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Thailand Diaries : Chapter 4


Little Zavi’s adventures are going strong and the 4th day was the day with animals. If you have not read previous blogs then do read it to catch up with our experience until now. 
Our fourth day at Bangkok was fully meant for our little Zavi as we were visiting the famed Safari World and Marine Park. He is a total animal person and loves animals. The park opened by 9:00am and so we were up and ready early. After a quick breakfast, we trooped into our pick up vehicle and headed towards Safari World. 




Safari World

Safari World is a tourist attraction in Bangkok that consists of two areas. One is the Marine Park and the other is Safari Park. The park with an open zoo resides on approximately 200 acres of land. 

I was beyond shocked when we reached Safari Park. It was not yet 9:00 am and the main gates hadn't yet opened. What shocked me was the humongous crowd that thronged the gates. Also what amazed me the most was that almost 70% of tourists were Indians. As soon as we arrived there, my little Zavi noticed a colourful papier mache elephant and he ran towards it. He was totally intrigued by the colourful elephant. The gates opened at sharp 9:00 am and there in front of us was our guide. He handed us the Safari World map with timings of all the special shows. We checked out the shows and there were the Orangutan Show, a Sea Lion show, a Cowboy stunt show, an elephant show, a dolphin show, a spy war and a bird show. Our guide told us that till afternoon we could roam around anywhere inside the park, but post lunch, he had booked us into a ride through the park. 




The Orangutan Show

We entered Safari Park and what caught our attention first were brightly coloured stalls selling loads of animal goodies. We checked out our map, and the first show we could witness was the Orangutan Show. So with the help of our map, we made our way to the Orangutan show. The Orangutan show was enjoyable enough with well trained Orangutan performing multiple tricks like boxing, dancing, performing with instruments and also goofing around with their trainers.






SeaLion Show

The next show we watched was the sea lion show. By this time, it was getting rather too hot and the ladies in the gang made sure that they sat somewhere where they could get the fan. The sea lion show started off with amazing tactics of the sea lions. The crowd cheered on while the sea lions jumped through hoops of different sizes, played with balls and jumped onshore in between. Each time they performed a trick perfectly, these poor little beings were rewarded with a fish. The organisers also made the show more interactive. They called on people to come forward and throw hoops towards the seal. It was amazing to watch that however people through the hoops, the sea lions would jump and catch it. 


MiniWorld

As we walked past numerous animals, what caught our attention was an enclosure with the board MiniWorld. We decided to get in. And wow, this place had a hundred small colourful birds belonging to the parrot species, flying all over the place. We could buy grains from there itself and feed these small cute colourful birds. My Zavi totally loved this although he didn't want any birds on him. As I went about pictures, I could hear Laya screaming away as she was too scared. I wondered why she had to feed the birds, if she was scared. No points for guessing anyways. 


     



The Cowboy Stunt Show

We had time to watch one more show before lunch. It could either be the Elephant show or the Cowboy Show. We opted for the latter as we had witnessed an Elephant Show just a couple of days back at Noong Nooch Village. By the time we walked and reached the cowboy show , it had already started, so we climbed right at the top of the mini amphitheatre to catch a glimpse of the show. The show was something like an old Hollywood cowboy movie, with a lot of dialogues, dramatics and shooting. It was just good but an average show and not very much recommended however it was a great place to take some rest under the fan on such a hot day. 









Safari World - Grand buffet

We were instructed by our guide to meet him in front of the buffet hall so that he may direct us to our allotted table by lunchtime. The buffet hall was huge and we had a tough time making our way through the crowd and finding our table. The whole setup was decent, with loads of food options like poori and bhaji, breads, buns, fruits, salads and different types of Thai dishes. I simply stuck to the poori and bhaji and also found some chicken. All of us rested and freshened up a bit before setting out again. 




The Dolphin Show

After having lunch, we headed out straight to watch the Dolphin Show. The dolphin show was really entertaining. The dolphins were trained to do all kinds of stunts with balls and hoops and also with people. A stuntman stood on top of these dolphins and they zoomed across the length and breath of the pool. Like in the sea lion show, even these dolphins were treated with a fish on performing the acts as planned. 

Our little Zavi slept throughout the dolphin show. As we walked out of the dolphin show, we had some time just before our ride through the park. We checked our map and found out out that the nearest activity happening was giraffe feeding. All of us headed towards the giraffes. We climbed a fleet of stairs and reached a place almost 15 feet from the ground level. I seriously didn't imagine that giraffes were this tall. At this height we could easily feed them. Their food, which were mainly bananas and some kind of leaves, were given to us. What really struck me was that giraffes have black colour tongue. Anyways my Zavi was super excited to feed the giraffes along with his grandpa. Right from here we could also see a lot many zebras in and around the place. 

Our last session for the day was a ride through the park, basically through the portion where carnivorous animals were. It was around 50 minutes to 60 mins drive through the park which was a replica of Savannah habitat. Our full family got into a single vehicle and started out spotting animals. We spotted giant bears, lions and tigers. Zavi loved the lion and was too excited in the vehicle. I could not click any pictures, since we were not allowed to open the windows. The carnivores were in separate drive throughs separated using gates. There were large water bird sanctuaries as well as asian and african animals like Indian gaur, Sambar Deer, Spotted Deer, etc. 













  

Anyways, after a very long day at Safari World, we even managed to squeeze in some shopping time at Bangkok and then retired for the night. 

If you have not read our other Thailand blogs then do read it to catch up with our experiences.
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Rahul Devakumar
Creative Media Studio

We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone.


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