After beginning my day in Asakusa, I was now at Ueno Park, the largest public park in Tokyo city.
The sakura trees needed a few more days to fully bloomI decided to check out the pandas at Ueno Zoo, located inside the park
Entry tickets to the zoo cost ¥600 (₹360/$5/€4). I was mostly here for the pandas but I figured I would then take a quick stroll around the zoo as well.
Pandas are native to ChinaI don’t remember exactly how many pandas I saw, but I believe Ueno Zoo has around 3 pandas currentlyMost of the time I just saw them chewing on bamboo Pandas are so cute!Check out this guy, he he“Nom nom nom nom”
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.
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.
You have a driver who gives commentary about the attractions as you go along, but it’s only in ThaiI got down hereYou hand over the panda entry ticket hereFirst up, Lin Ping, the youngest panda in Chiang Mai ZooThis is Lin Ping’s playground. So, where is Lin Ping? (Photo taken on Nokia E72)To the extreme right corner… she was asleep (I hope)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.
“Ni hao” (Chinese for “hello”)This is the female panda Lin Hui
Play time for Lin Hui
And this bloke here is Xuang Xuang (Chuang Chuang)Fussy eater! Post-brunch sucking-of-thumb*Then ‘tooth pick’ Look at its ears! Lin Ping was actually born using insemination because this bloke wasn’t interested in ‘doing the job’ with wifeyThe entire process of how they inseminated Lin Hui is explained near Lin Ping’s sectionThe first two pandas at Chiang Mai zoo
After getting my panda fix, I moved on.
The zoo has a monorail service too (which costs extra as well)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.
At those prices, I wasn’t keen on checking it out
Tree hug
Koalas were busy sleeping
Natural born sleepersDunger is one of the koalasThe Kids park
They have a kids section with a bunch of cute animals and some rather interesting tiny creatures.
This creature is called the pygmy marmosetIt’s a really tiny animal and it moved funnily
I moved on to the deer section next
There’s an overhead walkway
LamasI walked to the next attractionThere 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.
Lady Amherst’s pheasantLovely looking thingGreat HornbillTrumpeter hornbillOriental pied hornbillIndia’s national bird — the peacock (Edit: A reader just pointed out it took a dump. Didn’t even notice that until she told me!)Got the lighting right on this oneSiamese fireback pheasant
This is the birds enclosure (Panorama comprised of 6 shots)Birds of prey next. This is the White bellied sea eagleA kite… staring at me
Grey head fish eagleSeriously, stop staring“Duuhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”Ostrich (if you didn’t know)Porcupines
After the birds, next up was a large open section entirely for Gibbons.
Apes with really long arms
It was fun to watch these gibbons swing around
The gibbons have a pretty large playgroundBut they share the compound with a Siamese crocodile
Fun to watch apes play-fightLook at their feet. Nature and its designs!
The only Rhinoceros in ThailandWhen I saw this photo, I thought to myself “Looks so much like a stegosaurus”They have elephant rides here, costs extra of course
Humboldt penguins, in a seperate temeprature-controlled zone
It’s only at this point I realized Chiang Mai Zoo is quite bigIt occupies a large area and is quite hilly
The irony of having a shooting club inside a zoo(!) is beyond meThe land has the slopes for luge riding, but I didn’t see anybody in the carsWent in search for more animalsThe Asian black bearPoor thing only has his shadow to talk toDidn’t look at her for too longMore monkeysAssamese macaque
Pig tailed macaqueEmuThe Bare-bum Ostrich*
And finally, the beautiful white tiger
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.
Go up this way for Doi SuthepI got back pretty late in the afternoonSo I had a late lunch at the small eateryChiang Mai looked pleasant as everFloats were gatheringAnother Grand Parade tonight?
Rachadamnoen road looked empty todayI asked them what time it would start and they said ‘at sunset’
I had some time, so I decided to go back to my room and rest a bit.
This is what a single bed room at Centerplace Guesthouse looks like (Lin Ping on the bed is not included in the ฿200. I just put her there)The toilet is clean, and has hot shower
I lied down for a while — this day wasn’t over yet.