Are you looking at the monkey or is he looking at you?

So, after a quiet saturday of doing nothing more than navigating the buses to the local Homeplus and then sitting home watching movies and eating popcorn, I decided I needed to get out and do something on sunday. I contacted my friend Andre and we decided to check out the Daejeon Zoo. They don't actually call it Daejeon Zoo it's called O world and it's a combination zoo, amusement park and flower garden.

Sunday morning came and for once it was sunny out. I believe it has rained everyday since I've arrived so it was delightful to see some sun. I made my way to the subway and travelled downtown to meet Andre. We then boarded a bus that was, from our calculation, supposed to go to the zoo. We drove and drove and drove until we were outside of town and the last two people on the bus. Just when we were starting to wonder if we were going to the right place, there it was. It was actually in a very beautiful spot, surrounded by mountains and walking trails.

We lined up with the other zoo goers,, mostly families with children. We were very noticably the only foreigners there but we didn't care. Inside there was an amusement park with a few rides and then the zoo. As far as zoos go it was pretty good. They had an area with polar bears and otters and seals with an underwater observatory. They had all your typical monkeys in various cages and of course the people were crowded around watching the monkeys jump and fight. They are always the most popular animal. At one point some of them were reaching their hands out of the cage and the crowd was throwing food to them. I'm not sure how healthy it was for the monkeys but fun to watch anyways.

The coolest part was the big cats, leopards, cougars etc. They were in cages that went on both sides of the sidewalk. They had an overhead walkway where they could travel between each side while you stood underneath. I'm sure I was hit by cougar drool.

I was impressed by the number of animals that they had there and the manner in which they appeared to be cared for.

Next to the zoo was an area called Flower World and you pay for one admission to get into both. We wandered around there for a while and the views over Daejeon were spectacular. At this time of the year there wasn't much happening but I imagine in a few months when the flowers start to bloom it will be very beautiful. You could see where the flower beds were and I can only imagine how gorgeous it's going to look. I will definitly take a trip back.