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 bear🙁Poor 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.
The next day, I woke up by 7am. Went down to the reception area for breakfast, which was included in the hotel room fare. I checked out by 8:30am and took a metered taxi to the Southern Bus terminal which is where all the buses to South Thailand set out from.
Taken from inside the taxi on my Nokia E72Heading to the Southern bus terminalMost of Bangkok city is covered by elevated toll highways
My plan was to take a day bus to Krabi where I planned to spend most of my time in Thailand.
You need to go upstairs for the ticket counters
But it was not to be. When I inquired, from the Southern Bus terminal, apparently only evening buses were available. Or maybe the lady figured I was a tourist and thought I was expecting the luxury buses. (Tip:Found this blog in case you want to more about the Southern Bus terminal)
Southern Bus terminal, where both state and private buses ply
Instead of wasting time in Bangkok, I thought I’d go to Kanchanaburi instead, which is 130kms from Bangkok city. So I bought my ticket (77 baht/Rs. 107) and boarded my bus which was departing soon.
Inside the bus to Kanchanaburi
It was pretty hot outside and the A/C in the bus was minimal. Fortunately, the bus was barely full and the journey wasn’t too long (1 & 1/2 hours).
We reached Kanchanaburi bus stand by around 11am. I was approached by taxi drivers as soon as I got down from the bus offering tours to all that Kanchanaburi has to offer but I first wanted to check my e-mail and get some water. While I was at the internet cafe-slash-computer repair shop, I checked the weather forecast for South Thailand. BBC Weather said it was going to rain in the coming days. “Oh crap” moment #2.
Kanchanaburi maybe a fairly popular tourist destination but the town is fairly small and a far cry from madness of Bangkok. After sending out a few mails, I took a Mazda pick-up truck taxi (something I haven’t done since the early Gulf years) and set out for the famous Tiger Temple which was 35kms away.
Kanchanaburi town. Taken from inside the Mazda taxi
The driver said he would first take me to the Bridge over the River Kwai, which I didn’t know was en route to the Tiger Temple. But even before that, we stopped by the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery.
Over 5,000 Australian, British and Dutch prisoners of war are buried hereThe POWs were used by the Japanese to build the Thailand-Burma Railway
After that, the taxi took me to the famous Bridge over the River Kwai and you read about its history here. It’s mostly a tourist attraction now with short train rides available and surrounded by restaurants and street vendors.
The Bridge over the River KwaiI didn’t bother taking the train ride
You can even walk on it
It was around 12:30pm and it was scorching hot, so I took a few more photos and then headed back to the taxi.
There was a war museum there as well… but I didn’t check it out
We then headed for famous Tiger Temple at Kanchanaburi.
Taken from inside the taxiThe pick up taxi I tookThe terrain looked fairly similar to what you would see in Karnataka
We reached the Tiger Temple a.k.a Wat Pa Luangta Buaat around 1pm. I was wearing a sleeveless vest and I had to change to a non-red coloured T-shirt as there is a dress code. Not to do with the fact it’s a place run by Buddhist monks but more to do with your own safety when getting close to the tigers.
The ‘temple’ is only open to the general public from 12pm to 3:30pm. The entry fee is a rather steep 500 baht (Rs.700) & video cameras weren’t allowed (or you probably had to pay extra for it). I walked in and was asked by the volunteers to run and join the group who were being led to the area where you get to see the tigers.
The volunteers there wear the golden yellow t-shirtsVisitors are gathered at the spot where the tigers areFrom here, volunteers take visitors, by hand, one by one to each tiger
There are a lot of controversies surrounding the Tiger Temple. Despite being run by monks, many accuse it of exploiting the animals for money and some even question if the stories of how the temple acquired the tigers are actually true. You can read their response to all these queries in their FAQs but I did question their money-making means.
For the 500 baht entrance fee, you get to sit next to the tigers and have your photo taken by the volunteers using your camera (& bottles of water). If you want to have a photo taken with a tiger’s head placed on your lap, that will cost you 1000 baht (Rs. 1,300). I was approached by one of their foreign volunteers, a young woman, who asked if I was interested in spending the night at the reserve, feed the tigers the next morning and see them play — all for 1500 baht (Rs. 2,100). I kindly said no, citing I had to head back. I actually had to head back and I would have loved to spend more time with the tigers, but I just didn’t feel like giving them anymore money.
Even their international volunteers looked like a questionable lot. All young guys and girls who looked like they got into some sort of trouble and sought refuge in Tiger Temple with easy jobs as supposed to actually knowing a lot about tigers. I could be wrong, but that’s how I felt.
Anyway, back to why I actually came all the way here. The tigers.
I-LOVE-tigers! I have always loved big cats — especially since I was a child when I came across a photo book my father had on wild cats. Of all the big, furry, cute (yet dangerous) wild cats, tigers have been my favourite. It’s sad to know our national animal is on the decline the world over but a chance to be this close to them was something I would not have ignored.
The tiger wasn’t stuffed — he was just in that position — the whole timeSee, I told you.This was the biggest tiger there. I believe they told me it was 4 years old.Me kinda wishing I could place my head on the tigerTiger: “Let me sleep kid! Go away… no photos!”The 1000 baht pose
After spending around half-an-hour there, I went back up — where they had more tigers for you to pose with.
In a country famed for massages, even tigers get themMounted the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 lens for these shotsWould have been nice if I got this shot without the tourists at the back“Great, another moron who thinks he works for National Geographic”“Water … waaaterrrr …”
By 2:30pm, I was done. They do have few other animals at the reserve but they were all animals most Indians have seen before (buffaloes, peacocks etc.). I headed back to Kanchanaburi town in the taxi.
From inside the ‘furnished’ taxi
The driver stopped at a bus heading back to Bangkok city. The ride to all the tourist spots and back cost me 600 baht (Rs. 836) and I tipped him 50 baht (the initial quote I was given when I arrived was 800 baht).
I boarded the bus and headed back to Bangkok city. I contemplated my next move. If it was going to rain the next few days, why bother going to Krabi now itself. So, I figured I’d go to Chiang Mai instead — and do my trip in reverse order. Something, I hadn’t planned for and something that would eventually cost me a lot more than I had budgeted.
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!
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.
