I was free all day Tuesday and decided to spend the day going to the downtown Bangkok aquarium. Grace and Jill didn’t feel like going on this outing so I headed out on my own adventure before noon on the BTS Skytrain . I was a little delayed leaving because I was trying to book a package online that would have included the Behind the Scenes tour and the 4D movie for the same price as regular admission price. It was through a 3^rd party site and suffice to say that I needed to be booked at least one day in advance. (I read later that even if you buy online tickets on the Sea Life Bangkok’s website, you need to make the purchase a day in advance.) After this little bit of hassle, I was on my way.

The first thing I noticed was color. Sea Life Bangkok Ocean World (formally Siam Ocean World) is located on two basement floors of the Siam Paragon Shopping Centre (The BTS conveniently stops right at the shopping center.) Descending the escalator to the lower floor, it looks like I was entering the ocean because the floor is painted to look like moving water and the walls are filled with marine life. This entire underground floor belongs to the aquarium and there are several venues beginning with the Shark Dive kiosk staffed full-time to provide information and book dives.The souvenir shop is next door and you can enter to shop without aquarium admission but I was also funneled through the shop on exiting the aquarium from the floor below up a narrow escalator. This design seemed to work well to prevent backwards entry into the aquarium. The shop selection was pretty much limited to small plastic souvenirs and tons of stuffed animals.

The main entrance had multiple cashier stations moving the queue quickly and behind on the opposite side of the floor was the prepaid queue and a separate entrance to the 4D movie theater allowing purchase of tickets for the theater only without aquarium entrance. The snack bar was nestled in the back corner open to all. All signage throughout was in both Thai and English and everyone I interacted with was bilingual.

When I reached the cashier, she very efficiently laid out a laminated sheet (in English) which visually described purchase options listing the prices in both Thai baht and in US dollars. Beyond regular admission there were various bundle packages providing a combination of 1) a glass bottom boat ride on top of the large tank, 2) a behind the scene tour, 3) the 4D movie, and 4) a soda plus popcorn. I opted for just the regular admission at $29 USD. She handed me the English version of the map brochure plus a separate insert titled Talks and Feeds schedule and very politely told me where and when the next presentation would be occurring. I thought this was a brilliant idea to tell the guests where the next presentation would take place until I found that I was zooming thought the entire aquarium to get to the Gentoo Penguins exhibit which happened to be the very last exhibit in the aquarium!

The aquarium is designed so you follow only one route through the two floors of exhibits (at one point you walk gradually down a boardwalk to the lower floor.) I will explain the exhibits in a moment because after my mad dash to the very end for the presentation, I went backwards to a seating area, took time to look at the map and presentation schedule, and then walked all the way back to the beginning to start my tour after noting a few talks I would be able to see on my tour. It is interesting that most of the presentations are billed as feeding shows. At Maui Ocean Center, we don’t announce feeding times but now I understand why so many visitors ask me when the next feeding show will be.

The naturalist presenters outside the exhibits all spoke in Thai and then translated to English. When there were staff inside the exhibits communicating with the naturalist as part of the presentation, they only spoke in Thai in the few talks I saw. The first presentation at the Gentoo Penguin Feeding was very clear and I could understand the naturalist. At the Diver Communication talk located at the Tropical Ocean Exhibit, not only could I not understand the either presenter (I couldn’t tell when the naturalist was switching from Thai to English and the diver only spoke in Thai) but the volume was so blaringly loud, I had to leave the presentation area. Later when I walked back by, I noticed that at the end of this presentation the diver had stayed in the water moving closer to the lower front of the exhibit and the naturalist was encouraging guests to come up and take photos with the diver behind them (many were taking advantage of the photo op.)

The Sea Life Bangkok brochure map was confusing but there were numbers next to the area names that indicated the flow, plus it didn’t really matter since there was only one route to take (online map version of the map). The first exhibit was Rocky Hideout including a Giant Pacific Octopus and other camouflaging marine animals. Shark Walk provided the first glimpse into the huge tank that houses the sharks and rays by allowing me to walk across an acrylic see-thru floor. I next moved into the Coral Reef area. The coral was brilliant bright colors—all painted plastic—but the fish were beautiful in their real colors! This top floor level had two doors with stanchion queue lines for access to the Behind the Scenes tour and the Glass Bottom Boat ride. Even though I wasn’t taking the tours, I was able to take photos through the windows in the door where the tours started. The part I saw looked very shiny and impressive. I could also see the cables strung over the top of the tank creating the path guiding the glass bottom boats. After viewing the Seahorse Kingdom, I moved onto the Tropical Rainforest. This transitioned out of the ocean world into fresh water and included not only fish but amphibians and otters. Walking along the very gradual descending boardwalk to the lower level were terrariums of bright colored rainforest frogs. It was at this point that the soda and popcorn café was situated off the walkway with a few tables if I had wanted a snack. (That area and vending drink machines were the only refreshments inside the aquarium area.) When I reached the bottom floor, here were the adorable looking Asian Short Clawed Otters housed in a playful water world exhibit.

Back to the ocean world and the Green Sea Turtles were next! They were housed in a clear walled exhibit so I could see in from multiple views. Beside it was the area called the Rockpool where I could touch sea stars, sea cucumbers, and empty shark egg casings. The touch zone was a small defined area in the middle of the exhibit which was staffed by a naturalist at all the times. I spoke with the naturalist about the rotation and she said each naturalist only needed to work a one hour shift per day at the touch station. (They are open 10 am to 9 pm.) A thoughtful addition was having a hand washing station right by the touch zone area.

There were exhibits for Jackass Penguins (aka African Penguins) and the Rays before reaching a children’s interactive activity and play area. Next was the 8 meter (26-foot) high Tropical Ocean tank exhibit stretching up the height of both floors. The Diver Communications presentation occurs three times a day in this exhibit and doesn’t include feeding. (This was the one I left because it was so loud and I couldn’t understand anything.) There were seating areas on both floors in front of this tank; the top floor provides balcony-like seating for the presentation or just sitting to enjoy the tropical exhibit.

From here, I moved into the first tunnel walking under several species of sharks, rays, and some huge fish before emerging into a small room surrounded by clear walls with a few seats to pause and continue viewing the pelagic marine life all around me. A second tunnel lead on bringing me out to a seating area where they present the shark feeding show. I did see part of this presentation because it was scheduled after the Gentoo Penguins as I moved back toward the beginning of the aquarium. A naturalist started a presentation (again, I couldn’t understand her) as two divers entered into the exhibit and knelt on the bottom with a box between them (no diver communication equipment hookup.) They each had a stick with a long metal rod tucked under their arms and I wondered what it was for? I soon found out as a few HUGE Sand Sharks came around, one diver would open the box enough to poke a large piece of fish on the end of the metal rod and then hold it up. As a sand shark swam by, the shark would take the piece off the rod. Sharks don’t need to eat every day and it was clear that it was just a few of the sharks coming by to be feed at that time. The feeding presentation happens twice a day so there seemed to be enough sharks in the giant tank that most likely one or two will eat during each show. I didn’t find out the actual size of this tank but I would estimate it to be about 3 times the size of the 750,000 gallon Open Ocean exhibit at Maui Ocean Center.

The Sea Jellies were next and they had several different kinds of jellies including the Immortal Jellyfish. The last exhibit was the Gentoo Penguins in their frigid ice enclosure. Around the corner was Conservation Cove with signage describing Sea Life Trust programs and contributions (there was also a column about their conservation activities on the Brochure Map.)

Right before the exit escalator was a photo station where guests could have their photo taken in front of a green screen and then choose from a variety of aquarium scenes for the backdrop. As the guests sat for their group photo, the wall to the right had about eight different monitors with their group displayed in each aquarium backdrop scene so they could see immediately what each looked like! Once they picked the background, they walked around the corner to pay and the photo was printed right then—no wasted paper!

The photo gallery below includes pictures I took while touring the aquarium. If you are viewing this in the browser, clicking on any thumbnail photo brings up the full size photo with a description. To easily see them all, use the arrow buttons or keys to move through the full size gallery photos with descriptions.

Text and Photos by Nanette Harter