During the year 2018, we focus on visiting interesting tourist spots in Belgium. Recently we visit the Royal Greenhouses in Laeken, Brussels. We wrote the blogpost Belgium Must-See : Royal Greenhouses in Laeken about that visit
On the 1st May we planned another day trip, a visit to the animal park Pairi Daiza in Brugelette. Here is a report out of our family experience.
Report of our visit
The last time we visited this park was about 8 years ago. Since that time you can clearly see the major investments that this animal park has done. We arrived around 10 AM opening hour and had no queue time at all.
Friendly staff scanned the tickets and wished us a great day. We first visited the greenhouses filled with different tropical birds and desert animals. Hanging bridges can be found in LA CITÉ DES IMMORTELS resulting in spectacular views on the Chinese town. You can drink tea in a tea pavilion which is a copy of the oldest conformal Shanghai tea house, dating back to the distant past (17th century). In the classic red from southern China, its authenticity is superior to the original structure, but the initial architectural plans are at the base of this gem. The Tea Pavilion serves the most sophisticated and most varied selections of tea.
Then we did walk the path of healing. Through a port opening like a flower, a begonia to be precise, in the midst of two ornate windows, with a petrified Pen Jing on the right and a Pen Jing tree on the right, you enter a long walled corridor, adorned with numerous window designs, mosaics, frescos and pearls of calligraphic poetry. The first window spreads its wings, as a tribute to the dream of the great sage Tchouang Tseu. You can give your imagination free reign as you go from window to window, twenty in total, and dream of the world in as many guises.
Our daughter absolutely wanted to see the Red Pandas. This is a species that is difficult to classify : in the family of bears, like the Giant Panda, or rather in that of the Raccoon which it resembles ? It would finally be the only surviving member of a separate family, the Ailuridae.
It’s a big as a large cat, and its food is varied, above all bamboos which it finds in the forests of the high mountains of Nepal, Burma and China, but it also eats fruit, eggs and little animals. There are two couples in Pairi Daiza park.
We visited the Buddhist temple and then headed to the giant pandas.
The WWF’s emblematic animal, the Giant Panda has become the symbol of “Endangered” animals. There are now only about 1,600 of them left, spread over 64 nature reserves in central China, in the mountains of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu. And there are very few of them in zoos. Pairi Daiza is one of the parks in Europe who hosts giant pandas. Unfortunately they were all sleeping when we passed their habitats.
In morphological terms, the panda is a bear but it is essentially vegetarian, eating practically nothing but bamboo, from which its ursine digestive tract enables it to extract only a part of the nutritional value. It is therefore obliged to eat almost all the time and it is unable to store enough reserves of fat to allow it to hibernate during the winter. Its mountain habitat is very rainy and rather cold : the Giant Pandas of Pairi Daiza, which have thick fur, therefore appreciate our Belgian weather.
Endowed with powerful claws, pandas easily climb trees. They have a sixth finger which is a bony growth on their wrist, opposite the other fingers, which enables them to hold bamboo stems. In view of their very low reproduction rate and the threats to their habitat, the species is classified as “Threatened”.
In Pairi Daiza, you can observe 3 giant panda’s:
Xing Hui (male – 22/07/2009)
Arrived in Pairi Daiza in February 2014.
Hao Hao (female – 07/07/2009)
Arrived in Pairi Daiza in February 2014.
Tian Bao (male – 02/06/2016)
Born in Pairi Daiza.
After lunch at the kids playgarden, we visited the world LA PORTE DES PROFONDEURS. The depths of the sea mimicked in the Aquarium reveal a magical spectacle: thousands of fish with bright colours and wonderful shapes, a perfectly orchestrated ballet of jellyfish, a tormenting shark dance, seahorses that allow themselves to be carried away by the stream, a squid unrolling its tentacles playfully… The mysterious world of shadows is associated with that of light, dimmed or intense. The shadow: a true collection of curiosities, where skeletons, mummies and other extraordinary authentic or imagined objects from ancient collections are brought together. The light: that of the seas of the south and its coral cliff, a real scientific miracle. The submarine cave at the foot of the Aquarium hosts a colony comic seals and chubby penguins. Our family was amazed by the ballet of the jelly fish …
Then we headed back to the CITE DES IMMORTELS. We started with the cabinet of DR. YU.
This charming pavilion with 2 basins, illustrates its purpose with the splendour of an imperial bath. The walls are covered with labradorite from Madagascar and agate from Brazil and marble floor tiles from Carrare. More than fifteen thousand tiny Pedicure fish (Garra rufa) swim in these luxurious footbaths. Only my son and myself dared to do this pedicure with fish.
This luxury treatment has been used in the Middle East for centuries already, even for certain diseases such as psoriasis. During a footbath all of the dead skin is removed from your feet and you get to enjoy a relaxing foot massage. Treatment is finished when your skin is as soft as a baby’s skin, which equates to 10 to 15 minutes of pure indulgence at 23/24°C.
The presence of this Mediterranean guest in the resort of Heavenly Delights (which is in no doubt) is justified. Asian culture discovered this beneficial therapy very early on and made it their own. The beneficial effects of Pedicure fish is still very popular, especially in China, hence the name Cabinet of Dr Yua (Yu means fish in Mandarin). It is really true that your skin is soft after the treatment and it makes you wonder how unhealthy your feet skin is before the treatment, especially when you see 30 fish eat at your feet… lol.
Then we admired the hippos, snow leopards and other animals in the park. Take a look at this great picture we took from this amazing animal.
The world LE ROYAUME DE GANESHA hosts holy elephants, white tigers and five magnificent orang-utans. You can also admire the large Balinese temple.
In LA TERRE DES ORIGINES you find the land of the “Big Five”, the five most symbolic animals of Africa: the lion, the elephant, the Cape buffalo, the rhino and the leopard. This fascinating trek around wildlife occupies eight hectares of steppe and savannah land. The Country of Origin, glowing, warm and primitive, submerged us in the cradle of mankind.
Here giraffes, rhinos, antelopes and cheetahs are also in close contact with wart hogs, hyenas and many other animal species. The eastern fringe monkeys observed us from the treetops while the prosimians started playing around when they noticed us. Among the heady rhythms of djembas we discovered a large Tamberma village (from the border of Togo and Benin) with houses made of red earth and with thatched roofs. A fishing village on stilts, surrounded by pirogues, invited us to palaver in the hut of the chief, the school, the traditional grocery store, the home of the voodoo priests, the music, the meeting hut or the barbershop.
We did NOT visit the world LA TERRE DU FROID. We also did not attend the bird show. Kids were exhausted and their feet did hurt after all day walking. We decided to head home and relax. You can easily spend two days to visit all spots within this park.
To end our visit, kids did want to purchase a little souvenir. We gave them a budget of 10 Euro max and they managed to stay within budget.
How much did it cost us ?
Ticket Price cost : 2 adults + 3 kids + parking : 162 Euro (purchase online)
Food & drinks (including an afternoon Ice cream) : 64 Euro
Souvenirs : 29 Euro
Total Spend for the day : 255 Euro.
Opening hours
More practical info on the exact opening hours and a map of the park, can be found on the following website of Pairi Daiza :
Final words
This day was a great family experience. We can recommend to all of you reading this blog post to plan a visit to this animal park. Learning about different species of animals and teaching kids to respect the nature is important for the sustainability of this planet we all live on.
Throughout the year we will visit more interesting hot spots in Belgium. Keep on following us.
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