whole is not great - most exhibits are minimally-adequate or small and are almost without exception thoroughly ugly. It must be said though that other than one or two of the monkeys and one porcupine there were very few signs of ill health in the animals.
It must be said, however, that it was a bit of a relief to get to Saigon Zoo the next day - it's also far from perfect but a massive step up from Hanoi Zoo.
I'll post some closer photos of the exhibit in the next batch. It's not as good as it might appear from here, but it could be worse (I can't give too definitive opinion of it as there were works going on around it so it was hard to see how it normally operates).
There were no particular issues with visitor treatment other than feeding of the macaques (who were getting a awful lot of crisps). The zoo as a whole is not great - most exhibits are minimally-adequate or small and are almost without exception thoroughly ugly. It must be said though that other than one or two of the monkeys and one porcupine there were very few signs of ill health in the animals.
It must be said, however, that it was a bit of a relief to get to Saigon Zoo the next day - it's also far from perfect but a massive step up from Hanoi Zoo.
I absolutely loved the place. I had the advantage of travelling with friends my dad had made previously (one Vietnamese and one American Vietnamese-speaker) so language was not an issue. Accommodation was variable but always fine - we stayed in a fairly posh hotel in Hanoi for three of the nights at the beginning and end (Hotel De Syloia - highly recommended), in lodgings at Ho Mac in Cuc Phuong another three, and a night each on the floor of a Muong stilt house (and I do mean floor, with only blankets to soften it) and in a rather spookily quiet holiday camp at Van Long.
We cheated a little on transport - Lien hired a man with a van for five days so we had a minibus and chauffeur for all the out-of-town transport, which made life very easy!
As is usual when travelling overseas, everyone was very welcoming and friendly (and in the odd case a little over friendly with sharing the local firewater!). There was a party from a local university also staying at Cuc phuong which livened things up a bit (first time I've danced a conga past a pet Siamese Crocodile...)!
Food was a tricky one for me - I'm afraid food from Asia east of the Bay of Bengal I've always struggled with. The food was very good (i.e. high quality) but a lot was just not to my taste. That said, there was plenty I did like, with bindweed and garlic being the biggest surprise. That was lovely. And Vietnamese spring rolls beat any I've ever had in Europe!
Food was a tricky one for me - I'm afraid food from Asia east of the Bay of Bengal I've always struggled with. The food was very good (i.e. high quality) but a lot was just not to my taste.
It made me feel a bit of a rubbish traveller but it's the one part of the world I just don't get on with the flavours I'm afraid.
I think it's the whole sweet-savoury crossover thing that bothers me. I don't particularly like fruit sauces with meat either. And in Vietnamese/Thai/Chinese (etc) it's just too prevalent. That and coriander. I actually found it much less of a problem than I feared but there were a few things I just couldn't eat. Luckily Vietnamese meals have a lot of dishes to choose from so there were generally a couple of nice ones I could monopolise!
And thank Bob the Vietnamese are big on Laughing Cow cheese because otherwise breakfast was coriander-ridden noodles (noodles good, coriander bad) or eggs (my biggest food dislike of all! The finest eggs Benedict in all the world would still be utterly inedible to me).
