1001 Nights Cast

They say they’re really intelligent. Like 98 per cent the same as us. And you can tell. There was this old one sitting on a rock with his arms folded around him as the little ones rolled around behind him playing. They were having a laugh but he didn’t seem to care. I don’t know if you’d say his eyes were serene, as such, but he looked wise I think. Bet he’s been there for years too, seen a lot, years come and go.

I dunno for sure if he was a male, really, but I’d reckon he was. He just looked like this old fella sitting there, like someone you’d see on a seat in the park.

The other ones were up on ropes and swinging back and forth.

Then the trainer or the keeper or whatever you call them came along. This head just popped up on the top of the wall. Tyler pointed him out. ‘Look mummy, man!’ He’s very observant.

This guy’s head pops up, looking around, smiling, then he starts tossing bits of watermelon down from the top of the wall and they all started running around, grabbing bits of mashed-up watermelon, running off, screaming. Tyler loved it. Pointing from his pram, kicking his legs out, ‘yay mummy, they’re eating. Eating!’

It’s massively expensive if you just go on a one off. Like 35 dollars for adults and that’s on top of parking and food and a drink and an ice cream. But if you get a multi-pass you can go as many times as you like over a year and see stuff at different times of the year. Some of them like the summer. Some of them like winter. Whatever suits, I s’pose, the whole natural environment thing. It’s great to expose the kids to it while you can.

Definitely take a pram though. That’d be my advice to you. The kids run around, get tired, have a sleep in the pram, have a drink, then run around again. Repeat the whole process. I dunno what I’d do without one.

I’d also say some are better value for money than others. The big ones are easy to see. You go and have a look. Easy peasy. But some of the others, you walk into dark rooms and there’s a sign there saying what’s what, but frankly, I couldn’t be fucked looking under a leaf for something that looks like a fucking leaf. Yeah? So I take Tyler and we go for a walk around and look at the big stuff. Mission accomplished.

So they’re munching down on their watermelon and Tyler wants to get out of the pram and run around. He jumps out and says ‘hello’ to a whole bunch of people. Mostly tourists. Some Asians are taking photos of each other. This old fat Arab guy turns to his wife and says, ‘They’re 98 per cent like us’, and I’m thinking, ‘What are you, fucking Einstein?’. And then Tyler picks up a flower that’s lying on the ground and offers it to some old lady sitting on a bench. She just looks at him and sniffs. Sniffs! And then looks away. I was thinking, what a bunch of animals, but I realised, hah, we are a bunch of animals. Ha ha ha. I just wish we'd gone early. Beat the crowds.