The Dusit zoo is an old zoo, it actually was the private garden of King Chulalongkorn many years ago and,  after the death of the King, was left unattended for quite some time before being taken over by Bangkok municipality.

Animals in a zoo are very expensive to maintain and since local people do not pay when visiting it while foreigners pay Baht 100 only, the income is very little and probably barely enough to even keep a bunch of lions alive. So do not really expect much as far as the number and variety of animals are concerned, the much more expensive Safari World  beats it by a wide margin.

But it does not really mean that the Dusit zoo is not worth a visit if you live in Bangkok, and you have young kids, I’m sure they’ll like quite a few things there.

Let’s see the map first, the zoo is actually a park built around a lake.

The map is revised regularly to include the renovation work, a constant occurrence in Bangkok, and the zoo is no exception.

As you can see on the first map, you can visit the zoo on ground level, there is a road going all around the lake, and this is the road that you have to take in order to be able to see most of the animals up close.

But I’m sure your kids will prefer the sky walk, after having completed your visit on the ground floor, that is.

So what about the animals?

They have white tigers,  you can see them from the sky walk, the place to stop and to look down is well indicated

Here it is, doing what cats usually do, in a zoo or not, sleeping.

A zoo is not a zoo without a hippo, so here is one waiting for us

Not that it cares much actually, I guess it spends its days eating

Other animals are here and there

And quite a few crows inviting themselves in the zoo, I guess free food is the incentive

Besides what you can see outside, there are also two buildings, one for the snakes and lizards and one for the animals that are not supposed to sleep during the night, the nocturnal zoo.

Here is the a dark alley at the entrance of the nocturnal zoo

But actually, most animals there do not really know they’re not supposed to sleep. 😀

I let you guess which animal is this one. My son asked asked me to take the picture, very impressed by this seemingly dangerous animal.

Besides the animals in cages, you also have the ones that are not in cages, the crows being some of them. But since there is a big lake in the middle of the zoo

There are also quite  few of the animals you find next to a lake in Bangkok, Lumphini Park having quite a few of them, the monitor lizard.

And when you are a young boy, you sure prefer to keep your distance, you never know 😀

And it is still a zoo, like any zoo, so when you see our closest cousins in jail, you feel uncomfortable, I sure do.

And I’m not sure they really like it

So overall, a nice visit if your goal is having a nice walk around a big lake and on a sky walk,  with a few animals in cages to see here and there. But not really a zoo worth talking about as far as the number of animals on display is concerned.

And you’d better go early, past 10 a.m., many people are coming in, after all, it is free of charge.