Nong Ja and Trakan Tiger Zoo Ubon Ratchathani Thailand.

The other day my little princess Nong Ja and I ventured to the Trakan Tiger Zoo around 35klms out of Ubon Ratchathani. I had never been to the zoo but had read many different opinions on it.

Ja was very excited and wanted to get straight to the tigers. I had no idea on the layout on the zoo so we followed one of the tracks.

The first thing we ran into after walking through the gates was a few cockatoos. They were going off, screeching and looked terrible as they had been ripping their feathers out.

This was the size of the turtle’s pond. It was a large enclosure but I thought the pond was a little scungy.

We come across a leopard finally and Ja was not impressed it was just laying there doing nothing. She started yelling, “tiger get up and come here.” I had to try and tell Ja to not yell but she was a little excited.

This leopard scared Ja a little as it charged the fence and hissed and bared its teeth. She wasn’t too keen to get close to the first fence for a picture.

And this was part of the freak show at the zoo. A five legged cow and I gave him a pat and then Ja was right in there as well patting away. Ja used to be so timid but she has really come out of her shell since attending kindergarten.

These would have been not that far off as being as tall as Ja. Ja had asked me 50 times already when we stopped at an animal’s enclosure. “Does it want to bite me?” If I said “yes” she would then ask me “why do they want to bite me?” Kids and questions!

Another bird of prey that was in such a small enclosure for such a bird.

Ja used to be petrified of snakes. I have no idea why but if we were watching National Geographic Wild and snakes were on she would make you change the channel. If you made a play-dough snake she would scream and cry. I ended up buying some plastic snakes and now she is not petrified of them but knows she should never try and pick one up.

We finally come across a sleeping tiger and Ja again roared into life demanding some action. I tried some calming words but Ja wanted to see a tiger in action.

We had come across and old enclosure that had housed crocodiles and Ja had been asking again and again where they were. We finally come across them.


So I hoisted Ja up and of course the “will it bite me” question came up and I had to say that it would if we got too close. Then another 20 questions came as well.



Ja come across these dinosaurs and charged off to them.

There were a couple of monkeys that made me really disappointed. Seeing them chained around the neck and to a pole disgusted me.

We finally came across a tiger that was pacing up and down its fence line. Ja was wrapped and paced up and down with it chatting away like they were friends.


We come across this big tiger that seemed to be staring right through Ja. Ja asked me “Why is it staring at me?” “Does it want to bite me?”

So trying to explain that it cannot bite her but would if it could was very hard to a 3 and a half year old.

Over all the entire zoo was a disappointment to me. I mean the enclosures for the animals disappointed me. Zoos I have been to before have been free range or The Melbourne Zoo so conditions are much different.

The animals looked healthy though and I do hope the small admission charge (60 baht) for Ja and I goes a small way in keeping the animals healthy.

Will we be back in a hurry, I am not sure. If Ja pleads to me and bugs the crap out of me then we may. But I will not be in a rush.

Brunty