The beginning of our journey

We have arrived! At Taman Safari Indonesia 2 Prigen...

On January 10th, we set off from Berlin to London, from London to Kuala Lumpur, from there to Jakarta, an overnight stay in 'Aeropolis' and further to Surabaya in East Java. From there, we were picked up by Carola, the wife of our German boss, and our driver who takes us shopping, for example. We briefly went to a wholesale market in Surabaya, bought some groceries, and then headed to Prigen, specifically to Taman Safari 2, which is located near Prigen. Upon arrival, we moved into our own apartment, which we had not imagined to be so nice.

We unpacked our 24 and 27 kg suitcases and settled in. In the evening, we did nothing but sit on our terrace, listen to the annoying cicadas, and chat with Stefan (our boss) and Carola.

We are getting measured...

The next day was meant for sleeping in, but since I had coughing fits during the night and the muezzin made his prayer announcement over the loudspeaker around 5 o'clock, I was already awake around 7 or so. After a (not so) cozy awakening, breakfast, and a round of laziness, Carola and I went to the Safari Park. Not even 10 meters into it, Stefan came and said that the General Manager of the park now spontaneously has time to greet us. So we quickly went back to the apartment, put on a serious outfit, and drove to the 'big boss'. In the administration, it was time for handshakes... veterinarian, chief technician, finance woman, and so on. And then we got measured...

A tailor, specially for the park and its 700 employees, measured us from head to toe, left to right. Allegedly, our tailor-made work clothes will be ready in a few days. In German zoos, you can only dream of that. And then we walked through the park. Similar to European safari parks, you can also drive through with a bus or your own car, but we will do that tomorrow. In addition to the sometimes quite spacious animal enclosures, there is also a typical Southeast Asian amusement park area with rides, a water park, and shops. However, there are also the typical photo stations where you can take pictures with all kinds of animals. You can judge it however you want, but at least we had the impression that the animals are well taken care of. That's just the Indonesian mentality and we simply have to get used to it. Oh, and there are seals and sea lions :D The seals were in the middle of mating and I didn't want to leave...

Tomorrow will be the first day of work for us, with the local, sometimes highly endangered songbirds in the Prigen Conservation Breeding Ark.

https://www.silentforest.eu/projects/songbird-arch-of-southeast-asia/