Dear Diary,

Much to my delight, my parents still brought me to Chimelong during the school holiday despite my disastrous end-of-year results. For your information, Chimelong is what a real kid paradise should be, which consists of a safari park, a bird park and an aquarium. On our first day, we went for a wild safari which was really impressive.

Instead of riding a mini-train chugging along the fixed route across the park to observe the animals afar, the safari trip allowed us to hop onto the cargo bed of a truck and chase the wild animals around to feed them. Fortunately, they were all herbivores as we did not want to risk being prey. First stop was to encounter camels. Once they saw us, the camels bundled towards us like bandits in a trail of dust. The humps on their backs resembled bulging sacks filled with loot wobbling up and down while they trotted. Not long, our truck was besieged by the huge, smelly quadrupeds. Our guide had already warned us no to tease them, as grumpy camels might spit on us. I gingerly approached one baby camel with a leafy branch. But before the baby camel could reach it, an adult camel intercepted and captured the stick firmly between its teeth. I did not dare to challenge it by force and I let go the branch without much resistance, in fear of my face being washed by camel saliva. Looking at the disappointed baby camel, I felt sorry for its failure to enjoy the leaf treat. Before I could make another attempt, the engine rambled and we were heading to the next habitat.

At the first sight of giraffes, I was amazed at these beautiful creatures which ambled in an elegant gait, their trademark long necks keeping them kind of aloof. They indeed lived up to their nickname, "models on the savannah". To my surprise, they threw all their elegance to the wind when it came to dining. They strutted towards the truck as soon as they noticed our ad hoc visit. When they neared, they stretched their long necks through the open window for leaves. One naughty giraffe even tried to snitch a twig from the stock pile, taking advantage of the negligence of the guide who was busy giving out the branch ration to us for feeding. We tried to shoo them away by waving our hands frantically as the guide instructed but the giraffes seemed unfazed. When I stuck out a branch to one giraffe, an eerily blue tongue protruded from its mouth, curled onto the branch, and then pulled it way from my grasp before the giraffe started munching on it. The hair above its lips was stained with a greenish concoction of saliva and leaf juice. Suddenly, a light drizzle fell down and a few drops flew through the window and landed on my T-shirt. I raised my head and looked into the sunny sky in doubt. Petrified, I saw at least four giraffes chewing while drooling over my head. The rain was their saliva! I shrank from the window and plonked onto the bench in the cargo bed, fumbling desperately in my pocket for a piece of tissue paper to wipe off the stain on my T-shirt. The gluttonous disgusting beasts had ruined my favourite T-shirt!

That's all for today and I'm off to scrub that T-shirt contaminated by the giraffe drool.

Yours always,

Ziqi