Moo Deng, the adorable pygmy hippo, has captured hearts across Thailand (and beyond) for her playful antics and fiesty cuteness. Born at Khao Kheow Open Zoo near Pattaya, you can easily see the “bouncy pork” for yourself on a day trip from Bangkok. Here’s everything you need to know about visiting.
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Seeing the star: Moo Deng
Moo Deng lives in the Green Zone of the zoo, in a specially designed enclosure with her mother. You can’t miss it as there are perpetual crowds around her enclosure. The general consensus is that the best time to see her is between 8:30am and 9:30am, when keepers clean her enclosure and feed her. She also has afternoon play time around 2pm to 3pm. Outside of these times, she is said to be typically napping or lounging in the water.
We arrived at the zoo just after 9am and made a beeline for Moo Deng. There were already many people encircling her enclosure, but it wasn’t too difficult to find a spot once people had their fill and wandered away. She was munching on a tray of carrots and other veggies with her mother, with both strolling around to eye the crowd from time to time.
We also happened to visit when her 1st birthday celebrations were in full swing in July 2025. So there were various stalls set up around her exhibit, as well as a mascot that appeared at certain times.
You can check the zoo’s official Facebook account for the latest events and news. The page is entirely in Thai though, so you will need to employ the help of machine translators or ChatGPT.
Exploring Khao Kheow Open Zoo
While Moo Deng may be the main attraction, the massive zoo has a lot of other interesting animals to offer. Spanning around 800 hectares with over 8,000 animals, the park can be largely broken into two zones.
Green Zone
Those exploring on foot will enter from the Green Zone, which is where the zoo’s tram service also runs. In addition to Moo Deng, the Green Zone also features two highlights that I highly recommend:
Lemur Island
You have to pay a small fee to ride the raft across the lake to get to Lemur Island, but is it completely worth it. For hygiene reasons, you will need to wear a mask and plastic gloves before interacting with the lemurs.
I also recommend buying some snacks for them, although they seemed to not like the greens. The lemurs are not shy at all and will brazenly grab your container to check for carrots and other treats. They liked what the staff had to offer them the most, which was often used to coax the animals onto visitors’ shoulders for photo ops.
Elephant swimming show
You can’t go to Thailand and not see elephants. If you have never seen an elephant swim before, this is your chance. In addition to standing by the poolside, the exhibit also offers a glass window to see the elephant as he/she moves underwater. Though, rather than swimming, he/she appeared to simply be walking along the pool floor.
Other animals you can see in the Green Zone include deer, penguins, flamingoes and bears. There is also a reptile zone and large bird aviary.
Pink Zone
The distance between enclosures here is too large to cover on foot, so the pink zone is for cars and golf carts. Here you have the tigers and leopards, as well as chimpanzees and painted storks. There is even an Australia Village. Due to time constraints, we couldn’t explore this area in detail, but I did have fun driving the golf cart past the different sections.
You can find a map in English on the official website.
Food
Food options inside the zoo are limited, so it’s a good idea to bring snacks or eat before you arrive. There are, however, small kiosks selling drinks, ice cream, and simple meals scattered around, so you won’t starve either way.
Golf cart rental
If you have a few people, it can be worth renting a golf cart for a few hours to cover as much ground as possible. Prices for 2 hours are as follows:
- 500 baht for 4-seater golf cart
- 700 baht for 6-seater golf cart
You can also elect to drive your own vehicle into the zoo, but can only enter the Pink Zone. You will need to park your car to enter the Green Zone.
Discounted tickets
Entry to the zoo costs 350 baht for foreigners (children 120 baht) and 200 baht for Thai residents (children 40 baht). If you are not a Thai resident, I recommend buying your ticket online to get some discount.
I bought my ticket on Trip.com on the day, and got about 20% off the ticket price. You must go to an office near the entrance to exchange the booking for a physical ticket before you can enter the park though.
Klook also offers discounted tickets, although the last time I checked the discount is smaller than Trip.com’s. Ticket pickup is similarly required.
Getting to Khao Kheow Open Zoo
The zoo is not actually located in Bangkok, but in Chon Buri, near Pattaya. Public transport to the zoo is scarce, so you will need to either hire a car or go by taxi/tour. It is around a 1.5 hour drive from central Bangkok.
Address: 6374+WR Bang Phra, Si Racha District, Chon Buri, Thailand
The zoo is open from 8am to 5pm everyday.
Looking for more fun things to do in Thailand? Check out MD-82 Cafe, a cool airplane-themed cafe that specialises in cannabis-infused drinks.