YES, we know. Your classmates act like animals sometimes. But if it’s real animals you want to see, take a road trip to Subic and visit the Zoobic Safari.

A tour around the zoo takes a couple of hours, and the great things is, you don’t just get to look at animals in cages, you actually get to interact with them.

You can feed the crocs, get close to ostriches, waddle with ducks, pet goats and annoy the monkeys.

Walk through the different sections of the zoo—Close Encounter, Savannah, Rodent World, Serpentarium, Zoobic Park, Muzooeum and the creepy Croco Loco.

The zoo offers a bonus—a chance to get a taste of Aeta culture at the Aetas’ Trail. You get to watch tribesmen dance before you face the challenge of the obstacle course in the Hip Hop Bay-a-wak attraction of the zoo.

And if you’re lucky (or smart—which you can be by going to the zoo on a weekend or holidays), you might even get to catch the animal show and parade, which feature an ape riding a miniature horse, poodles that dance and ostriches that race against their handlers.

But the one Zoobic Safari experience you must not miss is the Tiger Safari. The highlight of the trip? Buying raw chicken meat for tigers to feed on. There’s nothing like watching tigers pounce on the custom-made jeepney you are riding. It will teach you two things—that tigers are incredibly powerful and that steel grills might just be one of man’s greatest inventions.

Zoobic Safari is located at Group 1 Ilanin Forest, Forest Adventure, Subic Bay Freeport Zone. It is open daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Entrance fee is P395 per person, P295 for kids. Visit wwww.zoobic.com.ph or call (047) 252-2272; 899-9824; 895-7142.