California trip diary: Day 1

Finally after almost two months, I manage to start this series. Unlike the Australia trip, I'm going to try to write more and put less pictures. Hope you'll like it.

I had been waiting to visit the land of Hollywood and Silicon Valley, and it finally happened towards the end of last year. One of the first things I remember about California is the economic strength. Quoting from Wikipedia:

If California were an independent nation, it would have the sixth largest economy in the world...after the rest of the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain and China

In this trip, I started off at San Diego. This buzzing city is located quite close to the border with Mexico.

Day One was Balboa Park and San Diego Zoo.

Now, I'm no big animal-lover. I rarely halt at Animal Planet or Discovery channel while channel-surfing. But somehow, I like zoos. No evil pleasure in seeing animals caged here! The San Diego Zoo however was a cut above. Like most places in US, there was opportunity for people to do it in their own pace and also to get a quick tour if they wanted. We visited a few spots by the shuttle and walked to some.

Almost at the entrance, you are welcomed by magnificient flamingoes. I guess this is the first time I'm seeing them other than on TV or photos. What can you say -- a picture is worth a thousand words!

We also got to see some more unique animals. That itself was worth the price of the (expensive) ticket actually. The Panda below was trying to sleep on the tree branch and was falling off. Her brother was loitering nearby while the mother was resting inside, away from spectators. These kids are locally-bred ones, with help from the Chinese government.

Same family, different location -- cousins, shall we say? Unfortunately, when we visited the Polar bears, they were enjoying their siesta. Despite their much bigger size, they had rocks here and hence didn't have any problem of balancing while sleeping!

In addition to animals that we had heard of, we also got introduced to some new ones. Check out the Malaysian tapir. It is kind of like a pig in black-and-white!

Sure, we also got to see some more common animals. The giraffe was impressive. There was a whole family out there and they seemed to be relaxing...

We also saw some animals in unfamiliar circumstances. Here's a swimming hippo! It seemed quite docile, enjoying the dip in the water -- lapping its small legs cutely. But it came out of another end and opened its mouth wide for eager people to click away!



We had a good time in the zoo, though it was quite tiring to walk around. More of California will follow.....

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 & 4 | Day 5 [Updated: 3 April 2006]