Gembira Loka Zoo

Gembira Loka Zoo is located about 4 Km east of Central Post-Office. Gembira means happy and Loka is place. Hopefully one should be happy by visiting it. As it is not far away from down town, it is within the reach of andong or becak relax tour. The zoo Park is one of the favorite place in the city visited by mainly domestic tourists (more than 650.000 visitors a year), but there are also some foreign tourists watching closely the famous reptiles Komodos (Varanus Comodoensis), originally live only in Komodo island, nearby Flores.

The well-arranged zoo, amidst a park of green garden, with a large artificial lake for boating has adequate collection of some tropical animals. Gembira Loka zoo management tries to put the animals in more spacious stables, to feel more comfortable. The vast green shadowy park and the lake water and the river Gajah Wong which passes right in the middle of the zoo should regulate the temperature to be a bit cooler or at least fresher.

In about one hour browsing, a traveler could see Sumatra’s elephants, Java’s one-horned Rhinoceros, Tigers, crocodiles, snakes, several kinds of monkey. Such as Orang Utan, Beruk (Sumatra’s monkeys which could be trained to pick-up coconuts), the black singing monkey, with big air bubble on his neck etc. There are also collection of deers, birds etc.

During week-ends and school holidays, there are many parents take their children to the zoo, to see the animals and special animal show. Sometime, in special occasion, open door music performance with some famous singers and artist organized in this park. This should bring a big crowd. But during normal days, everything is calmer, a traveler could enjoy the visit comfortably.