Chiang Mai Zoo

On a hot and humid day, we rented a songteow with 4 other traveling families, and hit up the Chiang Mai Zoo.

Of course our families turned heads galore when we gathered for a group photo.  If that wasn’t impressive enough…the beautiful fountain entry to the zoo certainly was!

Ethan was beaming, and he didn’t even know what was in store, yet!

One of the first exhibits we visited was where the hippos live. Fortunately, just as we arrived, a worker greeted us with baskets of potatoes to help feed the hippos. A nearby sign said this privilege cost 15 baht per basket (.50 cents), but the worker never indicated he expected money for it.

When the hippos saw us with the baskets, they quickly waddled out of the water to the large wall where we hovered. They knew the routine!

Have you ever seen in a hippos mouth? It was a big jello-like expanse of blubbery gums and tongue, with funky teeth in wild places, and huge whiskers on top. I’m telling ‘ya…it was awesome!

The hippos stood there, bird-like, with their jaws wide open, begging to be fed by our children!

When the huge baskets were emptied, the worker was nowhere nearby, and didn’t seem concerned about taking our money. Nevertheless, I walked them over to the sign and left 30 baht under the empty baskets.

Next, we found the giraffes and ostriches in need of a feeding! This time there were active vendors selling little bunches of greens.

Then came the elephants…

They are very fast and will swipe food from you if you are not fast enough!  They ate sugar cane and cucumbers, I believe.

The inexpensive entry to the zoo (100 baht for adults, 50 baht for kids = $3/$1.50 USD) did not include entrance to the Panda Bear House, which we paid an extra equal amount to enter.

They had quite a few pandas lazying around, eating bamboo and looking cute and fat.

My friend from Family Travel Bucket List would have had a heart attack to be so close to them!

Outside of the Panda House, we encountered some of the big predators…

The kids were pretty excited to see some leopards…

But even more excited to learn that they could feed them, too!

Yes, really!

For a small fee they could put a hunk of raw meet on a long pole, and push it through the fencing to the leopards and the black panthers. Wow!

We also enjoyed the aviary…

Monks added to the ambiance…

Better yet, we discovered that they are quite hands-on in the aviary, as well!  A bird-handler was around, letting the kids study and hold the birds!

We also stumbled upon an old and run down little playground. The parents said, “sure…go run through it…we’ll meet you on the other side!”  Until suddenly, we realized there was a crazy contraption midway…and we were certainly not going to let them do that unsupervised!  Jared was coming to the rescue in this photo…

It involved a pulley system to ferry individuals over the netted drop!

Next, we found that the river otters were crazily social…and squeaked at us as we looked over the low edge at them!

The kids were wearing down (and so were the adults) in the oppressive heat, so we jumped on a little Panorama Bus (20 Baht for adults, 10 Baht for kids), and took a more relaxing jump from exhibit to exhibit.

We finally found the children’s area, and stumbled upon this thumb-sucker.

A little playground revived the kids and gave the adults some down time…

Then some of us took a break in an air-conditioned retreat where the kids could color, read books, and look at some cool bottled bugs.

They also had some gifts for sale.

And if you’re doing one…you might as well do the other…

The Rhinos were cool and armored…

And the gibbons were absolute show-offs for our kids!

Really, the zoo just went on and on, and we certainly didn’t touch on everything during our 5 hour visit. We skipped the aquarium (requires an additional entry fee), and other large portions of the park. Interactive experiences were available everywhere…and the kids had a blast feeding so many different animals (I didn’t even show them all here)!

Perhaps the park has been able to reduce some of their operating costs, due to ticket-holders (like us) being eager to pay for and do all of their feedings for them!?

Almost all of the kids in one group photo…

And I love this photo. I’m not sure if someone told them to do a funny shot…or if just happened to show so many different personalities, or what?!

We also enjoyed some of the English translations for the signs…

“Take photo with the deal, you can touch it that close to close”

“Happy For No Smoking”

“Lovely Panda waits you there”

“feel goood journey”

And just in case kids don’t have enough entertainment in the park, they certainly have enough electronic rides near the entrance/exit to keep a schoolyard of kids busy. Why so many?! It’s hard to pretend you don’t see them when there’s a room full of them! Are you trying to kill the parents?!

The Chaing Mai zoo isn’t a one-hit wonder. They have wonderful exhibits, healthy looking animals, and the kids loved the interaction they were able to have with the animals—unlike anything else I’ve seen. It would take multiple trips to see it all at the zoo…so I’m sure we’ll some day have to return!

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://livingoutsideofthebox.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/P5075177.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]My name is Alisa, and I am off traveling the world with my adventurous husband and rambunctious 3 small children. I love mountains, outdoor living, and I am crazy about vegetables. Most of all, I love making memories with my family, and I enjoy sharing our travels with others! [/author_info] [/author]