Sheep & Alpaca farm for kids
A safe place near Cha-am where children & animals can get to know each other.
A safe place near Cha-am where children & animals can get to know each other.
Meet Snow, the youngest of the three alpacas recently introduced to Swiss Sheep Farm and by far the cutest of the bunch. The alpacas will only approach you if you’re holding out food, so be ready to grab your opportunity and take a picture when they get close enough. They are still shy of strangers and with their long legs can easily outrun people.
TRAVEL
A sheep farm for the kids
There are no actual shepherdesses on this Cha-am 'ranch', but lots of cute sheep
29/08/2013
Karnjana Karnjanatawe
The Swiss Sheep Farm is a popular roadside attraction a little north of the beach town Cha-am.
The sheep farm gets pretty hot once you leave the shelter of your vehicle and there is very little natural shade on this 23-rai property, which looks more like a ranch where you'd expect cowboys to be hanging out that something from the Swiss Alps. But families still flock here, especially on the weekends and during school breaks. Many parents are impressed by the place, apparently, and say it is good for their kids' education to be able to interact with animals in this controlled way.
A farm employee assured me that the sheep are from a Swiss breed that were raised on the Swiss Valley Hip Resort in Ratchaburi. The flock currently numbers about 80, including several cute little lambs, and since they are intended for purely ornamental purposes, their wool is never sheared. They mostly seem to stick close to their feeding area which has a roof to provide some protection from the sun. Visitors are allowed inside the pen to take photos of the animals up close and one can also feed them on Napier grass (sold for 50 baht a bundle) or pasteurised cow's milk (50 baht a bottle).
Another big hit with the children will be the alpacas, three of which were imported at the beginning of this month. This domesticated species from South America is native to the Andes mountains where it is bred for its fur. It resembles a small llama in appearance with its long neck and legs, short tail, small head and pointed ears. The coats of the new arrivals are of different hues. One is reddish brown, the second is dark brown and the third - which is also the youngest and most adorable looking - is completely white.
Anyone who wants to ''meet and greet'' the alpacas has to pay an additional fee of 100 baht. Visitors are required to wash their hands with an alcohol-based gel and don plastic shoe-covers before being admitted to the air-conditioned alpaca enclosure. A staff member will hand you a bowl containing a small portion of food (it's actually commercial feed intended for goats). This is the moment when you need to get ready to take a photo or two. You may have difficulty getting close enough to stroke their fluffy fur, however, because the alpacas are still very shy of strangers.
Other outdoor activities on the farm include horse-riding, archery practice and a visit to the temple-fair game zone to try out some traditional amusements.
Hua Hin is home to a second ovine sanctuary called Black Sheep Farm which does indeed have some black sheep as well as the regular white variety. Visitors are allowed to feed the livestock and there's also a playground for children.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/travel/travel-feature/366923/folies-bergere
The lack of shade from the sun doesn’t discourage visitors anxious to snap mementoes of the woolly residents at Swiss Sheep Farm in Cha-am district. The trick is to entice one of the sheep to come closer by holding out some of the Napier grass sold here for use as fodder. The lambs are also partial to a drop of cow’s milk, also sold here by the bottle.