Moo Deng napping after a big breakfast and fighting off all the monkey’s trying to steal her food.
Today, I went to visit Moo Deng, a baby pigmy hippo was born on July 10, 2024 in Thailand. She’s achieved international fame on social media for her quirky antics and playful personality. She’s the best thing on the internet right now with a 24/7 live stream!
It’s no easy feat to visit Moo Deng and takes a bit of planning to get good photographs of her. Here’s how my friend and I visited Moo Deng from Bangkok without a car and timed our trip to get the best photos. (I made another blog post of my favorite photos I took of Moo Deng!)
Where does Moo Deng live?
Moo Deng lives at Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Si Racha, Chonburi, Thailand. The zoo is roughly a two-hour drive from Bangkok (114 km) and an hour’s drive from Pattaya (48 km).
How to Visit Moo Deng from Bangkok without a Car
The easiest way to visit Moo Deng from Bangkok is to drive or hire a car with a driver. We hired a car with a driver through our Airbnb for 3,000 baht ($88 USD) for the day and got a swanky van with nice reclining seats. GetYourGuide offers private transfers. Klook also offers day tours from Bangkok and Pattaya.
If you want to take public transport, you can take a shared van to Si Racha from Bangkok and then, take a Grab or taxi from there.
The zoo sent me Moo Deng’s schedule, which I used Google translate to tranlate to English on the right.
When is the best time to visit Moo Deng?
The zoo posts a rough schedule of Moo Deng’s day, but it’s hard to predict what she’ll feel like doing. She does sleep quite a lot. I recommend visiting at 8 a.m. right after the zoo opens when it’s less crowded. Moo Deng and her mom, Jona, wake up at this time and her mom eats so she’s active. This is also when the caretaker was cleaning their enclosure making for fun moments of those two interacting.
The caretaker was splashing water on her and taking Instagram photos. We also lucked out and got some interaction between Moo Deng and the troublesome monkeys trying to steal their food. Around 9 a.m., they went to sleep and were still sleeping at noon when we checked again. Late afternoon seems to be another active time for them.
Due to overcrowding, the zoo implemented a system where people only get five minutes to watch Moo Deng. Thankfully, it wasn’t crowded when we went on a weekday morning, so we spent about an hour with her. (The five-minute rule only seems to apply when it’s crowded because there was no enforcement when we were there.) There were only a handful of people when we arrived and roughly 30 max. A large tour group showed up at 9 a.m. making it close to 50 people.
I highly recommend visiting early on a weekday. The zoo was busy after 10 a.m. but never overly crowded by Moo Deng’s enclosure when we’d drive by in our golf cart. If you have questions about visiting, I found the zoo to be very responsive to Facebook messages.
Where to Buy Tickets for Moo Deng
Foreigners must buy tickets at a little building on the left before they reach the main entrance gate. Thais can buy tickets at the gate.
Prices: For foreigners, it’s 350 baht ($10.32 USD) for adults and 120 baht ($3.54) for kids. Parking passes are 40 baht ($1.18 USD) for a motorcycle and 80 ($2.36 USD) for a car.
You can buy tickets online through Klook for a slightly discounted rate to save time when you arrive. (We didn’t realize this was an option or we’d have done it!)
Moo Deng getting hosed down by her caretaker early on a weekeday morning. She and her mother are active and eating between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.
Where is Moo Deng at the Zoo?
No cars are allowed in Zone 1, so you have to walk inside to the zoo. Moo Deng’s enclosure is easy to find – take a left once you walk through the entrance and follow the hippo signs with arrows. It’s roughly a 10-minute walk. You’ll walk across a boardwalk by other hippos until you reach their enclosure. There’s always Moo Deng music playing so it’s hard to miss!
The best photo angles of Moo Deng are from the elevated far end of the enclosure. Unless you are tall, the bottom end has a glass wall and fence wire that gets in the way of photos. In the morning, it’s best to shoot from the top due to the angle of the sun.
On weekends and holidays, the public can feed Capybara’s at Khao Kheow Open Zoo.
What else is there to do at the zoo?
The zoo is divided into two zones and is too big to walk on foot—it’s 2,000 acres. We rented a golf cart for 500 baht ($14.75 USD) for two hours. We basically spent the rest of the time driving around, which was so fun!
Cars are allowed in Zone 2 for a fee. If you don’t feel comfortable driving a golf cart, there is a tram that makes the main stops.
Zone 1 is the busiest area with the main attractions, while Zone 2 is more rural and feels a bit like being in Jurassic Park because you drive by some dilapidated exhibits and enclosures that are no longer used. There are no crowds in this section.
I’m not much of a zoo fan but did enjoy this experience. (I literally flew to Bangkok from Chiang Mai for Moo Deng! My friend and I brought matching t-shirts to wear.)
The other main attractions are the penguin parade where they march out to be fed and an elephant swimming show along with opportunities to feed elephants and giraffes. We didn’t do any of these.
Where can I buy Moo Deng merchandise?
You can’t buy Moo Deng shirts at the zoo sadly. There are plenty of Moo Deng stuffed animals but that’s about it. The zoo trademarked and patented Moo Deng and is supposed to sell licensed t-shirts. I’ve yet to figure out where they are sold but it’s not listed on their website. We bought bootleg ones online and from an artist in Chiang Mai. It’s honestly really hard to buy Moo Deng merchandise anywhere in Thailand!
