The day we almost Hitch-hiked!
We planned to visit the Tiger temple in Kanchanaburi last weekend. But as luck ruled out that option we had to find an alternative. Sis wanted to get a picture with a tiger and having heard the closure of Kanchanaburi broke her dreams of getting pictured with the big cat. She spoke about it with her colleagues and they mentioned the name of another place - Sriracha Tiger Zoo. So with some consolation she started thinking of going to this place. We talked about it and I asked her to do the research. After Kanchanaburi true facts were out I lost interest in visiting and getting clicked with the animal. Somehow I dint want to be part of the torture these animals are put through, just so men can make money out of their show.
Anyways saturday, after an extremely tiring shopping day, we made up our mind to go to the Zoo the next day. Sunday by around 11:30 we started to the Silom station. We had to take a bus\minivan from Ekkamai to Sriracha. This time luckily we got a bus and not the cramped dark minivan. 86 baht one way each person. These buses are a bit more spacious and brighter which makes travel comfortable. It was a 2 hr ride. I knew that we had to look for the Robinson's dept store, but dint know which one. This Zoo isn't that famous and hardly people knew how to get there. Somehow we managed to ask the driver to help us with the stop which would be closest to the Zoo. Eventually it was the Robinson's store where we got off. Took a tuk tuk to the Zoo, 150 baht for 15 mins ride. Expensive but no other go. The ride was pretty fine given the wide flat road, the best part of Thai.
The Zoo was pretty much fine, with not many animals other than Crocodiles, Pigs, Tigers, Camels, Elephants. Each animal had a show of about 15 mins. It is not a very big Zoo either which actually saved us a lot of walking around. The first stop was at an enclosure for tigers where there is an option of paying 100 baht and getting to fire 20 shots of air rifle at cages hanging in the air which hold meat in them. When you hit the target the cage opens and the meat falls on the ground. The tigers get to feast on them then. Innovative way I thought to myself. Somehow with the whole turmoil in me about the caged animals plight, I couldn't enjoy all this. They all seemed tired, malnourished and hungry. The tigers look straight at you, waiting for you to shoot and drop them their food. It was a pitiable condition. We then moved on to the place were we could feed bottled milk to a baby tiger. You hardly get 15 20 seconds with them. Its so unfair, considering you ought to pay 200 baht for those 2 shots of pictures we get with the baby. They were so hungry, I literally felt sad for them. They have baby alligators lying on chairs with their mouth sealed with cellophane. Somehow we din't feel like touching them. So we moved on. We checked out the tiger show, like the ones in a circus. They posed, jumped through fire, walked on a rope, ate meat from their master's hand etc. Its nice to see animals doing the ricks, but sad how much they have to endure during their training. And worse part is they all look under fed.
After this we went on to have lunch, @ 4 PM. The food court served the best fried chicken and omelette I have ever had, juicy is the word. Rice and chicken and rice and omelette is what we ordered. We had a hearty lunch. With our stomachs filled we next went to see the crocodile show. The folks put their head into the mouth of the croc and it doesn't do anything. That is the main part of the show. Just watched it for the last 5 mins. There was not much to see other than that. So we walked around the park clicking pictures and enjoying the 10 mins of free time we had before the next show started, the elephant show. There was one part in this show where a guy is made to stand on target board, like the dart board. They had balloons around him and between his two legs too. The elephant was supposed to target the balloons without hurting the man. They poked fun of checking if he was ok and he felt safe about his private body parts. It was funny and I kept wondering if it was being joked in an Indian Zoo how people would take it. We skipped the Pigs race and so finally we were done with the Zoo. Somehow the thought of seeing fat pigs running din't entice us.
Once we were out we had to figure out how to get back. The place is a small town and very scantily populated, at least near the Zoo. So finding a ride back seemed a tough task. I kept picturing a town in some Texan town\village. The place looked like it was out of a 70s Hollywood movie. We started walking back on the road hoping to find a bus\van\bike taxi anything that would take us to the bus stand. After 15 mins on the road I started thinking if we had to walk the whole 7-10 kms or we had to hitch hike. 1st option seemed tiring and 2nd scary a bit. Luckily we stopped at one place and asked a lady about where to find a ride back. And she said that she was waiting for a bus which would do the same. So finally we managed to find a ride. It was a Song thew. Finally I managed to ride one, had been wanting to ride it at least once before leaving Bkk. And this time over I got to ride on it twice. Once from the Zoo to the Robinson's market and then again from there to Bang sue. Here we got off trying to find that sweet that sis had mentioned. It was indeed nice, made of rice and coconut milk. We bought 2 variants of that sweet. And walked a bit further to the Bus station. It was 6:45 and we were worried we might not get a the government bus. So we decided to use the minivan this time. It helped. We reached Bkk in 1.5 hrs and back home by 10. When we reached Silom we got see that Sunday night market too, where they block the roads around the station for a specified period of time and sell stuffs on the streets.
Finally after an eventful day we reached home all exhausted and happy too.
Will never forget what I felt walking out of the Zoo and walking on the road trying to get a ride. This event made me realize that may be I am not that tough as I thought I was, that I cannot just ask for a lift and hitch hike with strangers in an unknown place. And chicken can be real juicy. And the local sweet of Bang Sue was tasty. And my wish to see a circus show also kinda got fulfilled. I may not want to see any more animals go through crap to put up a show for us humans. This was enough!
We planned to visit the Tiger temple in Kanchanaburi last weekend. But as luck ruled out that option we had to find an alternative. Sis wanted to get a picture with a tiger and having heard the closure of Kanchanaburi broke her dreams of getting pictured with the big cat. She spoke about it with her colleagues and they mentioned the name of another place - Sriracha Tiger Zoo. So with some consolation she started thinking of going to this place. We talked about it and I asked her to do the research. After Kanchanaburi true facts were out I lost interest in visiting and getting clicked with the animal. Somehow I dint want to be part of the torture these animals are put through, just so men can make money out of their show.
Anyways saturday, after an extremely tiring shopping day, we made up our mind to go to the Zoo the next day. Sunday by around 11:30 we started to the Silom station. We had to take a bus\minivan from Ekkamai to Sriracha. This time luckily we got a bus and not the cramped dark minivan. 86 baht one way each person. These buses are a bit more spacious and brighter which makes travel comfortable. It was a 2 hr ride. I knew that we had to look for the Robinson's dept store, but dint know which one. This Zoo isn't that famous and hardly people knew how to get there. Somehow we managed to ask the driver to help us with the stop which would be closest to the Zoo. Eventually it was the Robinson's store where we got off. Took a tuk tuk to the Zoo, 150 baht for 15 mins ride. Expensive but no other go. The ride was pretty fine given the wide flat road, the best part of Thai.
The Zoo was pretty much fine, with not many animals other than Crocodiles, Pigs, Tigers, Camels, Elephants. Each animal had a show of about 15 mins. It is not a very big Zoo either which actually saved us a lot of walking around. The first stop was at an enclosure for tigers where there is an option of paying 100 baht and getting to fire 20 shots of air rifle at cages hanging in the air which hold meat in them. When you hit the target the cage opens and the meat falls on the ground. The tigers get to feast on them then. Innovative way I thought to myself. Somehow with the whole turmoil in me about the caged animals plight, I couldn't enjoy all this. They all seemed tired, malnourished and hungry. The tigers look straight at you, waiting for you to shoot and drop them their food. It was a pitiable condition. We then moved on to the place were we could feed bottled milk to a baby tiger. You hardly get 15 20 seconds with them. Its so unfair, considering you ought to pay 200 baht for those 2 shots of pictures we get with the baby. They were so hungry, I literally felt sad for them. They have baby alligators lying on chairs with their mouth sealed with cellophane. Somehow we din't feel like touching them. So we moved on. We checked out the tiger show, like the ones in a circus. They posed, jumped through fire, walked on a rope, ate meat from their master's hand etc. Its nice to see animals doing the ricks, but sad how much they have to endure during their training. And worse part is they all look under fed.
After this we went on to have lunch, @ 4 PM. The food court served the best fried chicken and omelette I have ever had, juicy is the word. Rice and chicken and rice and omelette is what we ordered. We had a hearty lunch. With our stomachs filled we next went to see the crocodile show. The folks put their head into the mouth of the croc and it doesn't do anything. That is the main part of the show. Just watched it for the last 5 mins. There was not much to see other than that. So we walked around the park clicking pictures and enjoying the 10 mins of free time we had before the next show started, the elephant show. There was one part in this show where a guy is made to stand on target board, like the dart board. They had balloons around him and between his two legs too. The elephant was supposed to target the balloons without hurting the man. They poked fun of checking if he was ok and he felt safe about his private body parts. It was funny and I kept wondering if it was being joked in an Indian Zoo how people would take it. We skipped the Pigs race and so finally we were done with the Zoo. Somehow the thought of seeing fat pigs running din't entice us.
Once we were out we had to figure out how to get back. The place is a small town and very scantily populated, at least near the Zoo. So finding a ride back seemed a tough task. I kept picturing a town in some Texan town\village. The place looked like it was out of a 70s Hollywood movie. We started walking back on the road hoping to find a bus\van\bike taxi anything that would take us to the bus stand. After 15 mins on the road I started thinking if we had to walk the whole 7-10 kms or we had to hitch hike. 1st option seemed tiring and 2nd scary a bit. Luckily we stopped at one place and asked a lady about where to find a ride back. And she said that she was waiting for a bus which would do the same. So finally we managed to find a ride. It was a Song thew. Finally I managed to ride one, had been wanting to ride it at least once before leaving Bkk. And this time over I got to ride on it twice. Once from the Zoo to the Robinson's market and then again from there to Bang sue. Here we got off trying to find that sweet that sis had mentioned. It was indeed nice, made of rice and coconut milk. We bought 2 variants of that sweet. And walked a bit further to the Bus station. It was 6:45 and we were worried we might not get a the government bus. So we decided to use the minivan this time. It helped. We reached Bkk in 1.5 hrs and back home by 10. When we reached Silom we got see that Sunday night market too, where they block the roads around the station for a specified period of time and sell stuffs on the streets.
Finally after an eventful day we reached home all exhausted and happy too.
Will never forget what I felt walking out of the Zoo and walking on the road trying to get a ride. This event made me realize that may be I am not that tough as I thought I was, that I cannot just ask for a lift and hitch hike with strangers in an unknown place. And chicken can be real juicy. And the local sweet of Bang Sue was tasty. And my wish to see a circus show also kinda got fulfilled. I may not want to see any more animals go through crap to put up a show for us humans. This was enough!
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