Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue

Our airline canceled our return flight (we rebooked for the next day), so we had an unscheduled day on Bali. We hired a car and driver with big plans of visiting a bunch of places near Ubud. The plans got sidetracked because the Bali Bird Park and the Bali Reptile Park are really interesting. We ended up spending hours watching and handling various birds and reptiles. There was a komodo dragon feeding just after we arrived, which was unusually lucky because they only feed it twice a week (it ate three small chickens and then had a massage), a birds of prey show with bonus macaws, and a lunchtime show with a hornbill, a black cockatoo, and a macaw.

Animal parks are more fun outside of the land of litigation. I got to hold a brahminy kite (not nearly as heavy as a golden eagle), two different hornbills (surprisingly gentle, even when landing on your arm), the black cockatoo, two different macaws (one with very sharp talons, the other with a dislike of eyeglasses), a monitor lizard, and a 20 kg turtle. Gina fed a chicken to a saltwater crocodile.

After hours with the animals, we only had time for a short visit to a temple. Even though we didn't get to many of the planned sites, it was a great use of the extra day.