Our trip to the Central Kathmandu Zoo

A few weeks back, Jenn and I took a trip to the Kathmandu zoo. Jenn and I over the years have made it a bit of a tradition to visit the zoo in the cities that we visit. We have previously had a membership with the Calgary zoo and we have been to zoos in places like Portland, New Orleans, Toronto, Mazatlan, Bangkok and now Kathmandu!

As a bit of a preface to this story, we have met many people since arriving in Nepal and one person who we quickly became friends with is Benoit Trudel (http://www.voirlemonde.org/) Benoit is a fellow Canadian and now a former Nepal volunteer who has since moved on to Vietnam to take a position in Hanoi. Benoit also has a son Rémi that he adopted three years ago from Vietnam, and so when Benoit had to go out of town we decided that we would take care of Rémi on one of our days off. We decided to take Remi to the zoo. In addition, we have also become friends with our landlord and his family, and so we thought we would take Siyarani (our landlord’s daughter) to the zoo as well. So the motley group went off to the Central Kathmandu Zoo, which is actually located in Lalitpur (Patan). We took a taxi, which cost us 300 Rs or $5 Cad to get across the city. Well worth it considering the hassle of navigating the public transit system.
Upon arriving at the zoo we entered a mass of humanity that surprised both Jenn and I. There were hundreds of people queuing to get into the zoo! I guess we shouldn’t have been that surprised, as Saturday is really the only day off during the week that people get in Nepal. We stood in line and when we reached the front of the queue, we tried our best to get the “local” admission price but we ended up having to pay the “tourist” price which amounted to six times the cost. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

I can honestly say that I have seen some bad zoos (San Jose, Costa Rica) and some excellent ones (Calgary, New Orleans, Toronto). The quality of the Central Kathmandu Zoo lies somewhere in the middle, between the San Jose zoo and the Bangkok zoo in terms of size and care for the animals. Many of the animal enclosures were small and often without the replica habitat that many modern zoos provide to their animals. Some features that the zoo did offer were elephant rides for visitors and a central pond where you could rent paddleboats. The highlight, however, was the display of guinea pigs which Jenn and I found quite funny. I guess we view the guinea pig as a domesticated pet, but it seemed funny to us that they were on display.




We had a nice lunch that Siyarani’s mother (Kajal) had packed for us and the rest of the time I spent carrying Remi on my shoulders as he feigned exhaustion. One funny incident occurred just as we were on our way to leave. A curious man stopped us and asked us where we were from and if Siyarani and Remi were our children. We were a bit taken aback, but as he asked a crowd formed around us. Everybody seemed to be staring and waiting for an answer. Remi started shouting out “Vietnam!” and Jenn and I tried to explain that we were in fact from Canada and that the kids were friends… one from Nepal, the other from Canada (but adopted from Vietnam). I am not entirely sure that we were understood, but we did get some very curious looks. All in all, the zoo was a fun experience, if not for the animals, then definitely for the company.

After our taxi ride back home, we entertained the kids by supplying them with paper, paints and felt markers and let them draw and create to their hearts content. At the end of the day I was exhausted. I give kudos to all of your parents out there, as managing one child seems a feat in and of itself.