THE ROYAL LONDON CIRCUS
Owner Paul L.B. Lee and wife Doris Lee, Royal London Circus has 40 performers from 14 countries, the majority of whom are Mexicans.
After the show, instead of following the crowd stream toward the exit, we look around the compound for interesting things. We saw a corner where the small horses/ponies are so we walked to the horses. There are the small cute horses. I aimed my camera to snap a photo for souvenir but suddenly at the dark corner another side, a voice shouted to me. It was the worker who looks after the animal. I understand it means ".. no photo allowed, go out, it’s late and we are closing our gate..."
There were 3 elephants the circus has. But today we saw only 1 performing.
4 years ago in December 1999 two of the three elephants died from the sudden cold hit in Shanghai, China. Veterinarians from Shanghai Zoo rushed to the circus immediately after they heard the elephants were ill.
The Malaysian elephants are used to living in a tropical environment and can't bear the cold winds .
The elephant we saw performing tonight name Aidi age 11. The only survivor of the 3.
The same night these 2 young elephant of the circus die, a baby boy (human) of the circus was born.
“Shanghai ”, name of the baby boy, was born to 19-year-old Greek mother, Sofia Fateka, who joined the circus the previous year 1998 in Athens Mexico
The baby, weighing 3.9 kilograms, was born at the Shanghai International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital
"We have nicknamed the baby Shanghai
Aidi, the young elephant, survived a sudden cold in Shanghai
The circus was in Sandakan
On 22 October 2003, during a routine practice session on the circus ground at Sandakan ’s Sibuga Sports Complex, Aidi carelessly swing a powerful lash of the trunk to his trainer, 40 year-old Amanat, who had 20 years experiences in animal training in Indonesia
The trainer Amanat sustained serious abdominal and head injuries after hurled against a container before falling onto the ground. The unconscious Amanat was warded at the intensive care unit (ICU) of Duchess of Kent Hospital.
The following day hospital staff removed the life support system after Amanat showed signs of recuperating. Amanat could talk 2 days later but he develops high fever, low blood pressure and irregular heart beat and died a few hours later.
This is the first dead incident case in the history of Royal London Circus.
The remains of the Indonesian elephant trainer Amanat flown back to his hometown in Jawa Tengah for burial. While the circus continue the carnival to Tawau where we are watching tonight.
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I bought the
tickets weeks earlier. The lowest price among the three seating classes. My
family of 4 plus Munium who is a Baha'i friend from Sarawak .
Xing is less then 1 meter height the ticket price is Rm10.00. Yin is a baby occupy
no seat so no ticket needed.
For the 3 adult
tickets Rm21.00x3, I was also given 3 free drink coupons to exchange for 3 cups
of cold drinks from SugarBan fast-food restaurant. (The SugarBan Tawau branch
was closed down sometime in 2005.)
Though a father
of two kids now, I still love circus as much as a child. My first circus show
was in 1965 in Jesselton
Town (now Kota Kinabalu
City New World ”. The
circus tent was raise at an empty ground beside the Medaka Padang and behind
the old railway station where the location of Dreamtel (Dream Hotel) is now today.
That first circus
I went to had as many as 4 elephants.
During the days when not on show, the elephants care taker brought the
elephants further down to the hill slop where the elephants were free to roam
for leaves for foods. The location was behind
today’s Hotel Shangri-La. I was
Primary 6 in Chung
Hua Primary
School
 |
The elephant
lifting up a trainer.
|
Royal London Circus
Elephant Show
2003-11-16 Tawau Town
After the show
After the show,
as we follow the crowd going out. We passed by the place where the few mini ponies
(miniature horses?) are kept. We saw
such short ponies in Paraguay
We stopped to
have a close encounter with the mini-horse. The crowd flow fast and soon we became
the last batch remain inside the circus compound. This was the time a keeper
came and shouted at us to leave. He shouted instead of telling because he can’t
speak Malay. So apparently he is a foreign worker.
I was curious on
this. This is definitely not a proper way in handling customers in business. Circus is an entertainment business relying on
the support of happy customers. When a
customer take the trouble to come to a circus and found amusement in things. This
is a positive sign of success in entertainment business. But suing visitors away as soon as possible signalling
a declining entertain spirit. How can a
circus survive long with no more curiosity to attract new visitors?
We did nor argue
or persist but left.
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Related Posts:
We enjoyed this circus in Paraguay in 1997
Power Ranger in Paraguay 1997
Related Posts:
We enjoyed this circus in Paraguay in 1997
Power Ranger in Paraguay 1997
