Whenever we go on a holiday, we always try to make it a point to visit the zoo. This is because the kids, who take after us, love animals and every visit is bound to be a learning experience filled with fun and laughter. So far, we have set foot in zoos and safaris in Singapore, Bali, Taiwan, Prague, Zurich, Vienna, Stockholm and more. Thus, it was only natural that our Bangkok trip (read about our full itinerary here) included a visit to the popular Safari World.
In this post, we share with you all the sights we saw and fun experiences we had in Safari World. For those of you who are planning for a family trip to Bangkok soon and would love to visit the park too, don't forget to book your attraction tickets via Klook to enjoy discounts!
Safari World started in the year 1988 and has developed into a popular tourist destination that now consists of two parks - Safari Park and Marine Park. It is open all year round from 9:00am to 5:00pm so it would be good to plan your visit such that you can arrive early and have the whole day to explore both parks. For us, we came here straightaway after our flight landed and we arrived at about 10:30am after over an hour's drive. Yes, it might sound exhausting but we really wanted to make full use of every day we had on this 5D4N trip.
Even though Safari World's website is not a very comprehensive one and only provides the basic information, it won't be hard to navigate your way around the park because of the maps provided (you can also find it in the brochure given at the entrance). Guide maps like the one below, which you can see in the parks, indicate clearly the locations of the various animal exhibits, the show venues, restaurants, toilets and other facilities available.
There are also directional signboards that are written in Thai, English and Chinese to help visitors to find their way around easily.
The
animal shows are one of the highlights at Safari World so if you can,
do try to include at least a couple of them during your visit. We wanted
to watch the Elephant show but alas the show venue was too far from
where we were at that time (11:40am) and though we were right outside
the Cowboy Stunt show, the boy heard the loud noises which included
gunshots and cowboys yelling yeehaw so he got scared and didn't want us
to enter. However, we did manage to catch the Dolphin show
which was pretty awesome and impressive, which I'll share more of below.
First, I want to tell you more about the unique highlight at Safari World and that is... there is a drive through where you can come up close with the animals! You can either rent a car and drive in yourself, arrange for a private car transfer, take a taxi and ride in, or go on the coach tours offered at Safari World too.
For us, we were very blessed that our local friend was able to meet us that day so he took us for a ride in his car. Since we wanted to take things at a leisurely pace, we took our time to stop and admire each and every animal species, even winding down our windows so we could have an clear, unobstructed view and even be able to say "Hello" to all the friendly animals. This was probably something we couldn't have done if we were riding in the coach. Phew!
I can't tell you how ecstatic the kids were to see the animals and they just kept talking all at once and scrambling to see the animals on either side of the window. Every time they spotted an animal - it doesn't matter what animal - they would squeal in joy and ask everyone to come and see too! Thankfully, no one seemed whiny or tired after the flight and we were off to a great start for our expedition.
Now, our hearts started to beat a little faster when we entered a tall gate which was fenced up at both sides and saw the words "Do not wind down your windows". Guess who we were going to meet?
Yup, the lions! Alas most of them were sleeping and though I was hoping that they were just tired after the feeding show in the morning, it would be hard to deny that they seemed a little drugged and all they wanted to do was lie down and rest. We did hear that Safari World got into some controversy a few years back over its treatment of animals but I sincerely hoped they had learnt a lesson and started treating the animals the way they deserve to be treated.
On the other hand, the tigers seemed much more alert and would look at us when we drove past. A couple of them were also walking around or swimming in the waters and it was definitely a first for us to get so up close to these supposedly ferocious, man-eating creatures.
The whole drive through took us about 40 minutes and subsequently, we explored the rest of the park on foot. For those of you with young kids, you can consider renting these dolphin strollers which are cute to the max and very affordable too!
Our first stop was to find lunch since it was almost noon and it took us a while because there were just so many distractions along the way. From animal statues which make great photo opportunities....
and a colourful train that kids can climb on board...
to a river filled with colourful boats and graceful swans...
and roaming animal mascots too!
Note that these mascots kind of expect that you give them a tip after you take a photo. It doesn't have to be a lot and a little will go a long way to make their day.
We checked out one of the restaurants and saw that they were serving a normal lunch buffet. However, the prices were considerably exorbitant and a lunch would cost our family of five over a thousand baht. So we decided to give it a miss and see what else we could find. And thankfully we did so because we soon came across these 'Fast Food' stalls near the river which were selling local delights at much affordable prices.
For instance, we ordered this Pork Leg Rice for just 80 baht, which is just slightly over SGD3. Cheap, right? It was also quite tasty and very filling too!
Our favourite was the Rungsit Boat noodles (beef/pork) which had such an authentic Thai flavour to it and even the kids loved it so much that we ordered a second helping. It was fascinating to see how the Thai ladies would cook the noodles on their boats, pick out the raw vegetables and serve you a bowl of piping hot soup noodles. You can choose if you prefer bee hoon or kway teow and if your kids are like us and love fishballs, you can also ask for a bowl of fishballs soup too. Yummy!
We also ordered a plate of Phad Thai and drinks and to total up, the whole lunch cost us less than 400 baht which is pretty amazing considering that we were at a tourist attraction. Yup, you can never find food at such prices in Singapore attractions.
After lunch, we continued with our exploration enthusiastically and more energetically, woohoo! There was this Adventure Island where you can play in carnival games and win prizes too. Note: Prizes means stuffed toys and more stuffed toys. The good thing is the games are not expensive so if you have time to spare, you can let the kids have some fun here.
Right outside Adventure Island, we saw a crowd forming and went to take a look at the commotion. Well, they were doing the touristy thing by letting park visitors take photos with real live orangutans and tiger cubs, which they will put it in a nice frame and let you bring home.
Very touristy, right?
Well, and so....
We did that touristy thing. All because the kids said they would like to take a photo with a tiger, which seemed totally cool and horrifying at the same time. Even the two-year-old said he wanted to join in too and the hubby suggested that we just let the kids do it, which made it sound even more horrifying to me. Haha.
Unlike what we see in some other zoos, these tiger cubs looked very sober, not groggy, and they were also able to focus on drinking their milk from the milk bottles. Yup, sounds cute, right? Wait till you see the size of the supposedly 'baby' tiger that my kids carried.
Yup, it was big and long enough to lay across all of their laps. The big girl was tasked to take the bottle and feed the cub (you can see that its eyes are open!), the little sister was to hold its body, and the toddler was asked to just sit in the middle and smile. Haha. The big girl got scratched a little at the end of it because the cub's nails were so long! But if you were to ask her if she would do it again, she would definitely say yes. I mean, how many times does this kind of opportunity come across in your life?
Anyway, for those of you who wanna know, it costs 700 baht to do this but they do give you quite a pretty Safari World photo frame (made of cardboard, okay? Don't expect too much) along with your photo.
After that, we had slightly over half an hour to spare while waiting for the Dolphin show to begin. Not wanting to waste any precious time, we decided to continue exploring instead of going to the amphitheater to get good seats. That was when we came across this boat ride called River Safari. It reminded us of our own Amazon River Quest in our Singapore River Safari and the lady at the counter told us that this was a 'very nice' ride which would allow us to see 'many animals' and thus strongly recommended it.
It took us a while to consider because the price tag at 350 baht per person (over SGD14) for a 15-minute ride was steep. Even though the littlest did not require a ticket, it would still amount to a significant sum and we were hesitant if we should do it. Well, we shrugged our shoulders and said "Let's just try" and paid the price before making our way in.
It was likely a sign when we saw that there wasn't much people taking the ride and no one was in the queue before us. Nonetheless, we set off with high hopes of seeing some animals that we otherwise might have missed if we were not on the boat.
GUESS WHAT?
There were NO ANIMALS. Okay, no real ones. All the animals we saw on the ride were fake animal statues and that was clearly one thing that we were not informed of when we bought the tickets. I'm not sure if we should laugh or cry and the only consolation was that these fake animals had mechanisms to make them move or holler so a couple of them did give us pretty good scares, for instance the shark that suddenly popped out of the water. Other than that, the ride was totally not worth the money we paid and I guess we just learnt our lesson.
Luckily, it was time for the Dolphin show after our memorable boat ride and we were hoping to be in for some action to redeem for the disappointment. I remember that we watched our first dolphin show back in Sea World in Gold Coast (read about our experience here) and it was such an awe-inspiring moment when we saw what these beautiful animals were capable of!
What we did not expect was that the place was packed to the brim by the time we reached (and the show hasn't even started)! Some of the audience were even standing up to dance to the music and take selfies too, I loved how they were not afraid to let go and enjoy themselves to the max on a vacation. We had to make our way to the last few rows of seats at the top and the good thing was there was a row of mist fans so we had it real cool and breezy up there.
Was the show good? Yes, I would say so.
These amazing dolphins could jump over hoops, fly out of the water to touch the balls, wave "Hello" to the audience and even be cheerleaders as they lifted one of the crew members high up into the air. See it below! The way the emcee introduced the acts was a little commercialised and sounded too rehearsed but at least he was speaking English and we could understand the bulk of what he said.
After the show, we came across a bridge over the river and nearby, there was a wooden platform where you could buy packets of pellets (20 baht) each to feed the swans. We spent a good amount of time here because there were just too many swans and the kids were happy to get the chance to see so many of them up close.
Alas, it started to rain shortly after and we didn't have any brolly with us. That said, we didn't want to let the rain dampen our spirits so just to keep ourselves dry a little longer, we took shelter at the sea cow aquarium. Yup, the manatees! I always think they look so graceful when they swim and there is something so endearing about their facial features that draws me to them.
When the drizzle showed no sign of stopping, we decided to brave the rain since there was little time left for us to walk around before the parks closed. Oh, by the way, the Safari Park and Marine Park are connected from within but you would need to show your tickets to enter. You can opt for single park ticket and go to either of them, or purchase a ticket that grants admission to both parks.
Next, we made our way to the Giraffe Feeding Terrace because no visit is complete without it! Said to have over 200 giraffes, Safari World boasts to have the world's largest herd of giraffes right here.
Once again, if you wish to feed the animals, you gotta fork out the extra money for the food. Each bucket of bananas cost us 100 baht and I think we bought four of it because the kids finished feeding them so quickly!
Unlike our Singapore Zoo where you feed carrots by hand, you have to use a wooden stick to poke into the bananas and feed them to the giraffes here. Were there really many giraffes? Yes, we lost count of how many but my big girl said she saw nearly 50 of them!
Once, the little sister accidentally let go of the stick because the giraffe pulled so hard and she came back crying because she assumed she had done a very bad thing. Afraid that the giraffe would swallow the stick and choke on it, she was full of emotions and couldn't bear to turn around to look at it. But you know what? These giraffes are likely so used to it because after he ate the banana, he simply pushed out the stick from his mouth so we could grab it back using one end. I guess he would have just spat it out and not be so silly as to try to swallow it too.
As for the boy, he was fearful of these tall creatures and though he didn't want to take the sticks to feed them, he did let me carry him so that we could do it together. Yup, this boy is definitely very different from his plucky sisters!
We spent a good half an hour at the terrace and right after we were done, the rain started coming down strong and you could see the giraffes retreating and congregating at a nearby shelter. I guess we were lucky after all!
Armed with just a stroller rain cover, hats and a shawl, we tried our best to cover the kids as we braved the rain and moved on. Angel was kind of insistent that she wanted to visit this place called Eggs World, which was located far away, and not to disappoint this animal lover, we made our way there even though it meant we would miss the Bird Show - which was the last show for the day. Anyway, we were one of the last visitors to Eggs World and at least we made it here in good timing!
Apart from learning about all sorts of eggs, the interesting thing about Eggs World was that we got to see newly hatched birds in the nursery incubators. How lovely are these baby golden conures below! The kids were fascinated to see how they looked like and it was amazing just to remind ourselves of how precious and magical life is.
In the different rooms through the glass exhibits, we also had the chance to see the birds growing up in various phases of their lives. The kids were also curious when they were able to touch a real ostrich's egg and be impressed by its sheer size too.
After we came out of Eggs World, the park had become rather sparse (no thanks to the rain) and most visitors had already made their way home. We were one of the last few left yet we wanted to stay till the last minute before closing just so we could see as much as there was left. It would be quite impossible to cover everything in one visit but we just wanted to make our visit worth its while. Thankfully, I had my Tula toddler carrier with me so the toddler could take his afternoon nap! Shoulder ache, backache, never mind lar, holidays are too fun!
We came across a giant fish pond, saw the crew feeding the fishes and they got into a frenzy, we went past cage enclosures with various birds species, we saw some really cute prairie dogs and caught their feeding sessions as well.
When we came across the walruses, the lady zookeeper in charge of them was very nice by offering them fishes and asking them to give a private performance just for us. They stood up, they clapped, they made loud noises and they even splashed water at us too. That was a treat for the kids who had never seen walruses this close.
Last but not least, we arrived at the tiger's enclosure and saw this flight of stairs going down that had the signboard saying 'Tiger Den' at the top. Well, 不入虎穴，焉得虎子 right? Even though I had just dropped my camera (thankfully I brought two) and realised that it was spoilt, I didn't want to give up this chance of venturing into the den to discover what lay ahead of us.
It turned out to be one of the best moments for us that day, albeit quite a scary one.
See below? All that separated us from those tigers was that thick glass. These tigers were not the friendly kind but the fearsome ones and they would suddenly realise that we were in the den and come charging at us! Yes, that made the girls and I scream because it felt so real and I had never experienced anything like that before in my life. I shuddered to think what would happen if the glass were to shatter.
See how close we were to the tigers? We would have gotten a clearer view if not for the raindrops on the glass. Since there was no one before and after us wanting to come into the den, we actually stayed here for quite some time and didn't rush out after just one scare. Yup, my girls dig thrills like that and they were screaming while the mum was being paranoid about whether the den would hold (which the hubby assured me it would).
Of course, I couldn't stop taking pictures and videos too because this might jolly well be the first and last time I am going to enter a tiger's den. Haha.
******
To read about our Bangkok trip itinerary, visit my previous post here. You can also click on the below where I share more about each individual attraction we visited. Have fun at your next visit to this family-friendly and fun-filled city!
Bangkok Itinerary
Day 1 - Safari World and Central World Night Market
Day 2 - Chatuchak and Sea Life
Day 3 - Open House and Asiatique
Day 4 - Kidzania
******
GET YOUR TICKETS ON KLOOK TODAY!
Our booking experience with Klook for Safari World was a pleasant one and we could exchange the online booking voucher for the actual tickets without any hassle. It made me feel at ease to know that we were guaranteed tickets once we booked online and helped to firm up our itinerary beforehand too.
To book your tickets to Safari World Bangkok, go here and choose the package and date that you desire. Prices are guaranteed to be the lowest and if you can find a cheaper one, Klook will refund double the difference!
You can also visit Klook today and check out any tours, activities and attraction tickets you wish to check out with the family too, even for our local ones!
Disclosure: We collaborated with Klook for our Bangkok trip and our tickets to Safari World were semi-sponsored. Links to Klook above are affiliate links. All opinions and photos are purely our own.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Yoohoo, thanks so much for reading my blog and leaving your comment! I am feeling the love! (^.^)