In my last post Siam Ocean World I stated that the aquarium was located within the Siam Paragon, which is a most amazing shopping centre, or shopping mall depending if you use the British term or the American one. Anyway I felt I could not write posts about our visit to Bangkok without at least once mentioning a shopping centre of which there are many, but the Siam Paragon happens to be the pride of Bangkok. One of the largest shopping centres in Asia with over 270 different shops, restaurants, cinema, aquarium, concert hall, bowling alley, karaoke centre, exhibition hall and the Thai Art Gallery, so with a lot more to offer than just shopping!
Although the centre is itself logical in layout and fairly easy to explore, it is very closely linked to the many other shopping centres that cover this area. I warn you Siam Paragon is just a part of a huge shopping area which you would never explore in just a day. Siam Paragon caters more for luxury items for well off Thai's and international visitors but it is definitely the place to buy something extra special! However you can still find the more affordable brand names for the price concious customer and there is also within the complex, Siam Paragon Department Store where my husband treated me to a charm for my Pandora bracelet. That was the extent of our luxury shopping but we did have a couple of meals in the Siam Paragon Food Hall. When we first arrived in Bangkok and had not yet found our way around it was we thought an easy option to have lunch there, covering at least half of the ground floor floor area it was vast! First you purchase a card at a central desk that gives you credit for purchasing your food, a hygienic and sensible option as none of the food booths have to handle money. There was an incredible choice of the best of local and international cuisines available all in one place and it was delicious, no photos of what was just a snack lunch of noodles. On another occasion though we ate at Cafe du Tu in the restaurant area within the centre and I did remember to take some photos.
At the bottom of the page you will find the link to more shopping centre photos from Bangkok as I have just shared a small selection here.
Today my travel blog post is moving on to a different country, Thailand, as I have at last caught up with our Travel Tales from Hong Kong. As this blog is still a relatively new one, a year in a few days, I am still catching up on travels we have taken that I wanted to become part of this blog. Set up as much for me as a scrapbook of memories as in response to requests for readers of News From Italy that were interested in our travels outside of Italy. In fact I have included a couple of trips within Italy but outside our home region of Lazio here on Travel Tales. Anyway over the winter months while things are quieter in Italy, the plan is to catch up with writing and posting here.
This time last year Thailand was suffering from tremendous flooding problems. We were in Bangkok before the floods reached their height which fortunately meant the high water levels did not pose us too many problems and we had good weather. When we first arrived in the city it was raining though and wondering what to do we took ourselves off to visit Siam Ocean World and we were so pleased that we did as we had an absolutely fascinating tour.
The Siam Ocean World aquarium with over four hundred species
of more than thirty thousand aquatic creatures is the largest in South East
Asia. It covers 10,000 square meters and the seven different zones that are walked through during a visit are well
laid out and a fascinating experience for everyone. The first zone is entitled
weird and wonderful; it certainly is with some of the weirdest and most bizarre
marine animals housed here.
The colourful sea life that surrounds coral reefs is the
theme for the deep reef zone two and the eight metre high coral tank that is
housed there. Zone three, the living ocean gives you the opportunity to
experience the underwater rules of survival where animals must protect
themselves against predators as well as adapt to their environment. The next zone, four takes the visitor deep
into the rainforest to discover the complexities of the ecosystem within the forest
and be amazed by the world’s largest fresh water fish. Penguins are to be found
in zone five, which is a rocky shore where they would struggle for survival in
the natural habitat as they have to adapt to intense land and sea conditions. A glass tunnel under the open ocean is zone seven and is very
impressive as the two hundred and seventy degree tunnel means that one is
surrounded by the predators and prey, quite amazing.
Throughout the day in different zones of the aquarium it is possible
to view various species such as Shark, Eagle Rays, Penguins, Otters and Fresh
Water Fish at feeding times.
If you wish to view the photos in a larger format, just click on them individually, this should work. I have also put together a slideshow on YouTube of the photos I took as there were too many to share here individually.
