Thailand 2010: Chiang Mai Zoo (Day 4, Part 1)

Date: 22nd November 2010

Yesterday evening was nice. Today was the last day of Loy Krathong, and I’m guessing tonight’s events were going to be a ‘grand finale’ to the festival. But first, I decided to move out of Rux Thai and take a single room at Centerplace Guesthouse because I was going to be out all day and tomorrow morning, I would leave for Chiang Rai.

A single room at Centerplace Guesthouse costs just 200 baht (Rs. 300/$6.7/€4.5).

After transferring my bags, I decided to spend my morning at Chiang Mai Zoo, which is en route to Doi Suthep.

Now I knew Chiang Mai Zoo wasn’t going to be as impressive as Singapore Zoo, but the main reason I chose to visit the zoo is to see a rare animal I rank among my favourites in the animal kingdom — the giant panda!

Chiang Mai Zoo has three of them. But the entrance fees to the zoo are broken up by the individual attractions the place has to offer. The zoo fee costs just ฿100, but it does not include the chance to see the pandas. That’s another ฿100. Also, if you want avail the open air bus, that’s ฿20. So all-in-all, I paid ฿220 (Rs. 325/$7.2/€5) for my entry.

Indian elephant Chiang Mai zoo — The Indian elephant

I walked a bit, saw a few animals at the entrance that I’ve seen many time before and then hopped on to the zoo bus to head straight for the pandas.

Chiang Mai zoo minibus — You have a driver who gives commentary about the attractions as you go along, but it’s only in Thai

Chiang Mai zoo panda statues — I got down here

Chiang Mai zoo Lin Ping house entrance — You hand over the panda entry ticket here

Chiang Mai zoo way to Lin Ping house — First up, Lin Ping, the youngest panda in Chiang Mai Zoo

Chiang Mai zoo Lin Ping playground — This is Lin Ping’s playground. So, where is Lin Ping? (Photo taken on Nokia E72)

Chiang Mai zoo Lin Ping sleep — To the extreme right corner… she was asleep (I hope)

Pandas in Thailand Chiang Mai zoo — Chiang Mai Zoo has 3 pandas, among the only 35 outside China

While young Lin Ping gets her massive play ground, her parents Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui are in a separate air-conditioned enclosure not too far away.

Chuang Chuang panda Chiang Mai zoo — “Ni hao” (Chinese for “hello”)

Chiang Mai zoo panda Lin Hui walking wood — This is the female panda Lin Hui

Chiang Mai zoo panda Lin Hui playing — Play time for Lin Hui

Chiang Mai zoo Chuang Chuang eating — And this bloke here is Xuang Xuang (Chuang Chuang)

Chiang Mai zoo Xuang Xuang panda eating Thailand — Fussy eater! 🙂

Chiang Mai zoo Chuang Chuang sucking thumb — Post-brunch sucking-of-thumb*

Chiang Mai zoo Chuang Chuang eating bamboo — Then ‘tooth pick’ 🙂

Panda Xuang Xuang Chiang Mai zoo — Look at its ears! 🙂

Chiang Mai zoo panda Xuang Xuang eating — Lin Ping was actually born using insemination because this bloke wasn’t interested in ‘doing the job’ with wifey

Chiang Mai zoo Lin Hui eating bamboo — The entire process of how they inseminated Lin Hui is explained near Lin Ping’s section

Chuang Chuang Lin Hui pandas information Chiang Mai zoo — The first two pandas at Chiang Mai zoo

After getting my panda fix, I moved on.

Chiang Mai zoo monorail train — The zoo has a monorail service too (which costs extra as well)

Chiang Mai zoo 7eleven store — And the ubiqitous 7-Eleven can be found inside the zoo as well

I took the tram car again, and it stopped for a while at the newly opened aquarium.

Chiang Mai zoo aquarium entry fee — At those prices, I wasn’t keen on checking it out

Chiang Mai zoo koala tree Thailand — Tree hug

Chiang Mai zoo koala sleeping on tree — Koalas were busy sleeping

Chiang Mai zoo koala sleeping fact — Natural born sleepers

Chiang Mai zoo Dunger koala tail — Dunger is one of the koalas

Chiang Mai zoo kids park — The Kids park

They have a kids section with a bunch of cute animals and some rather interesting tiny creatures.

Chiang Mai zoo pygmy marmoset Thailand — This creature is called the pygmy marmoset

Chiang Mai zoo pygmy marmoset — It’s a really tiny animal and it moved funnily

Chiang Mai zoo deer park reindeers — I moved on to the deer section next

Chiang Mai zoo deer walkway — There’s an overhead walkway

Chiang Mai zoo steep hill — I walked to the next attraction

Chiang Mai zoo monorail track view — There was a huge tree trunk which had a set of stairs you could climb to get this view (Taken on my Nokia E72)

Next, I entered a birds enclosure.

Chiang Mai zoo Lady Amherst's pheasant — Lady Amherst’s pheasant

Chiang Mai zoo Lady Amherst's pheasant tail — Lovely looking thing

Great hornbill Chiang Mai zoo Thailand — Great Hornbill

Trumpeter hornbill Chiang Mai zoo — Trumpeter hornbill

Oriental pied hornbill Chiang Mai zoo — Oriental pied hornbill

Indian peacock Chiang Mai zoo — India’s national bird — the peacock (Edit: A reader just pointed out it took a dump. Didn’t even notice that until she told me!)

Country rooster Chiang Mai zoo — Got the lighting right on this one

Siamese fireback pheasant Chiang Mai zoo — Siamese fireback pheasant

Chiang Mai zoo birds enclosure panorama — This is the birds enclosure (Panorama comprised of 6 shots)

White bellied sea eagle Chiang Mai zoo Thailand — Birds of prey next. This is the White bellied sea eagle

Black kite Chiang Mai zoo staring — A kite… staring at me

Grey head fish eagle Chiang Mai zoo — Grey head fish eagle

Black kite eyes Chiang Mai zoo — Seriously, stop staring

Black kite beak head Chiang Mai zoo — “Duuhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”

Ostrich Chiang Mai zoo — Ostrich (if you didn’t know)

Porcupine Chiang Mai zoo Thailand — Porcupines

After the birds, next up was a large open section entirely for Gibbons.

White gibbon monkey swinging Chiang Mai zoo — Apes with really long arms

Gibbon swinging on tree Chiang Mai zoo — It was fun to watch these gibbons swing around

Chiang Mai zoo buddhist monks — The gibbons have a pretty large playground

Siamese crocodile Chiang Mai zoo — But they share the compound with a Siamese crocodile

Gibbons fighting Chiang Mai zoo Thailand — Fun to watch apes play-fight

White handed gibbon feet shape Chiang Mai zoo Thailand — Look at their feet. Nature and its designs!

Rhinoceros Chiang Mai zoo Thailand — The only Rhinoceros in Thailand

Rhino stegosaurus head Chiang Mai zoo — When I saw this photo, I thought to myself “Looks so much like a stegosaurus”

Elephant ride Chiang Mai zoo Thailand — They have elephant rides here, costs extra of course

Humboldt penguins Chiang Mai zoo — Humboldt penguins, in a seperate temeprature-controlled zone

Chiang Mai zoo Thailand pathway — It’s only at this point I realized Chiang Mai Zoo is quite big

View Chiang Mai city from Chiang Mai zoo — It occupies a large area and is quite hilly

Shooting club ATV Chiang Mai zoo Thailand — The irony of having a shooting club inside a zoo(!) is beyond me

Luge car station Chiang Mai zoo — The land has the slopes for luge riding, but I didn’t see anybody in the cars

Chiang Mai zoo tree panorama — Went in search for more animals

Black bear Chiang Mai zoo Thailand — The Asian black bear

Black bear Chiang Mai zoo wall — Poor thing only has his shadow to talk to

African lion Chiang Mai zoo — Didn’t look at her for too long

Assamese macaque Chiang Mai zoo Thailand — Assamese macaque

Pig tailed macaque Chiang Mai zoo — Pig tailed macaque

Ostrich feather Chiang Mai zoo — The Bare-bum Ostrich*

White tiger Chiang Mai zoo — And finally, the beautiful white tiger

Elephant Chiang Mai zoo — Passed the same elephant on the way out

Also on the way out, I couldn’t help but buy a small souvenir from Chiang Mai zoo. They were selling stuffed toys of the zoo’s main stars, the pandas. I bought a small Lin Ping souvenir for 150 baht.

All in all, I must have spent nearly 4 hours in Chiang Mai zoo. A lot longer than I thought I would spend. I mostly came to see the pandas and ended up seeing pretty much everything the zoo had to showcase.

So is a visit to Chiang Mai zoo worth it? Well, Singapore Zoo didn’t have pandas (they only get them in 2012), and even koalas, when I visited back in September. So yes, this visit was time and money well-spent. At half the price of Singapore Zoo, you still see a lot of animals. Chiang Mai zoo also has animal shows and even a Night Safari. How good those are, I didn’t bother to find out of sheer dis-interest.