Trip to Cambodia-- Phnom Penh, Part 3

Today was animal day! We were venturing out to see The Phnom Tamao Wildlife Refuge, I was a bit wary but the websites all said that all the animals were rescued and even though it had the word "zoo" in the title that it was better than what a standard zoo is.




As we wrapped our heads up in our dust protection and mounted the tuk-tuk, we giggled and attempted to take photos of the crazy traffic in Phnom Penh--that I found to be safer than the stuff in Korea because everyone drove much slower in order to deal with the lack of rules, but in Korea it's official policy to honk your horn and switch on your hazards as you zoom through red lights or make illegal left hand turns. We rode through the city and out through the country for about out an hour and some change before we got to the zoo. We paid the $5 for foreigner admission (as opposed to the $1 local admission) and went in. No body was there to hand us a map, tell us where to go, or offer us an official guide. So, we did what the boys trying to get us to pay them $10 for a day of walking us through a huge park told us to do--we just went right in. With in seconds, Wendy and I were nervously laughing as we realized we were in an enclosure and that we had no idea what kind of animal was in there with us. Turns out, it was a larger enclosure around smaller, more depressing ones with lots of macaques. Lots of them. These macaques were used to being fed by dumb tourists who bought the sugar cane bits from the boys for 50 cents. I did not want to feed the monkeys as I know that monkeys have sharp teeth and attitudes. This all goes in to a later part of the day that Wendy finds amusing and I find terrifying and stupid. But I digress.

We were walking and laughing at the idea that we had no idea where we were going and how this would never happen in the lawsuit happy States, when we saw them. The macaques. A small family group of them, and they were approaching. Wendy and I started walking faster to try and get out of that area. Wendy grabbed a stick.
I started to retreat. Then our savior, a local kid (actually around my age) who went to school occasionally to learn English so he could do the tourism thing came in and was able to guide us to a place the monkeys would not bother us. He knew the names of the animals and their temperaments, so he was totally worth the $10 we paid him. Aside from the fact that he saved us the trouble of finding a clean hospital in which to get rabies shots should he have been 5 minutes later in intercepting us.

We wondered around the zoo, I was upset by the size of the enclosures for most of the animals. Particularly a sad, lonely, cateracted gibbon who was so starved for contact that it was safe to hold his hand.

Wendy paid the 50 cents for sugar cane so we could toss it to the monkeys, I was nervous as I didn't want them to get impatient and jump us, bite us and take the cane we weren't dishing out on time. We fed some deer-like things and all was well, until... We left the big enclosure (the macaques wander free through out the park) and started feeding them outside the gate. Wendy handed me the bag of cane ("Oh, shit, no!" was all I could think after I recalled all the warnings from my anthro class from 5 years back) and laughed as I struggled to throw the cane out faster than the macaques were circling. I did not enjoy my brief adrenaline rush.

I was happy with the Free the Bears enclosures, inside of the zoo there was something I would actually call a sanctuary. The bears had plenty of space

, and Wendy and I were able to watch some cubs playing and having a great time in their enclosure. There were lots of enclosures for the bears rescued from being used for their bile or other parts used in dirtier and cruel Chinese medicine (it's not all just useful herbs). Free the Bears is run by an Australian woman and is top notch.

The elephants broke my heart. They were taken out for walks a few times a day, but most of the day they were kept in stalls. They also make the elephants perform on Sunday in order to pay for a prosthetic foot for one of the young elephants. While I agree with the cause, there are better ways to go about paying for it. The elephants should have a bigger enclosure during more hours of the day, but I am happy they get to walk the park and bathe in the lake a couple times a day. I cried for the newly rescued bull elephant who was chained because he was so afraid of the animals who had abused him all his life (humans) that he had killed seven of them. I don't know if he's still alive, he was at risk of being euthanized if he killed an 8th person. His eyes were full of sorrow and fear.

The lioness and cubs were also an issue for me, the male lion was lounging comfortably in a huge enclosure, but the lioness and cub were in a small, concrete cell because the lion didn't "like" the cub. Supposedly, all the animals are rescues, so this place is better than where ever the animals came from but it could be run in a much better way.

The birds didn't have enough space to fly. This is one of my biggest problems with some of the best rescues, including Currumbin in Brisbane, Australia (I've emailed them and talked about the bird enclosures, the reps have offered to Skype with me to discuss their cages), the birds do not have enough space to do what they do. At best, there are a few feet of gliding space in a low enclosure. I understand wanting to keep the "attractions" where people can easily see them, but wouldn't seeing them flying be cooler than seeing them sit?

I don't really recommend this place, unless you're going to the Free the Bears place (their program is more expensive than admission, but I feel better about what they're doing).

On the way back to the road to get home, Wendy and I got sexually harassed by a girl who was picked up by our tuk tuk driver without our permission. She was trying to get money from us, was eyeing our purses and then started to try and massage Wendy and me on the knees and thighs...multiple times, after we clearly said "No." She popped my fingers and tried again with the leg grabbing and purse leering.

That night, we ate at a restaurant that was touted as being vegan friendly and awesome. Wendy got sick that night and I was sick the next day (like bundled up in 85* weather with humidity sick, and needed to be not five seconds from a bathroom at any given time).

We paid to bump our tickets out of Phnom Penh up to the next day, happy to leave the madness and disappointing nature of the so-called attractions of Phnom Penh behind. So worth it!