Ho Chi Minh City Zoo and Botanical Gardens

The other week, I was staring at my map of Saigon wondering where to take my dad. I’ve always known the Zoo and Botanical Gardens were north of District 1, which is rather close to me. I never bothered to research it because I have been to zoos and botanical gardens all over the world and they typically have the same attractions with their own personal touches—the botanical gardens are usually the most interesting to see because they can change considerably depending on the climate.

So without researching it, I thought it would be a grand idea to take my father to the zoo and botanical gardens. In Malaysia, we went to the botanical gardens of Penang and they were incredible. There were acres of greenery and wild monkeys roaming through the trees and pathways. I loved it because that would never fly in America (the monkeys were harmless, but of course in America something would happen and there would be a lawsuit). Regardless, it was a great escape from the city: the air was clean and the plant life was exotic to my sister and I, who in turn were exotic to groups of Asian girls running up to us and taking pictures because they rarely saw white people—and if they did, they were usually British because this was 6 years ago when not many Americas made the journey out to Malaysia. Anyway, without researching the Ho Chi Minh City Zoo and “Botanical Gardens,” I had this vision of Penang (and if you’ve ever been to HCMC Zoo, you’re probably laughing right now).

It turns out that the zoo was a pretty depressing experience. The animals for the most part were miserable—and rightfully so. IFAW would be appalled (actually anyone who respects animals even slightly would be).

[On a side note, I actually just tried to pull up the official website to find out when it opened so that I could make a joke that it hasn’t been renovated since…and I kept getting a message from Google that the website I’m trying to visit might harm my computer (weird?). If only someone had warned me prior to visiting, that the zoo itself might harm my heart.] To branch off of this side note, Wikipedia says it opened in 1864 whilst the French occupied Saigon. It also says that it has undergone many changes and its main goal is to educate the public about endangered animals; but you really can’t believe everything you read on Wikipedia and this is a “case-and-point” example. 

I'm honestly not sure why "Botanical Gardens" is included in the title of this establishment. There is a tiny area where there are 30 bonsai trees max (which doesn't count because there are probably more bonsai trees in the backyards of some private households in China and Japan--and there are certainly a million more bonsai trees in Washington, D.C.'s arboretum). Atop of that, there are some nice trees, but nothing more exotic than Tao Dan Park, so if you're looking for plant life in Saigon you might as well just go there. In their defense, they do have a lot of cool topiaries (and there's only one dragon in Tao Dan). 

Overall, the exhibits were depressing. Every animal looked miserable. There were weird separations between certain animals, habitats that looked uncomfortable and no apparent system of sanitation or regulation.

 

                                               (This castle seriously creeped me out)

                  

The most depressing exhibit at the zoo was the otter exhibit. They were placed in an oval concrete tank that had an island in the middle. I’m guessing there was supposed to be water surrounding the island, but there were only dead, dried up fish surrounding the island. The otters were lying in the middle, probably waiting to die. I wanted to free them so badly. I immediately thought of the Hey Arnold! episode where grandma Pookie breaks into the zoo and frees the turtles. In fact, some monkeys managed to escape the cages and hang out in the trees. Dad and I were quite happy for them but felt very sorry for the ones that were still in their staring at their friends that made it.

On a slightly comical aspect of this journey, all of the garbage cans were covered with metal penguins that lined the pathways. Vietnam is just north of the equator, so you can’t get much farther from the arctic than this. The penguins made no sense, but then again nothing really makes sense here. And thankfully, it was the closest the Saigon zoo was to having Arctic animals.

Despite the fact that the zoo left me questioning the morality of mankind as I glanced at the sad eyes of otters, rhinos, deer, giraffes, elephants and more, I’m glad I went. Everyday I’m reminded about the differences between the first and third world and going to the zoo reminded me of the importance of international politics. I know that sounds 100% nerdy and corny but it made me think about how necessary it is to build international institutions that do as much as they possibly can to regulate basic rights so that places like this don't exist.