Siam Ocean World, Bangkok

The Siam Ocean world is the largest aquarium of South East Asia. It is situated in Siam Paragon mall, which is also one of the biggest shopping center of Asia. Siam Paragon mall has direct connectivity to the Siam sky train station. 

Siam Paragon Mall, Bangkok

The ticket fee of the Ocean world starts from 900Baht per person. For more details like combo offers check http://www.siamoceanworld.co.th/online-ticket-tourist.php. We bought our tickets from www.hotels2thailand.com, which we found is cheaper, and we got a combo offer charging 600 Baht per person including the ocean world entry, glass bottom boat ride, back of house show, happy fish happy feet fish massage for 10 mins, 5D movie, Pepsi and Popcorn.

The Entrance, Siam Ocean World

Wanna have a photo with me?

At the ocean world entrance you find some cartoon characters and a giant crab statue. Once you enter inside, the aquatic wonderland starts by glass display of different sea creatures. 

A huge Octopus, Siam Ocean World

Sea creature gallery, Siam Ocean World

There is entrance for back of house show and glass bottom boat ride. In the back of house show they explains the different processes followed here to take care of all the fishes. When you come out of this show, there is a giant glass display of decorated Mermaid's place in which you can see many colorful fishes. 

When you move downstairs looking all kind of colorful sea creatures, the Rain Forest starts. There is an artificial stream and you need to cross it through the wooden bridge. There are hundreds of colorful fishes in the stream. If you are on time, you can watch different feeding shows like otter feeding show, water rat feeding show, fresh water fishes feeding show near the rain forest. The water rats are cute and the otters are naughty. 

Fishes, Siam Ocean World

The Otters, Siam Ocean World

The most enjoyable is penguin feeding show but we felt that the glass of the penguin cabin is not very clear. Near that there is happy feet happy fish spa, which you can enjoy for 10 mins. 

The Star Fish gallery, Siam Ocean world 

The Reptiles Gallery, Siam Ocean World

The Reptiles Gallery, Siam Ocean World

At last you enter into the Glass tunnel of the under sea world, which is the most enjoyable part of the ocean world. There are sharks, sting rays, small and big colorful fishes, and many other big sea creatures. Inside you can enjoy two more feeding shows. First is shark feeding show and the second is sting ray feeding show. The sharks are dangerous white beauties and the sting rays are lovable and look like big white kites when they swim. 

A huge Sting Ray, Siam Ocean World

A Baby Shark, Siam Ocean World

A Shark and other colorful fishes, Siam Ocean World

Inside the glass tunnel, Siam Ocean World

After enjoying the ocean world, before you come out of it, there is store where you can buy some soft toys, key chains, sea shells, gift articles, etc. Outside of the ocean world there is a mini 5D movie theater, it is an awesome experience to watch a 5D movie here. 

The Safari World - Bangkok

The Safari world is Thailand's greatest open zoo and park that provides wide variety of entertainment for everyone. It is a full day excursion out of Bangkok, and really enjoyable with family and friends. The park timings are 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. There are various entertaining shows. You get the show timings once you reach there.

Map of The Safari World, Bangkok

Show timings, The Safari World, Bangkok

It is better to reach early, so you do not miss a single show. The ticket fee for 1 person is 1000 Baht, which includes pick and drop facility, various shows, zoo, buffet lunch and the open safari ride. We booked the tickets through our tour manager. If you are going at your own then it is better to buy online tickets from www.hotels2thailand.com at the cheaper rate. 

For us the first show was Urang-Utang show, and as it was the first show we were quite surprised by the performance of the cute urang-utangs and their mentors.

The Urang-Utang show, Safari World, Bangkok

Then the Sea lion show, Dolphin show, Bird show, Cow boy stunt show, spy war show one after the other all the shows were so entertaining and enjoyable. All the shows are performed at different stages, so you need to reach before time to grab your seat at good place. I think the Dolphin show was the best among all. After each show you get a chance to take pictures with the animals, costs approx. 200 Baht per picture. 

Sea-lion show, Safari World, Bangkok

Cow boy stunt show, Safari World, Bangkok

Dolphin show, Safari World, Bangkok

Spy war show, Safari World, Bangkok

For the buffet lunch which is included in your ticket fee, there are 2 big theme based halls. You get the option to choose your lunch from Thai, Continental, Indian, etc. It is better to book your table in the morning, if you have a group guide, he will book the table. 

Buffet lunch hall, Safari World, Bangkok

There is an artificial River Safari near by the lunch halls. You have to pay extra 150 Baht per person, and it lasts for 20 mins. You sit in a boat and the boat moves slowly in the artificial river, showing you all the statues of wild animals roaring and staring at you. Personally, we didn't find it worth paying for the artificial ride. 

After watching all the shows, we started roaming around different cages. We could see seals, walrus, crocodiles, bears, white tigers and many more. 

White polar bear, Safari World, Bangkok

Crocodiles, Safari World, Bangkok

Flamingos, Safari World, Bangkok

There is a giraffe feeding terrace from where you can feed the grass to giraffes. Apart from the cages there is a small canal passing across the park, in which you can see colorful fishes, ducks and swans. 

Beautiful canal, Safari World, Bangkok

After enjoying all these things, at the end the fun doubles in the open zoo. You sit in your car or bus, and enter into the beautiful wild life discovery. The ride is for around 30 to 40 mins. We saw so many wild animals including giraffes, zebras, black bears, different types of deer,  rhinos and many more. 

Rhino, Safari World, Bangkok

Zebra and Giraffes, Safari World, Bangkok

There is a small lake in the center of the open zoo, where there are hundreds of big birds including flamingos, ostriches, peacocks and peahens, etc. 

Birds in the lake, Safari World, Bangkok

Ostrich and other birds at lake, Safari World, Bangkok

The most exciting part was to see tigers and lions roaming openly in their groups. 

Tigers at open safari, Safari World, Bangkok

Lions at open safari, Safari World, Bangkok

There are many food stalls and a restaurant, where you can get some testy food. Water is available freely near the buffet halls and few other places in the park.

Huge restaurent, Safari World, Bangkok

Bold and Beautiful Bangkok

My amazing trip to Thailand started at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok. It is huge, artistic and cultured. Bangkok is the capital city of Thailand and a royal city as his holiness king of the country lives here.

Bangkok Airport

Bangkok Airport

Bangkok is the city of skyscrapers, shopping malls and street food. There are so many Hotels for your comfortable stay at Bangkok, widely available for all kinds of budget and requirements.

Baiyoke Sky Hotel, Bangkok

One of the sky scrappers, Bangkok

Public Transport: You can roam around the city by all means of public transport. Mainly people travels by Bangkok bus, Metro trains or Sky trains. Tuktuks (Auto Rickshaw) are also available. We tried all these options in our 3 days of stay, and found that for Tuktuk, you should be aware of the distance and rates, otherwise you may get cheated. Sky trains are fastest option for long distance travel. City buses are good if you need more frequency for your route.

Sky train, Bangkok

Tuktuk, Bangkok

The curvy Chao Phraya river flows across the city, also so many canals from it makes the city beautiful. There is also a floating market in the canal.

Canal, Bangkok

Shopping Malls: Bangkok is the paradise for shopping lovers, as it has wide number of shopping malls to suit all kinds of lifestyles and budgets. Most popular shopping centres include, MBK, Siam paragon, Central world, Central Plaza Rama 9, Paradise Park, Indra wholesale shopping market. I just loved Siam Paragon mall because of all the branded showrooms, and The Indra market as you get the things at very low rate. Bangkok streets are also popular for shopping, but you have to bargain hard, otherwise you will get cheated.

Central world mall, Bangkok

Heart of the City: This is the royal area of Bangkok city. The roads are beautifully decorated by huge status of Thai culture and art. Various government buildings, Ministry offices, Army schools and buildings and also the famous tourist attractions like The Royal Palace, Wat Pho temple are situated in this area. The Grand Palace is a complex of buildings. The palace has been the official residence of the Kings of Thailand since 1782 and it is the major architectural symbol of The Thai Royal Family.

Decorated cross roads in the heart of the city, Bangkok

Decorated road side in the heart of the city, Bangkok

Wat Pho Temple complex: The temple is also known as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This temple complex was a centre of education for religion, science and literature, and there are statues created showing yoga and massage positions. The complex contains more than 1000 Buddha statues. There are many small and big temples of Buddha, and each statue inside is different from the other. The most elegant and beautiful one is the Emerald Buddha statue, that one can feel the spirituality emerging from the heart while looking at it.

Wat Pho temple

Reclining Buddha, Wat Pho temple

Emerald Buddha, Wat Pho temple

If you are a non vegetarian, Bangkok streets have all kinds of food you would love to have. If you are in Thailand, you should not miss the Thai massage. There is a huge number of massage parlors and price ranges from 200Baht to 1000Baht, depending on the parlor, duration and type of massage. You will find the famous 7-11 shops at many places, where you can buy some packed food, snacks, chocolates, drinking water bottles, etc. They also provide balance refill facility if you have a local SIM card. The people of Bangkok are very friendly and helpful to the tourists. You would face some language problems as not many people can speak good English, but they can understand you if you try it word by word.

Colorful bus, Bangkok

For our stay in Thailand, we chose to buy a local dtac mobile SIM card at the airport itself. The charges were fairly reasonable (local calls 1 baht per min, calls to India at 3 baht per min). For currency exchange, we preferred the local exchange shops and banks inside the city as we found that they give good rates compared to airport booths. You get better rates for 100$ notes compared to smaller notes. If you are traveling from India, it is advisable to buy USD and then convert them to Baht after reaching Thailand.

Check out the this post for The Safari World, Bangkok