Pattaya Thailand Crocodile Farm 5th Jack Corbett Wonder of Pattaya
No Pattaya Thailand Crocodile Farm has more crocs than Pattaya Million Years Stone Park and Crocodile Farm zoo's thousands of crocodiles
by Jack Corbett
Imagine having a crocodile's smelly breath in your face as he clamps his ulcerous jaws around your body just before he pulls you under the water. You know you are drowning as you fight for your breath, and that after your body rots enough you will be eaten by the monster. But now I can get my revenge upon all crocodile-dom just for having such horrid thoughts . It was time to once again visit the Pattaya Crocodile Farm to feed whole raw chickens to a gang of hungry crocodiles while having one of my companions video me relentlessly teasing the loathsome beasts. The mission met with complete success as the following video will attest with a huge bonus when we were able to catch a number of tigers wide awake in the cool weather cavorting playfully with each other.
We had driven our motorbikes to the Crocodile Farm expecting a down pour at any moment. The clouds had already started to get dark to the East by 11 a.m. which is when we headed into what surely would soon become a storm. After all, every day it had rained by mid-afternoon like clockwork. But we pushed on anyway. So the weather had gotten cool by Pattaya standards.
We were once again amazed at just how many crocodiles were at the Crocodile Farm. It must have been at least a couple of thousand, most of them concentrated in several ponds. There we found not only all sizes of crocodiles, but also many of them without arms, legs or claws. We already knew that Crocodiles were vicious, that they'd even tackle a lion or tiger in the wild and that they had a reputation for eating humans. But now we were finding out for the first time that they were cannibalistic. One tank was full of un-whole crocodiles with each of its occupants having something drastically wrong with it.
120 baht a person was one helluva deal. I don't know what the normal visitor price is. I have a Thai driver's license which gets me the Thai price for such public places as such a low price of admission the well-maintained Crocodile Farm is a steal.
We found exotic birds in large cages, two Asiatic Bears, one fast asleep all sprawled out facing the visitors peering into the cage while the other kept its greedy head inside a large feeding trough as it munched down whatever had been placed inside. There was a large catfish pond with a wooden viewing dock extending into it where visitors could watch the catfish being fed. Their heads being at least two feet wide, I'd estimate the weight of at least some of them at being 150 pounds or so.
Then we found what we had come there for--the crocodile feeding area. For fifty baht one could buy a raw chicken tied to a fishing line that had been fastened to a bamboo pole. I purchased one chicken and then I handed my little Canon camera to Gus, who'd be my partner in crime. Planning on keeping the chicken one the line for as long as possible I dangled it high above the crocodiles gathered below. Lazy critters, at first they wouldn't bite, preferring instead to creep up on it. Two minutes must have gone by with nothing happening. Finally I let the chicken down almost into their snouts. Suddenly there was a strike, and then right afterwards a second strike by a second crocodile. A few seconds later after I jerked the chicken far above the crocodiles, I started to let my line down again only to see the chicken fall off into the water. It was gone in a couple of seconds as several crocodiles went for it, but only one of them was close enough to gain the prize.
I had much better luck with the 2nd chicken I purchased. This one had been tied to the line around its lower leg so I didn't think it would last very long before falling off. But for some reason it did and it took more than a half dozen crocodiles making over a half dozen attacks before one of the reptiles nailed it.
What would have happened if one of us were to go into the water and swim with the crocodiles? We'd never know but I asked Gus which would be the more horrible death--being eaten by a shark or by a crocodile. He replied...the shark, then Gus added because the crocodile would pull its victim under the water and suffocate it.
Thoughts of being caught out in crocodile infested waters soon ceased when we found a single Tiger club chained to a park bench. I'd put the animal at around forty pounds. It behaved just like a playful kitten. But I already knew from having been around Tiger cubs before that they didn't purr like cats, and that surprisingly they had a deep growl more like a dog.
Not very far away was a large pen which had much larger tigers in it. From a distance they appeared full grown or almost. But the group seemed much more active than any tigers I'd ever seen before in a zoo. That could have been because they were only a year old or so. Then it could have been due to the weather which was still threatening rain.
If I were to compare the Pattaya Crocodile Farm to the Siricha Tiger Zoo, I'd have to say that each is similar to the other. If your primary interest to see as many Crocodiles as possible the Tiger Zoo has at least a thousand crocodiles, and if not, it seems so. But it seems that the Crocodile Farm has been expanded from what it had been several years ago. There must have been at least thirty tigers here today. And there were elephants too along with all the other animals with Elephant rides being offered at 450 baht for 15 minutes. Only thing the Elephant Village is not far away, and the Elephant Village's specialty is elephant rides which although substantially more expensive last for one hour. And the Elephant Village is all set up to produce inexpensive videos of anyone who wishes to preserve his elephant ride into permanent memory. But the Elephant Village is another subject I'll get into in a future issue of the Looking Glass. For now the bottom line is this----Pattaya has an incredible lineup of extremely competent zoos and wild life parks including an excellent aquarium all of which will be covered in past and future issues of the Looking Glass.
For those wanting more detailed info about the Pattaya Crocodile Farm here's the official web site. The Million Years Stone Park and Pattaya Crocodile Farm.
