Travel Diary - Day 12 - Chiang Mai

[kitling]

Back in Chiang Mai, in a different hotel near the night market, my knees decided it would be a great time for an arthritis flare up. I’d kind of been expecting this and just glad it didn’t happen in the jungle. Being in different locations can cause immune reactions, which my kind of arthritis is, something about all the different germs and

Comments

[txxxpxx]

I am so completely with you on the Night Safari. We went for the first time on our last trip to Chiang Mai. The albino animals are cool but like you say it just feels....wrong. I'm pleased you didn't go to the Chiang Mai Zoo. We went because of the drawcard of pandas. The panda enclosure was fine but the other enclosures were heart breaking. I will never forget the sight of an old orangutan in a horrid cement enclosure with his hand outstretched to us. Obviously people would throw things at him, food maybe? I hope it was food. But watching this poor creature literally begging was simply horrifying.

[kitling]

Panda's were the drawcard at Beijing Zoo too. The panda's were in this lovely enclosure that is the first one you visit, which gives you hope. Then you go past concrete pit after concrete pit and small cage after small cage full of animals, animal shit and food scraps. The cages were filthy and despite signs saying don't feed the animals, people were throwing food at the animals. Most of the animals weren't even begging, because they had obviously had too much food thrown at them. We ran from this place in tears. Interestingly, adjacent Beijing Zoo is a world class aquarium, which was worth a visit