Spent half a day at Safari World Bangkok on a recent visit to Bangkok with half of India. Been here before about 5 years ago and nothing has changed much, apart from the fact that it seems to have become the number 1 attraction for Indians visiting Bangkok, which is not surprising since India has become the fastest growing market for Thailand.
Anyway, first thing we did was was drive into the Safari Park. You can hire a taxi or Grab for this. Prices differ quite a bit for Thai and foreigners, both Grobbler and I shut our mouths as we went with a local and pretended we were Thai. Drive in and you see some animals looking not very healthy, pretty typical for SE Asian countries. Animals include antelope, deer, zebra’s, bears, tigers, lions, different species of birds, giraffe and a few others. The idea is good but the actual safaris looks a bit shabby, is not very well kept and as mentioned, the animals don’t look particularly happy or healthy.
It’s not inhumane, they have a lot of room to roam around, don’t walk up and down with insanity, it’s all just a bit tacky, but overall not bad. You can drive at whatever speed you want and stay and look at the animals as much as you want without getting out of your car (one mainland Chinese lady did and got mauled by a lion). Once you’re done you can head into Marine World.
Marine World at Safari World Bangkok has more animals, a dolphin show and some crap, expensive food options. The Dolphin show kicks off with some loud Indian music where they get all the Indians to stand up and dance. The whole place was packed and the actual dolphin show was alright, pretty standard stuff and not much different than any other dolphin show at aquariums’s. So if you miss it or the time’s don’t work, no need to throw your toys. Other attractions include an elephant show, walrus show, bird show, and you can feed some giraffe’s with hundred’s of others. Everything is okay, pretty good, especially if you haven’t been to many zoo’s or has many wildlife experiences. Unfortunately when you’ve been to places like Borneo, any other captive animal experience is going to be a disappointment. It’s not bad though and if you’re looking for things to do in Bangkok with kids and you like animals, it’s worth a visit.
Probably the worst thing about Safari World Bangkok is the food. We went on a Monday, which was packed, 75% of which were Indians, but what limited restaurants they do have, many were closed, and the main restaurant served up only Indian food. We ended up eating a shit hamburger and fries, which cost over 500 baht, without drinks. I guess that’s pretty standard for theme parks though so not a huge deal. The gift shops were pretty average, didn’t have a good look but seemed to be full of the all the usual crap.
Overall Safari World Bangkok gets a 7/10, not bad, not great, worth a visit if you like animals. It’s about 45 minutes to an hour from downtown Bangkok depending on the traffic. We spent about four hours there but you could spend longer if you want to see everything.
Visit the Safari World Bangkok Facebook page or contact us to find out more information.
