Sri Racha Tiger Zoo, Sri Racha District, Chon Buri Province, Thailand. ( 8 )

• Report rights infringement
• published: 16 Jan 2015
• views: 151

Sri Racha Tiger Zoo. This Zoo is one I missed when I visited Sri Racha in May 2010. So on the 28th June 2014, I finally got there. I went by Taxi, my friend Sutin driving me from Bowin. The car park was full of coach tours, other private cars and even more taxis. This Zoo can also be reached from highway number 7 the Bangkok to Pattaya Motorway, follow the signs for about 2 kilometres. It was opened in 1997 and since then over 10 million visitors have enjoyed their time there. Travelling from Pattaya, it's about a 30 minute journey by car. If you don’t have a car then you can book a day trip to this Sri Racha Tiger Zoo through the many travel agents around Pattaya. Many hotels have a travel agent sited in the reception lobby of the hotel. If you are travelling from Bangkok you can use public transport from Ekkamai Bus Terminal or Mo Chit Bus Terminal, take the Bangkok to Sri Racha route or Bangkok – Pattaya route. Alight at Sri Racha city ( opposite Robinson Department Store ). Then walk towards the traffic light and turn left at the junction, take a blue mini bus service ( Sri Racha – Nong Khor route ) to the zoo. Or you can get your own taxi or use the travel agents that can be found all over Bangkok, and again in the hotels. The opening times for the Zoo are 08.00 am to 06.00 pm, last ticket sales are at 05.30 pm, but this is pointless buying a ticket so late. The Zoo is so large and by then all the shows finished it would be a waste to ruin your trip. Ticket prices are 450 Baht for adults and 250 Baht for small children. While the Zoo is called Tiger Zoo don’t let that confuse you, many other animals are available here. Crocodiles, Camels, Piglets for Pig racing ! You can find Elephants and Deer here also. Many restaurants are scattered about here to satisfy most tastes. Thai, Chinese, Korean, Western,and Indian dishes are on the menu also. There are many shows, but not much time between each one, so once a show has finished you find everyone rushing for the exits to get to the next show. The times for the shows are:~ Crocodile Show 09.30 / 10.30 / 13.00 / 14.00 / 15.00 / 16.00 / 17.00. Tiger Show 11.00 / 13.30 / 15.30. Elephant Show 11.40 / 14.30 / 16.30. Pig Show Every 30 minutes. The Crocodile was the first show I called in at. This show seems to follow most crocodile shows in Thailand, I guess there is only so much you can do with a crocodile when you are in the show area with them. A first for me was a Thai girl taking part in the show. She was dressed in blue while the men dressed in the usual red garments. I could not quite understand the significance of this but she seemed happy. This show area was packed with visitors, it was good to see so many people enjoying their day out. You can tell this is a busy Zoo, because the height of this arena area was much taller than most other Crocodile shows. It was quite a climb to get to the top, but it did make for better views. It is claimed that this Zoo has over 400 Royal Bengal Tigers and about 10,000 crocodiles, not an easy task counting all these! In 1982 Sri Racha Zoo obtained four Tiger couples from Chiang Mai Zoo with the aim to breed and raise a population of Tigers due to their decreasing numbers in the wild in Asia. It does seem to have been successful. The Tiger show is outstanding and what these Tigers can do with training. Yes I understand this is not ideal and they are not in the wild. However remember how the population has grown since the Zoo took over the breeding of these incredible and powerful animals. I watched the show and the arena was full of tourists from all over the world and once again a vast arena area with so much more height from floor to top of the show. The tricks they performed especially jumping through the loops of fire were amazing. All of them seemed to be in excellent health and condition. When this show had finished you could go down to the arena ( caged I might add ) and get up close to the Tigers. Then everyone rushed for the exits onto the next show.