A Zoo stuck in 1864

Yesterday my father posted a short letter that my great grandfather wrote to his family back in Rockford, Ill.  My grandfather traveled to this city on Feb. 8th, 1909.  The city still has some of the same trappings that it did when he was here but slowly the old colonial architecture is giving way to modern high rises as this city propels itself foreword.  In his letter he wrote about visiting the “beautiful botanical and zoological garden.”  Inspired by his letter I set out to take a look about what he was talking about.  The zoo and the botanical gardens are situated a bit outside of the regular backpacker area.  This means that it is mostly full of families and teens escaping their families to take pictures under the hundred-year-old trees that populate the grounds.  When I visited the website this morning I learned a bit more about this really great gem hidden around all these modern buildings.   

In Vietnam, two years after King Tu Duc conceded the provinces of Gia Dinh (Saigon), Bien Hoa and My Tho to France in 1864, the French prepared to build the zoological-botanical garden in Saigon. A 12 hectare site situated a few hundred of meters from the heart of Saigon city to the North East of L'Avanche canal (nowadays called the Thi Nghe Canal) was chosen as the location for the zoological - botanical garden.  Mr. Louis Adolph Germain, a military veterinarian of the French Expedition army, was appointed to develop that area. He was responsible for planning the first roads, cages, nurseries for the zoo and issuing the notice to appeal to the public to send their pets to the botanical park. On 28th March 1865 Mr. Louis Pierre (1833-1905), a French biologist working at Calcutta Botanical Garden, came to Saigon to undertake management of the botanical garden. Under his control, the botanical garden was developed dramatically. He resigned from this position to return to France in 1877.

http://www.saigonzoo.net/news/detail/1/Roles-of-Saigon-zoo-and-botanical-gardens.htm

Monkey house

Orchid house

To close for comfort

No hot dogs or burgers

A past time on my many travels has been to visit the zoos of different countries. Memorable zoos have included Berlin and Buenos Aires, Argentina.  This zoo was established in 1864 and as you cans see from these pictures has not been improved much.  I have a feeling that this is going to change as it modernizes and the street food is removed and put into food courts and the traffic tamed.  For now there are crumbling monkey houses and to close for comfort cages for animals like the white tiger.  I was expecting to get some Slushies and hot dogs when I was walking around but instead I had the choices of rubbery fish balls or Pho Bo (beef Pho).  The zoo is a sanctuary in this city of motorcycles, horns and heat.  I am happy that they have not improved it because it lets me connect back to what my great grandfather Phil B must have seen.