Unique Cafe: Meerkat Friends

Hajon Lee

During this rainy week, I was searching for things to do inside. In searching for something unique and interesting. I came across something called a Meerkat Cafe. Looking through the blogs of other people, I saw that there were various animals other than just meerkats. The cafe is located in the middle of Hapjeong-station and Hongdae-station. It is open from 12 to 9:30pm, and there is a basic fee of 10,000 won which is very cheap taking into consideration the amount of animals that exist. The cafe was unexpectedly very big and it was also cleaner and better managed than I thought. Usually if you go to a pet cafe, the animals are left alone, but in this cafe there was a manager for each section of where the animals were. In addition, the workers at the cafe were not just hired part-timers, however, trained animal experts who knew how to take care and communicate with the animals.

You get to spend 10-15 minutes with the meerkats in a glass surrounded area. There is a precaution to empty everything in your pocket as they will try to eat or take anything they see. As well, you are only allowed to pet them if they come to you. When I was there, they climbed over me and also sat on my shoulder. As they are ground diggers, they were constantly trying to dig the ground. There were also cats, nevertheless, I’ll just skip this part as they were the least interesting animal in the cafe. There was a raccoon which was running around like crazy as he was excited to see people. The next animal that was cutest for me after the meerkats was the wallaby which is very similar to a kangaroo. It will jump around and follow you, which is adorable. Be aware to pet the back and not the head of the wallaby. An unexpected animal that was in the cafe were foxes. They stayed outside on the terrace of the cafe. Don’t be afraid of them because of their looks, as they are more afraid of you than you are to them. The animal experts will give you snacks for you to give to the animals so don’t feed them whatever you like. Enjoy the cuteness of these animals and delve into the unique experience of an animal cafe.