seeing pink at lake nakuru

something pink in the water, originally uploaded by suddenly.

we finally get to lake nakuru national park and pay the exorbitant entrance fee: $60 per non-resident. compare this to the $15 entrance fee for international visitors to kruger park. (remember what i said about nairobbery?) anyway, our first stop is the actual lake. this is what it looks like from the distance. as we get closer, we can make out what all that pink stuff is. FLAMINGOS! like a gazillion of them. they’re attracted to the algae in the water.

pink flamingos, originally uploaded by suddenly.

as you can see, these birds are pink from head to toe. even their eyes are pink.

more flamingos!, originally uploaded by suddenly.

i don’t know if it’s the fish they eat or their poop (or the fish in their poop) but these flamingos are pretty darn smelly.

more flamingo fotos here.

giraffe centre, nairobi

giraffe centre, nairobi, originally uploaded by suddenly.

the next stop on the freakishly big-and-tall animal petting trail was the giraffe centre in nairobi. the giraffe centre was established for the endangered rothschild giraffe, yet another example of white people setting up a sanctuary to save animals in africa.

as soon as you walk in, the friendly staff will force some green pellets into your hand and instruct you to feed the giraffe one pellet at a time. the best way to feed them is to lay the pellet flat in your palm so that the giraffe laps it up with the tongue or drop a pellet onto the giraffe’s outstretched tongue — otherwise they may accidentally bite your fingers. being herbivores, their teeth aren’t sharp but still, those are some monster chompers.

giraffes are fairly gentle creatures but if you don’t continually give ‘em some grub, they may headbutt you on the feeding platform. and seeing as how a giraffe’s head is as big as a grown man’s torso, you’d best keep the food coming or get out of the way.

the staff will also encourage you to kiss the giraffe, i.e., put a pellet between your lips and let the giraffe lick it out of your mouth but that just seemed gross to me.

unless you’re a resident of kenya, you’ll have to pay the inflated foreigner rate of 700 kenyan shillings (=US$9) for the admission fee.

it’s a jungle out there

in the town of victoria falls, you can see all sorts of animals roaming about. we often spotted warthogs feeding on the hotel lawn,

warthogs, originally uploaded by suddenly.

and baboons foraging for scraps in the streets.

but the locals are unfazed. baboons and warthogs are to them what pigeons and squirrels are to us; abundant and pesky.

if you really want to capture the attention of the locals, you bring in the big guns. you bring them this:

we were having a conversation on the sidewalk and all of a sudden the S.O.’s eyes grow large and his jaw drops. i looked over to see that a GYNORMOUS lone male elephant is walking into town like he’s come to run errands or something. even the locals are awestruck and soon everyone on their way to work has stopped to behold this massive creature.  we learned that the lone males of the species are a grumpy lot and can be dangerous so when you encounter one, you’d best get out of his way.

more grumpy male footage here.

beware: tassie devil!

beware: tassie devil!, originally uploaded by suddenly.

ETA: driving on the highways around hobart was dicey. we were dodging small animal carcasses scattered on the asphalt every few feet. it’s one thing when the critters are small, say, the size of badgers or tasmanian devils. but north of hobart, we saw kangaroo roadkill left and right–some as big as grade-school kids. i was on pins and needles during our drives, just praying we wouldn’t hit anything. the S.O. was deft enough at the wheel to avoid mammalian life. however our 1980s mitsubishi station wagon rental collided with a small bird when it flew straight into our path.

kooky kookaburra

Laughing Kookaburra, originally uploaded by suddenly.

each morning in sydney, around 6 a.m., i’d hear these monkey-hooting noises and i swore there was a tribe of baboons screeching outside my window. now, i finally found out that provenance of my unofficial alarm clock: the laughing kookaburra, birds, not primates. listen for yourself and imagine what it’d be like to be woken up by these cackles every day. (answer: highly annoying!)

kangaroo krossing

kangaroo krossing, originally uploaded by suddenly.

kangaroo hopping

kangaroo hopping, originally uploaded by suddenly.

#1 cutest animal in the world is the koala. a close second is the kangaroo. another reason why the rainforest habitat wildlife sanctuary in port douglas kicks ass is because the kangaroos come right up to you and eat out of your hand. they’re really gentle, although i did have some residual ‘roo slobber all over the palm of my hand when i was done. we fed them dry pellets that you can purchase at the gift shop and they also seem eat tons of carrots and corn on the cob. it’s so cool how they hold the corn in their two hands. not so cool when you see it in their poop in the grass.

we saw one mama kangaroo with her joey’s legs hanging out of her pouch, and another mom-to-be roo with her unborn baby kicking around in her belly.

for some reason, seeing a kangaroo hopping around delights me to no end.

koala hug

koala hug, originally uploaded by suddenly.

i can leave australia because i accomplished what i came here to do: i hugged a koala. this was at the rainforest habitat wildlife sanctuary in the state of queensland. for some reason, they don’t let you touch the koalas in new south wales, which is where sydney is. and the zookeeper in sydney burst my bubble when he told me that there was a nationwide ban on holding koalas. well, clearly he’s a big fat liar.

so my new best friend’s name is kabba and he smelled really good, the way babies smell good but a little more herby. i was surprised by how heavy kabba was but what do you expect from a creature that sleeps 20 hours a day and spends the other four hours eating? koalas are clingy by nature and once they hold on to you, they don’t want to let go. they’re kind of like those monchichi dolls you clip onto your pencil.

anyway, this wildlife sanctuary was the awesomest place ever! so good, we went there twice. i have more pics and videos to share once i sort them out.

looking for a cocka-two

cocka-two, originally uploaded by suddenly.

we’re in sydney now and man, i am LUVin’ it. i think the sunny skies and warm temps put everyone in a good mood. people are so friendly here — and freakin’ good-looking, too. the women here fall into two camps: the blonde olivia newton-john type or brunette elle mcpherson look. the men look like hugh jackman. in other words…HAWT! it’s kind of insane how people here are so toned. we’ll see guys out and about without shirts, sporting 6-to-8 packs, crazy cut arms and hanging pecs. we’ll walk through a park and see people pilatesizing, stomach crunching, running up stairs – like they were auditioning for australian gladiators or something. moderate exercise is great and all but seriously, what the hell is wrong with these people?

so you know how australia is famous for kangaroos and koalas? did you know that sydney has flocks and flocks of sulphur-crested cockatoos flying around town? we have a few regulars that come to our window to chow down on bird seed. they’re technically wild but tame enough to eat out of our hands. at first glance, they look identical but i can tell them apart by their personalities. there’s the picky eater who pushes the dried corn out of the way and only eats sunflower seeds; the territorial bully who takes food from the others; the gentle one that eats each seed neatly. they’re so goddamn cute with that signature yellow curl on their heads and the way they cock their heads at you, somehow saying, “please luv me.” i miss having a pet and these birds fill the void nicely.  plus sydney doesn’t have any stray cats to feed.

click here to see the weird and wonderful animals in sydney.

happy new year!

animal house

kafrey takes his mug shot, originally uploaded by suddenly.

another noticeable difference between toronto and nyc is that people can live in houses in t-dot; big multi-story structures with kitchens and bathrooms larger than a broom closet. this allows torontonians to invite you over for dinner and you can actually seat more than four grown-ups at a full-size dining table complete with legged chairs. incredible!

the S.O. and i went to two such dinners. the lastest was at the home of a banker and photographer. the lady of the house prepared an amazing feast starting with a salad composed of buffalo mozzarella, and tomatoes from their own garden. oh! the envy. (i always dreamed of growing fruit and veg in my own garden.) the next course was mediterranean-style pork chops that were — are you ready for this? — grilled in their backyard! the chops were succulent and thick enough to hold a stuffing of fragrant deliciousness like pecans, caramelized onions, and orange zest.

sigh. i remember the days when i played hostess in my tiny manhattan apartments. i could only invite three more for a seated dinner and i cooked out of a barbie-sized kitchen.

six - feet under

the other advantage of large homes: the ability to own large and multiple pets. the banker and photographer have two dogs and two cats. that’s six in the above picture (so named because she became the sixth member of the family after the two cats and kafrey, the pooch in the first photo).

two hands on a soft body

that’s darius, the naughty black kitty. the other cat is named mia and indeed she was M.I.A. — she went into hiding and never appeared throughout our entire dinner.

copycat

omg, so cute. i remember when my chococat was this l’il.

my chococat

my chococat, originally uploaded by suddenly.

i finally got to see my chococat who’s been living with my parents while i’ve been out of the country. when i asked my parents to take care of my cat, apparently they thought that meant to overfeed and under-exercise him. choco used to be sleek and lithe, earning him the nickname mongoose. i just can’t get over how big he has become! i hadn’t seen chococat in over two years and our reunion was a little bit like john rendall and ace berg reuniting with christian the lion.

it was so good to see him. i was glad to see that he’s still as naughty as ever.

camel

camel, originally uploaded by suddenly.

camel at jardin menara, marrakech

see – this is how stupid U look

from icanhascheezburger.com