Since Bidi had paid up front with the Tony Hawk ride, off we went to Animal land to encounter the fiercest, the wildest and the weirdest looking ones. Bidi was in heaven!!!
The gargantuan Siberian tiger spooked me. He was Albino, around 500 pounds, and looked like he had a personal grudge on me. He kept looking in our direction, opening his jaw, and licking his fangs. I did stay on to watch the tiger show but only half of my buttocks actually made contact with the seat just in case we had to run for our lives.
We got to ride on a 9,200-pound African elephant. She was ginormous! prompting Bidi to say as we swayed and bobbed on top of her back, "This elephant is definitely American. I mean, she's huge and that puny elephant I rode in Phuket was Asian--get it?" I said to him, "But this elephant is actually African; that's what the guide said." To which he replied, puzzled, "Really? I thought there was no food in Africa?" And so for the rest of the wobbly ride I had to explain to him the confusing concepts of race, descent, citizenship, birth right, and migration. Maybe, in the case of animals, poaching? Illegal exportation? And sometimes, fair trade, I'm quite sure, but I didn't tell him any of that, not at his age. He is bound to discover on his own what it's truly like out there but in good time.
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