Giraffes, Squirrel Monkeys, and Zebras, OH MY!

For those of you who know me (Megan) well, I have a deep love for zoos, and more specifically, giraffes. Justin wasn't much of a zoo-goer until we began dating, and since then, we have been to the zoo at least once a year with much anticipation leading up to seeing the giraffes. So one day in Chiang Mai we headed over to the Safari-like-zoo. We had the place to ourselves for the most part - WHAT?!!? It was awesome!

We were greeted by hundreds of wild deer all over the entrance the the zoo and the parking lot

They were perfectly tame! 

We spent an hour walking around the main loop, seeing albino raccoons, albino alligators, and hippos. Some of our new favorites were the Mouse Deer and the Squirrel Monkey.

 Albino Skunk

 Albino Alligator

 Regularly Pink Flamingos 

 Meerkat

 Playing tug-o-war with the squirrel monkeys reminded us of the monkeys at Fort Wayne Zoo

This appears to be a cross between a deer (legs) a rabbit (body) and a mouse (head)...

Then the Safari began. About 10 people climbed onto a tram and we were shuttled around Safari enclosures to see the large animals. What we didn't know was that many of them wouldn't actually be "enclosed." We were quickly greeted by hundreds of deer and elk that just walk around the place. They were covering the streets - you could tell they were used to people as they would walk right up to you to see if you had food.

 Yak!

 The hairiest hog in the world

 For the most part it was really cool when the animals came really close to us...Not so much with the ostriches though

 This elkish animal was directly across a small pit from where the tiger was enclosed...just taunting him!

Siberian Tiger!

 Water buffalo- the little one here was very recently born!

 And the Main Attraction! (for us anyway) The Giraffes!

 We didn't have food but we pretended we did so we could get a better picture

...twice...

 Thankfully the bears, lions, and tigers were still behind walls in their enclosures. The best part though, was of course, the giraffes. Our only mistake was not buying the food to feed animals. The giraffes literally walked right up to our tram! One still came over to us looking for food and was only inches away from us, so we got great pictures! To say I was happy is an understatement!