15 December, 2009 Tuesday
Many of Chiangmai's attractions seem to centre around animals, least of all with the elephant as a symbol of Thailand. Or maybe animals were just what we were interested in seeing, which might be obvious from the frequency of posts about tigers, elephants and snakes. It was inevitable that we'd end up at Chiangmai Zoo at some point and so we spent part of our last day there.
Chiangmai Zoo neither outshined or underperformed when compared to any previous zoo we'd visited but did seem very expansive, with perhaps too much woodland or green space to walk through without any exhibits.
However, we'd expected that since we'd read that the grounds were too big to walk around. But we tried anyway, ignoring the little service cars that were taking other visitors around.
One of the things we were interested in seeing at the zoo was the Twilight Zone, a section that opens after dark, that would give us a "night safari experience", without having to visit Chiangmai's other Night Safari (elsewhere) which we read wasn't any good. However, this was no longer open.
There was also a panda house holding two Giant Pandas on loan from China, which although cost just a little bit extra, we didn't enter because of our dwindling amount of baht - we were leaving the next day.
Having said all that, our time at Chiangmai Zoo had its moments. Some of the things we saw..
Most zoos we've been to in East Asia allow visitors to buy some fruit to feed their giraffes and this was no different.
In a quiet corner, a not-so-quiet tortoise attempted to mount another.
Here's the video "proof".
Some colourful bird houses.
A mini pony.
Kids racing area. Closed as it was the end of the day when we walked past.
In February 2009, Mark and Linh moved from the UK to the Far East to spend 16 months living in Hong Kong and traveling around East Asia. This website documents their journey.