Wasan Crocodile Farm (Wat Sing, Chainat)

Wasan Crocodile Farm sits in Makham Thao subdistrict, about 2 kilometres from the Wat Sing district office in Chainat province — and despite the name on file with the Tourism Authority of Thailand, it isn’t a temple. It’s a privately run animal park holding roughly 700 crocodiles, the figure most commonly cited by local sources, alongside tigers, lions, peacocks, ostriches, and large freshwater species such as arowana and stingrays in separate pens and pools.

The “Wat Sing” in the name comes from the district, not from monks tending the animals here. The district town itself is named after a real temple, founded for and named after a Chinese settler called Sing who lived in the community — that temple, Wat Singh Satit, stands as its own separate site closer to the district centre, with no crocodile enclosure on its grounds. The naming overlap has fed a fair amount of confusion in older tourism copy, including versions describing monks who supposedly maintain the crocodile pools as an act of Buddhist compassion — there’s no evidence for that; this is a standard private wildlife park operating under the district’s name.

What’s actually on offer is straightforward: raised walkways over the crocodile pools, feeding demonstrations at points through the day, and a scattering of enclosures for the other animals. It’s a modest, low-budget setup rather than a polished zoo — expect concrete pens and basic signage rather than anything resembling a conservation centre, and treat any claims about the animals’ welfare conditions with appropriate scepticism, since specifics on enclosure standards aren’t independently documented.

Insider Tip: Call ahead on 0 5646 1104 before making a special trip — as an independently run local attraction rather than a major zoo, hours and feeding times aren’t consistently published online.

Watch out: Don’t come expecting a temple experience or a monk-run sanctuary — that framing shows up in some older write-ups but doesn’t match what’s actually here. This is a private animal park, evaluate it as one.

Chainat sits on the main road between Bangkok and northern Thailand, so this works best as a stop if you’re already driving through rather than a dedicated day trip on its own.