The circus came to town

Afzal received a coupon from school for a Mobile Circus at the Greater Mobile Fairground, so we decided to head down to the fairground to spend a day there. The price was USD 20 for adult and USD 7 for child but with the coupon, we only need to pay USD 5 each and entrance for Afzal was free.

As we drove into the fairground, the parking was USD5 and as our door opened, our noses were greeted with the animal's stench. There were ponies, elephants and camels beside the circus tentage and I actually saw a male elephant peed! Yes, that was like huge gallons of pee that could potentially create a mini pee pool.

Afzal was not impressed by the animals, or maybe he was just not interested or afraid when we persuaded him to take an animal ride. But our impression of the circus fall short of what we thought a circus would be but then again, we were thinking this is Mobile, Alabama, not some modern cosmopolitan.

It was not a huge crowd that gathered but enough to fill up the tent. There were of course many little children brought in by parents and grandparents. It was a family event. As everyone moved in to find a spot, the seats were some hard wooden planks. The equipments inside looked dated and wasn't something to rave about. The show started with two female and one male jugglers from Colombia. In fact, these performers were family members. There were also other low key performances with fires and other gadgetries.

I am not a big fan of circus but I have also never been to one, but this one is definitely a neighbourhood circus, nothing of the international standard that you would see in Moscow or Beijing circuses. Even the clown was unfunny, and there were only elephants, dogs and monkey acts. If only these animals could speak, I wonder whether they would tell their owner that they would like to throw the towel in.

Afzal asked for nachos with cheese, snow cones, balloons and a toy that they sell near the entrance, but we only succumb to the nachos and snow cones. I think they made more sales with all these extras. After a while, Afzal got really restless with the not-so-adrenaline-pumping show. Also, it's quite funny when the snow cone man is also the one who assist the juggler with her gadgets, and he is also the motor rider in the motorbike globe act. Multi-tasking for sure, so you would have a sense of the category that this circus would fall into. A circus for the Mobile family from a family of circus performers.

That motorbike act was the only one that Afzal like. As for me, I had backache sitting on the hard wooden plank. But for USD 5, that's as good as it gets.