MangoVine
Adventures in East Asia
Chiangmai Zoo
15 December, 2009Tuesday 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.
The distinctive call of the Gibbon made us curious, partly as we had gone on the Flight of the Gibbon zipline adventure previously.
The big cats had some meaty action.
The leopard cage had a stand next to it allowing visitors to buy pieces of meat to feed them.
This is the first 7-Eleven I've ever seen in a zoo.
A rather run-down part of the zoo called the Adventure Zone had a large, flea-bitten soft panda figure.
This was next to a mini train-ride that was no one was riding.
The Pheasant exhibit house was quite nice however, allowing visitors to walk through a landscaped area housing a colourful variety of birds.
Towards the end of the day, we came across two young bears.
This entry posted in : Attractions. Thailand. Tourism.
| ← Previous Entry | Next Entry → |