Buffalo Village, Suphanburi:

There is a great little outdoor village area in Suphanburi province, opened in March 2002 as a tourist area and park type of attaction. Visitors get to wander through old fashioned traditional thai houses and see all the instruments and tools that rural people used, and often still use today in Thailand.

They certainly have quite alot of water buffalos here. All sorts of different types, as well as pygmy water buffalos and albino water buffalos not seen in most zoos. Visitors can pat and touch some of the gentle animals and farmers are there to tell you all about the water buffalos and how they are used in farming, in Thai of course. They also have a nice selection of rare birds in cages that you can get near, some of which have absolutely the strangest chips and calls that I have ever heard.

Rice growing is one of the main attractions at the Suphanburi Buffalo Village. The farmers and workers are regularly out in the rice fields tending to the rice with their buffalos. During planting times, they let the visitors go out into the fields and try their hand at planting rice themselves. Harvest time is also interesting when you can see them go through the harvest process using traditional farming tools. All season long they offer buffalo rides for the kids where you can hop into the back of a buffalo cart and take a ride around one of the rice fields.

They have a number of small daily buffalo shows where they sometimes have local children perform some traditional Thai skits and songs. The main show features about 10-15 water buffalos paraded out into the dirt covered ring. They have the buffalos do some simple tricks and they jump around on them and make water buffalo jokes when the buffalos pee all over the place. Its kind of fun, but its all done in Thai of course.

The village often has Thai weddings being performed. Thai weddings can take an entire day so if there is one going on you will probably see some of it. There are a couple of small food stand areas to get drinks from and escape the sun. A souvenior shop offers all sorts of traditional Thai handicrafts, buffalo T-shirts, and a nice selection of Thai wines. All in all its an interesting place. There is a very small fee to enter the park. Children will probably have fun here and get some education as well. The Buffalo Village is open 9:00 to 9:00 every day.