Ever since I found out that the sun bear is native to Indonesia, I have wanted to see one. Upon arriving in Jakarta, I quickly found out that they do not dwell on the island of Java, except in the zoo. While not the ideal way to see a sun bear—by going to the zoo, I would at least be able to see the sun bear in it’s native country.

Yesterday, Korry, Venus, and I went to the Jakarta zoo and it was quite the zoo experience. There was no map, just random paths that didn’t connect with signs pointing in contradicting directions. We randomly decided to start walking to the left and see if that took us towards the sun bears. Within a few minutes we had seen lions and tigers and orangutans (also native to Indonesia)—but no sun bears. After asking around and aimlessly wandering for a while, we finally happened upon the first sun bear exhibit. The bears were so cute!! They were cuter in real life than in any of the pictures I had seen of them. The tourists next to us were throwing them bits of fruit and they were catching them in their mouths, it was hilarious!

The rest of the exhibits were great too—but none matched the fun and enthusiasm of the bears. It further confirmed that I am, in fact, obsessed with bears.