Ragunan Zoo

In this zoo, u won't get any map. Because of that, I'm proudly present the "Ragunan Zoo Map" :P


Last Wednesday, I went to Ragunan Zoo, South Jakarta to join mid-term gathering. Okay, most of us had gathered at Kober first before went to the zoo. And the other including me prefer go to the zoo directly. I’d still remembered that they dealt to gather at kober at 9 am, so I predicted they would be arrived at the zoo in 9.30.

My house is quite near with the zoo, < style="font-style: italic;">yeah, because of that, I forgot to check the expired date, and wuih, it’s so close). In the middle, Smile had miscalled me. I thought they had arrived at the zoo, so I increased my pace and entered the zoo immediately.

I called Smile and asked him, and eh, he was still at the kober. Ooh, okay, that means I had more time to search the east gate. bcoz I merely didn’t understand and didn’t know about the zoo map, so I just walked with arbitrarily direction.

Yeah, I just walked, and walked, and walked with few stopped for watching the animals, such as giraffes, zebra horses, etc. [duh, cape ni nulis pake bhs inggris.. kelamaan mikir :p]. I walked passing the north gate1, north gate 2, and north gate 3.

I phoned Smile again and have the answered: they’re still at the kober. So I took a break at swan pond and looked at them. Yaiks, they smelled bad. After satisfy looked at them, I walked again searching for east gate. I didn’t wanna take a risk to get lost, so I asked a woman who sold Miami ice cream. She said, “ini lurus teruuuus aja, sampe ketemu gorilla. Teruus aja. Sampe tanjakan-tanjakan. Nah, abis itu ketemu pintu timur.”

Okay, it sounded simple. So, with full of confident, although I began to feel tired, I walked again. Not so long after that, I saw a gorilla statue and Schmutzer Building. Yippie, based on the woman said, the east gate is not far again. Yes, yes.. so I just walked straight and went into a path in right side of schmutzer’s. There’s a sign board written ‘Mobil Keluar’, so I concluded that was the east gate. Err, the road was much less crowded than other part of the zoo. But there’re still one-two visitor, and I saw a monkey and some elang bondol in the cage, so I didn’t really worried. But, on both left and right side, there’s just office building, repair shop, etc. It made me unsure about the path. The path even became less crowded and less crowded. And even there’s neither building nor cage. I just saw one or two people, which I was almost sure that they’re not visitors, but the zoo’s employee.

I still tried to ensure myself, because I still saw many sign board written “mobil keluar”. But, I couldn’t deny the fact that the road is extremely desolate and almost no one there. And of course, the east gate should be crowded with visitors. The road is quiet, so I might have took the wrong path. The path was very looong, kinda freaked out. But then at the end of the path, I see one, two, no, three, no, many people. Yihaa. May be that was a shortcut to east gate. Err, but where’s the climb? Well, I didn’t saw any climb. Iya sih, there’s a climb, but is climb with slope rate 5% could be called as climb? Okay, may be the woman who sold Miami just too sensitive about slope and called it as climb.

Hmm, I went to the gate. And I saw the sign board, but there’s a strange sign and it made me feel a bad feeling. Err, because it told me that the gate currently near from me was not east gate, but west gate – the gate where I entered the zoo sooner that morning. Okay, to make me surer, I saw the zoo map. And you know what? The gate was really2 west gate, and that means my long and winding journey is meaningless!!! T___T. ugh, how stupid I am, I even didn’t remember how the environment of west gate looked like.

After the some-kind-of-useless-journey in one and half hour, I studied the zoo map, so I won’t get lost anymore (hopefully) and get to the east gate quickly. Hoho, ternyata to find the east gate was not that difficult. And yes, there’s a real climb there.

Hmm, some of them had arrived at east gate, bus some weren’t. So, I had sightseeing and looked for lions. One of them was roaring, well, I could understand why they called as a king of jungle. The sound was magnificent.

After 2 hours walking and waiting, finally they got into the zoo. We had a look at crocodiles, birds, fishes, primates, etc. After that, we prayed at masjid, and did a sharing on a plaited mat near bat cage. And after ashar, the acara was finished and everyone went home.

I got so want to know schmutzer’s, because my brother and gita was very recommend it. The other wanted to go home immediately, so I went to schmutzer alone. After I got there, u know what, the working hour has ended. So I must go there on another day T___T. aaaargh, if I knew it before, I will used the nearly 2 hours at the morning for visiting the schmutzer. huhu, and the day after, my another friend told me how good the schmutzer: “buagus banget, sayang banget kalo ke ragunan tapi ga ke schmutzer. pokoknya beda banget sama isi ragunan yang lain”. Uh, this holiday, I must go to schmutzer

Well, if u hasn’t been to ragunan zoo for a long time (including me), the zoo is looked so old and litters everywhere, not tidy at all. The last zoo I visited was Singapore zoo, and it was much much more tidy and clean and comfort. But I think it was proper, because the entrance fee of Singapore zoo is tens times more expensive than ragunan zoo (about 75 thousand rupiahs). And I’m not really agree if Ragunan zoo increased the entrance fee, because I think the zoo is one in really few choices for Jakarta citizens to get really cheap tourism object.

Entrance fee (adult): 4000 rupiahs (+ 300 for insurance)
Entrance fee (kid below 12): 3000 rupiahs
Entrance fee (car): 5000 rupiahs (kalo ga salah ya…)

in this zoo, u won't get any map. because of that, i'm proudly present the "Ragunan Zoo Map" :P