(not) The Night Safari Again

[davidgtr]

Sorry to bore everyone with yet another night safari one, but

http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=5530

New Year countdown at Chiang Mai's Night Safari expected to attract thousands of people

CHIANG MAI, Dec 29 (TNA) - Thousands of people, both Thais and foreign tourists, are expected to join the forthcoming countdown event at Thailand's first night safari--Chiang Mai Night Safari--in the North.

The countdown event would begin from 06:00 p.m. on December 31, local officials told journalists on Wednesday.

Activities in the event include bike and mini marathorn races, as well as animal shows and displays of modern and folk music, according to the officials.

However, there will be no firework displays, as it will disturb and panic animal flocks in the night zoo.

"We expect that at least 5,000 visitors will join the Chiang Mai Night Safari countdown event. If a large number of visitors join the event, we may open the zoo until the dawn of January 1 and invite them to join a merit making ceremony--offering alms to Buddhist monks," said the officials.

The Chiang Mai Night Safari has unofficially opened for the public for over one month, attracting more than 800,000 visitors so far.

The night zoo's official opening was set in early 2006, with the exact date to be later announced to the public, the officials said. (TNA)--E002

<deleted> that sounds real impressive 800,000 visitors in just over a month?

I’m not sure exactly how long the night safari has been open, but even if it is a full 2 months, then I calculate 800,000 visitors to be 13,000 a day. Is that for real or are they telling porky pies?

[up-country_sinclair]

800,000?

i drive past the night safari at least two times / day, and and i find this number HIGHLY suspect.

actually, i would have questioned 80,000.

[up-country_sinclair]

on second thought, i would have questioned 18,000.

[Galong]

I hope they are honest enough to put a big sign at the entrance saying, "We Want to Sell Endangered Wildlife meat... Wanna Eat a Tiger?"

[Tywais]

800,000?

i drive past the night safari at least two times / day, and and i find this number HIGHLY suspect.

actually,  i would have questioned 80,000.

I take the canal road into CMU everyday and rarely see any cars turning into there from that entrance.

[Ajarn]

Beyond the making-up of figures as a government face-saver (I assume), reports I've heard (including some here) have all suggested a good time can be found there...

[cm das]

I went on the King's birthday & I bet there were more than 30 or 40k on that day alone. There was a 4 hour wait for the trams! (And I mean because there were loads of people, not like the 4 hour wait at some ATM's in Thailand) Another friend went 2 weeks before & the wait was 2 hours. 800k doesn't sound outrageous to me.

[ThaiPauly]

I went on the King's birthday & I bet there were more than 30 or 40k on that day alone. There was a 4 hour wait for the trams! (And I mean because there were loads of people, not like the 4 hour wait at some ATM's in Thailand)  Another friend went 2 weeks before & the wait was 2 hours. 800k doesn't sound outrageous to me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Snap.. I went the same day you did... HEAVING, no chance to go on any rides as the queues were massive.

What baffles me is why they keep extending the period that they are letting everyone in for free for

We saw many many cars with BKK number plates up for a day or two as its FREE.

Once everyone has been , if their numbers ARE to be beleived who will go and fork out the money to get in?

Only tourists, as I imagine that every Thai that wants to go has been by now

TP

[Johpa]

Beyond the making-up of figures as a government face-saver (I assume), reports I've heard (including some here) have all suggested a good time can be found there...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You mean like the good times one encountered on the HASH runs back in the early 80s or some other variant of good times Thai style?

[Nignoy]

Beyond the making-up of figures as a government face-saver (I assume), reports I've heard (including some here) have all suggested a good time can be found there...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You mean like the good times one encountered on the HASH runs back in the early 80s or some other variant of good times Thai style?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Or the good times before the Septics discovered Pattaya and Phuket nignoy

[sleepyjohn]

I was up there for a walk this week and I thought 80 might have been high.

[jomama]

From the Manager newspaper:

By Lim Li Min 1 January 2006 17:05

The Chiang Mai Night Safari is a rough and semi-wild ride

The road to the spanking-new Chiang Mai Night Safari is still rutted, with piles of earth on either side. But as you travel down the bumpy road in Nong Kwai district, a 20-minute drive from Chiang Mai’s center in near darkness, a silhouette of an elephant on a roof gradually emerges. Then, a warm pool of light picks out a succession of graceful Lanna-style roofs. With its open-plan lobby, sculptures and subtle lighting, it could be an upscale resort straight out of Phuket. The grounds look as if they’ve been worked on by a landscape architect. But the cement sculptures are not the usual resort decorations of Buddha images or temple figures. One is a half-lion, half-cow; the other is a half-lion, half-bird. A reindeer graces the central courtyard.

The Chiang Mai Night Safari (CNS) covers 131 hectares and has been two years in construction and planning. It is one of only three night safaris in Asia, with the others in China and Singapore. But as its motley animal figurines seem to presage, CNS seems to have trouble in the animal department – or more accurately, convincing people that it can get the treatment of its animals right.

Attracting a storm of controversy even before its official opening on February 1, 2006, CNS has been criticized for its plans to import endangered animals from Kenya, insufficient holding space for its animals, and a restaurant that will serve exotic meats such as zebra and crocodile.

The brains behind the project, Plodprasop Suraswadi, vice minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and CEO of CNS, though, later hastily withdrew the idea. Shortly after, some of his aides assaulted some animal conservationists in a TV debate.

With such a bad start, it’s no wonder the staff at CNS seem a little leery of the public. Getting a map of the grounds takes ages; information is even harder to come by. “Go on the lake trail first,” says a staffer in poor English, without adequately explaining the animals one can see en route. Although one free tram ride is given before the official opening date (admission is currently free), nobody makes it clear that visitors have to pay for the second ride, if you want to see both the “Predator” and “Savannah” trails.

Beyond the reception building, a central plaza fans out in different directions. The CNS is divided into four sections: Predator and Savannah, which you have to hop on a tram to see, and two walking trails, the Jaguar and Swan Lake, which each take around half an hour to complete. Jolly Christmas carols blast over the loudspeakers, rather jarring when trying to pretend you’re seeing the animals in their natural habitats.

On the Swan Lake trail, which winds around an artificial lake where bobbing ducks and swans float past, footlights guide you down well-paved paths. In the half-gloom, hastily re-planted trees – some still with wooden supports – line the lanes. First up is a flock of pink flamingos, separated from the path by a deep moat.

The idea behind the night safari is simple: the dimness makes man-made constructions such as trenches and fences melt away, so visitors feel as if they’re observing the animals in their “natural” habitats. Besides, the animals are more active at night, when they usually feed. Carefully positioned spotlights pick out the birds, which lift their heads in the presence of visitors. All this is fine in theory, but CNS’s fences are obstructive, its cages and moats not properly camouflaged.

At other times, the lights are simply intrusive: one stadium-strength beam shines into the hutch of a sleeping rodent. Next are a row of empty enclosures with plaques inscribed with the names of the animals they were to have contained: white-cheeked gibbons, wild boars, mouse deer, crested eagles. The porcupine and the black leopard seem comfortable in their spacious enclosures.

But further down the trail, a few animals look ill at ease. A common palm civet paces his enclosure obsessively, looking obviously distressed. A snow leopard sits in an area too small for the beast. A bear pads about his grounds and plays with a hoop-sized coil of wire that looks like it shouldn’t have been left there. And the only information provided, (sometimes on stuck-on photocopied sheets in front of each enclosure), is sketchy – it only contains a few lines about each animal. And there are still apparent safety issues: one side of an enclosure containing a jaguar has a fence with postage stamp-sized holes, which could allow curious kids to poke their fingers through.

On the Savannah trail, the waiting time is around 20 minutes, after which you hop onto a bus or an open-sided tram. But anticipation is high: as a bus-load of sightseers pulls in after having finished their tour, they applaud their guide rapturously.

Our experience is a little different. Wending slowly through the darkness, the bus stops at strategic points, its side spotlights trained on the half-dozing animals: the graceful neck of a giraffe, a herd of shy antelope, some striped hyenas. All this is fine if the animals happen to be at your side of the bus – but you can barely make out anything if they happen to be on the other. The cheerful guide happily reels off a load of information, most of which was, unfortunately for the farangs, in Thai.

The other trail marked “Predators” features tigers, lions, sun bears, storks, crocodiles, vultures, white leopards, foxes and red dholes, says a receptionist. But too bad if you arrive too late – the last ride begins at 10:30pm.

Back at the reception area, a photo room where visitors can pose with the zoo’s cute critters highlights further animal welfare concerns. Two three-month-old tiger cubs are padding about. “Don’t come too close,” warns one of their minders, who thwacks the cub gently with a tree frond. But a bank of photos on the wall shows children cradling the cubs as if they were kittens, kids sitting with the baby tigers on their laps, burying their faces in their fur. She later allows visitors to stroke them.

Is CNS little more than a cash cow designed to keep tourists in Chiang Mai for a day longer? The lack of planning, attention to the finer points and inadequate animal welfare seem to indicate so. With just a month to go until the big opening day, it’s a pity that the Lanna-style architecture, for now, far outshines the true stars of the show.

[rrose070]

Is it a tourist jobbie, or actually pleasant to see?

[chanchao]

> However, there will be no firework displays, as it will

> disturb and panic animal flocks in the night zoo.

Shucks.

> &lt;deleted&gt; that sounds real impressive 800,000 visitors in just over a month?

Keep in mind it was free. Still the number of close to a million is of course totally preposterous. Sure, on some days (Saturdays, Sundays) it made a nice diversion from the usual itinerary of driving your Corolla to Airport Plaza and afterwards check out a place on which a couple billion baht has been spent. But 800,000.. that would be serious numbers on every (week)day. 800K is every man woman and child in CHiang Mai city and surrounding districts, plus an equal number from Bangkok and elsewhere.

> Is it a tourist jobbie, or actually pleasant to see?

Well ideally it's intended to be both. A zoo by definition is pretty artificial of course. I actually have a pretty good zoo in my home town.

[The Dan Sai Kid]

I also went on the King's Birthday. The large foyer looks mightily impressive, infact the only thing larger was the 2 massive queues to go on the trails.

There was no way we were standing in the queues, but I know someone who did and they waited for 3 hours and still were nowhere near the front.

Now, as you may or may not know, you queue and get on a wee bus that goes round a trail. I believe the park management were running a small amount of buses to make the queues larger than they should be - so that they can produce a picture of all these people queuing.

Oh, that entrance road is a bloody disgrace. They should never have opened til it was finished. To call it a trail is a bit of an exaggeration. It looked like they've just planted a drill of potatoes in i

[Norman d'Plume]

Been there a few times. Live a couple of minutes away. Never had a chance to "ride-the-rides" because the queues are always too long. Pleasant walk around the lake though. Keeps the children amused for an hour or so.