Now we know what they feed the crocs….
Written: Feb 26 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lots to see and do, Very inexpensive day trip
Cons: Hot!
The Bottom Line: If staying in Pattaya, I would certainly recommend visiting the Sriracha Tiger Zoo. The prices cannot be beat.
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| LuzonTS's Full Review: Sriracha Tiger Zoo, Thailand |
Now we know what they feed the crocs…
It was 11am I was still hung over from drinking Mekong and cokes until almost 4am. The phone started ringing and would not stop……
”What do you want” “Dude it’s Jimmy, what are ya doin’?” “Dying” “ oh that’s cool man. You wanna go with us” “Where? to get more alcohol so I can drown the little elephant running loose in my head?” “No man my girl wants to take us to the Tiger Zoo” “Oh great so we can wander around in the hot Thai sun and suffer even more?” “No dude it’s cool, she swears you’ll dig it - These dumb @%#$ stick their heads in a crocs mouth” “whoa I’m there!!! Wait…what the &^%$ does that have to do with Tigers? No never mind, don’t explain…give me 30 minutes”
And so began my trip to the Sriracha Tiger Zoo just north of Pattaya Thailand in the Chon Buri province. Feeling like crap, water bottle and aspirin in hand, I stumble my body down to the lobby of this most horrid hotel in Jom Tien Thailand and catch our chartered Baht bus to the Tiger Zoo.
If you don’t know what it is, a Baht bus is like a small pickup truck with a cover on the back which is open on the sides and rear with two rows of seats that run parallel to the length of the truck bed on each side. If you have ever been to the Philippines it is a lot like a jeepney/jitney.
The rented wheels and driver cost us 1500 baht for the whole day with an exchange rate of 40 Baht to the dollar. We brought some local girls we know along to help keep us out of trouble and assist with the translations.
It took us about 40 minutes to get from our hotel in Jom Tien to the zoo. There was plenty of parking in the parking lot. Our driver stayed with the vehicle so we bought her some food and water while she waited as she insisted she stay with the vehicle.
The first real shocker of the day was the pricing scheme. The locals paid about half of what Farang’s or foreigners pay. Farang is what Thai’s call us and it usually sounds like “Falang” as they have difficulty pronouncing the “R” Anyhow the inflated price only came out to something like two dollars anyway.
Our first stop was the Croc show and of course there was like 1 minute until the start of the show and it was on the other side of the park. We walked really fast and made it there in about five minutes. We managed to get some decent seats despite the place being really full. I noticed at this point that a majority of the customers appeared to be Taiwanese, not Thais.
The performers were two guys and a girl and they just kept sticking various parts of their anatomy in the crocs gaping maws while the crowd clapped and tossed money to the entertainers. It was cool the first few minutes but when I realized the crocs weren’t going to maim anyway I was bored and ready to go.
After the show it was a one minute walk to the Tiger Show. The area was a bunch of concrete seats in a half circle around a large chain link cage. The tigers came out and did the usual. First they stood on the small pedestals, growled when he cracked the whip and then of course everyone’s favorite….jumped through the flaming hoops of death! Ooohhhh ahhhhh!!!!
Later some kind of bear came out strangely similar to a Chinese moon bear and then a couple of Chimps. These guys were dressed up in suits and dresses and did their best to emulate us but looked more like capital hill in session. I know cheap shot sorry.
This show lasted about 15 minutes and the camera shots came out horrible because of the distance and the chain link fence. I can’t complain because the girls really had a good time.
Next stop was Pig Racing!!! Now that was a hoot. These guys chased and cattle prodded about 5 or so pigs down to one end of this 30 meter track and lined them up in their respective lanes as each pig had a number spray painted on his back. Jimmy gets a great idea and decides we should bet on the pigs to see who buys the first round when we go out later that night. Sure why not? My friend picks number 5 who unfortunately looked as bad as I felt.
Sure enough my luck stood strong and I was buying the first round. Hey how much for the pig number five? I wanna have a beach party!
After that it was a walk through the Petting zoo/animal park where we found the odd assortment of kangaroos, peacocks, Asiatic deer and so on. When we reached the central area of this park we found the staff allowing visitors to cradle creatures ranging from oversize tree rat looking creatures to snakes. While cuddling with these adorable little monsters the staff would take a picture of you for a small fee. The photo’s they took were digital of course and they could insert the pic into a keychain, on a T-shirt etc.
The prices were not bad at all but I brought my own digital camera and got some great shots of Jimmy being half strangled by a boa that was more freaked out than he was.
Right next door was the Scorpion cave. Now this was cool! They had hundreds of these nasty vicious looking scorpions piled on one another in separate Plexiglas chambers that were open to any fool brave enough to stick his hand in them. It’s good to see that liability laws fall along the Darwin principle in this country.
“Your honor, if the plaintiff was stupid enough to put his hand in the nest of scorpions he deserved to writhe on the floor in total agony !” crack goes the gavel “I find Sriracha Tiger Zoo innocent of any wrongdoing by reason of Darwin’s Law” and the plaintiff guilty of being an absolute moron
Seconds later was our next shock of the day! A nice looking Thai lady was standing in the back of the cave covered in these little creatures. She would allow you to have a photo with her for a few dozen Baht. One of the girls in the group did just that and to top it off, let the lady attach a few scorpions to her shirt!!!
We all emerged from the cave and our brave Thai lass was unharmed. A quick check of the watch and we realized we were late for the Elephant Show. Another speed walk to another section of the park and we were able to catch the last few minutes. Oh ya! The best part where the elephants walk over people laying down and any misstep will result in a human pancake! Everyone survived and then it was elephant dancing and then some really skinny Thai guys getting carried about the stage area while being hoisted by the elephant’s trunks.
The show finished with the crowd being allowed to buy stalks of bananas that they could feed to the Pachyderms. We decided against that and headed to the Tiger pens. They had lots of tigers in pens blocked off by Plexiglas. Some of the Tigers actually appeared to enjoy us being there and kept rubbing up the glass where we were at in vain hopes that we could somehow reach out and scratch their backs for them.
There were male and female pairings in more than a few cages and one that had baby cubs as a result of an earlier pairing. The tigers looked very happy where they were at and considering they would be poached the instant they set foot outside of this sanctuary I don’t blame them in the least bit.
We caught all of the shows and decided that now we should wander around the croc pens. We walked for twenty some odd minutes and wandered aimlessly for quite some time and saw what must have been thousands and thousands of crocs in artificial concrete pools. It was so bad in some spots these things were stacked on each other like cordwood which then brought up the question…..”What do they feed all of these things?” A short time later our question would be answered.
We wandered to the backside of the croc pens where the girl that was with me nearly impaled her eye on a low hanging branch. After I made sure she was ok and not in any real danger I pleaded with her not to tell anyone in her office I beat her up as she was going to have one hell of a bruise by her eye later.
We found what appeared to be some sort of back exit to the pen area as by now we were somewhat lost and could see that if we continued we would be back near the pig racing area. On the way out we saw a holding area that held a number of identical beautiful looking golden retrievers. "Ohhh how cute! I want one!” exclaimed the girls. Their next question of “"where is the dog show?"” was left unfinished as they noticed the one way ramp that led to the croc pens.
We all walked in silence for the next five minutes as we made our way to the souvenir store near the entrance. They had a small museum that went into great depth about the centers efforts for increasing the croc population but after seeing the poor dogs we did not care to much at that point. They did have some purses and such made out of croc skins and thousands of other items such as T-shirts, framed pictures, paper weights, croc jerky, green tea and much more. Once again being in Thailand the prices were fantastic.
That was the end of the trip and by this point I had consumed enough water that I did not feel half bad. Now about that first round!
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Dec - Feb
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LuzonTS
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Location: asia
Reviews written: 103
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