Finishing Our Morning in Asia

Monday April 11, 2016                                                                                   Most Recent Posts:
Animal Kingdom                                                                The Joy of Animal Kingdom is in the Details and the TIGERS
Disney World                                                                                           Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Review
Orlando, Florida

 

 

This post is a continuation of our morning in Animal Kingdom.  If you missed it and the pictures of the tigers, the link is above.

 

Our last stop on the Maharajah Jungle Trek is at the bird sanctuary where the birds fly and swim freely.  Birds like you’ve never seen before.  We pick up the identification card and walk through this peaceful spot with paintings on the walls and running water from the fountains.  Many of the birds are busy building nests as we walk through.

I’ve labeled the birds on their pictures.  This is only a fraction of the unique and beautiful birds we see but I am actually trying to cut down the number of pictures in each post believe it or not.

In the first picture is the Victoria Crowned Pigeon and below her on the right is the Masked Plover.

All of these birds are of course native to Asia.  They sure do have some amazing pigeons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a juvenile Victoria Crowned.

 

 

What an amazing looking pigeon.  I think ours would have alot more popularity if they looked like this.

 

 

 

This is only a handful of the gorgeous birds in the aviary.  You could spend hours there just watching them and discovering new ones every time you turn around.

But we have many more things to see and are on our way.  What next is the question.

 

 

Beautiful shrines on the shore of the river overlooking the Himalayan Mountains with much better skies in the late morning.

 

 

 

 

Those of you who read the post I did in January on Animal Kingdom remember that I highly recommended doing the Wilderness Explorer’s Handbook which is sort of like the National Park’s Junior Ranger program.  You may also remember that it really is probably not possible to finish it in one day especially if you are an over achiever and don’t want to just rack up 5 or 10 or 20 badges, but want to get them all.

I have brought my handbook with me again today.  I check it and see that I have a couple more badges to get before I leave Asia.  So here I am at Gupta’s Outfitters for those actually going to climb Everest.  I’m working on my climbing badge.  That’s the Explorer’s book in my hand.

 

Another badge I earn is on Asian Culture from this native speaker of Thai.  As you can see, most of the listeners are children also working on their Explorer badges.  All thoughout Animal Kingdom, young people from these countrys are available to talk to you about their culture and the animals.  I think it is wonderful.

 

 

In my previous post, Page mentioned that tablets in Asia were from Nepal.  I wonder if these are the ones she is talking about.
I really hope these are not that country’s genuine artifacts but rather gorgeous reproductions.  I find them very moving.

 

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We stop at our final shrine.

 

As we are about to leave Asia, I see this woman with her great face paint I ask if I can take her picture. One of these trips to Animal Kingdom I’m going to get my face painted as a Tiger. Doesn’t she look terrific?

 

We leave Asia and head into Africa where we want to have lunch and spend the afternoon.

 

On our way to the African town of Harambe we pass the Tree of Life which is the centerpiece of Animal Kingdom.  Disney’s imagineers have outdone themselves in this entire park but no where more than at the tree of life.

 

There aren’t enough pictures to show all the animals but these will give you an idea of the amazing creativity here.
How many animals can you find?

 

 

 

 

We have finished our exploration of Asia.  Africa will need a post of its own.  This is an amazing Kingdom.  You really can spend days.

So next post – before exploring the town of Harambe, we decide to forego the lunches we have brought with us in favor of some authentic African food.