Travelog: Thai-thai Baghag in Bangkok (Day 1)

Before anything else, thanks to MG for the title’s inspiration. I love it! Thai thai *think Tai Tai :D* And I also want to thank CV for being able to book us all on this trip at the very last minute. Remember how originally, city of choice was Paris? LV Baghag CV (who owns a travel agency *email me if you want her to help you out with your travel plans. I recommend her. She’s good!* ) already prepared our itinerary for Paris and Rome. Then my DB had some matters to take care of so we couldn’t get over 2 weeks of vacation time, and we changed from Paris to Japan. Then of course thanks to DFA, we couldn’t go to Japan because DM’s passport which DFA had issued, was the defective one. So we ended up in Thailand, which isn’t so bad since I’ve actually never been there except for a few layovers! Here’s the funny thing, we were with ImeeM at the airport and on the plane since we were all headed to BKK! Here’s ImeeM goofing around while we waited for our turn at the immigrations desk at the new BKK airport 🙂

We arrived Bangkok at past 1pm. Bangkok is 1 hour behind Manila– which meant that we had an extra hour to shop *muwahaha*. Anyway, there were 12 of us travelling together– my family with my DB’s kids and me with DH and my kids. This trip is something like our annual family getaway (which we would’ve normally taken during Christmas)– but since my DSIL is prego and will pop in November, a December trip together might not seem likely, so the kids were with us this time (last year we were in Egypt without the kiddies). Of course not traveling with my family in December opens up a travel opportunity with my DH’s family (We’ve never traveled overseas together with my DH’s family before), but hmmm… I doubt if they’ll offer to take us somewhere outside the country though since it is Christmas and my MIL’s family usually has a get together *which we haven’t attended for years because we travel with my famille… maybe now’s a good time to stay. hehe* Besides, if I stay, I get to play with my new niece/ nephew when DSIL gives birth 🙂 *I am soooo excited!!! I looove babies!!!*

Ugh, sorry I strayed again from the original topic. Anyway, we stayed at the Hyatt Erawan Hotel. It’s a real nice place to stay and I especially love the lobby. We were having our breakfasts here daily 🙂 *I know, ain’t it strange that I actually HAVE breakfast??? What a shocker!*

Our room was pretty big. We got 2 double beds and had the view of the Mall strip *how veddy veddy appropriate!!*. (Oh I brought my yellow Goyard St.Louis to use as a diaper bag 😀 Can you find the bag in the picture? Hehe). So after we settled into our respective rooms, we all headed out to Siam Paragon Mall.

On the way to the bridgeway, I saw that our hotel had a “shrine” and people were coming in and out to pray. Such an interesting sight to see– a “shrine” temple of the Kwan Yin by our hotel. And there were cartfuls of flowers being sold as offerings. Of course I went in to say a little “prayer” too 🙂 *Bag Gods, help me finance this trip should I walk away with a kickass new bag muwahaha*

On the bridgeway, we passed by Central Mall. The mall looks huge from the outside! We were going to Siam Paragon because there was this Ocean World directly below the mall. The kiddies were restless and we needed to provide them with some kind of entertainment too *muwahaha we couldn’t play selfish parents, that would be real nasty since it was Holy week 😀 Snicker*.

When we got to Siam Paragon, I was immediately overwhelmed. The place was huge. As in HUGE. I felt like a Liliputian. The Ocean World was below ground, so we took the escalator down. And found this.It was rather odd that there was no one here. I can sense disappointment already from our group. The kids were pretty ok with it since they were too busy screaming “Sponge Bob Sponge Bob!” *Muwahaha ahhh to be a kid again and be free of prejudice* But the jaded adults *cough US* have already seen good aquariums– think Monterey bay aquarium, Ocean Park… so this seemed… well, substandard. And of course the inevitable comparisons began 😀 *tsk tsk we sooo baad eh?*

But we were indeed all taken aback soon after we had entered (ThBaht 450 /head). There were small aquariums with jellyfish, King crabs, sea horses… but no one was prepared to see a floor-to-ceiling fish tank replete with corals, eels, and all kinds of colorful fishes imaginable! We were all in awe. Lesson: Never underestimate anything 😀

What we saw next made our jaws drop even further *at the rate of our jawdropping, we would all have to hold onto our jaws or they might just fall off!* There was a big pond inside this Ocean world where visitors could take a boat ride with a glass bottom to see what’s underneath yet ANOTHER huge fishtank!

We walked some more and crossed this wooden bridge and right below it was a HUGE stingray (HUGE HUGE HUGE). I was thinking, Holy crap, how many shagreen minaudieres can TinaO make out 0f this big dude! *hehee I know, I know, animal rights. But hello, lebaghag can’t help it! The equation remains Stingray= shagreen= bag! That plus the thought that a stingray had ended the life of animal conservationist SteveIrwin (whom we all loved to watch!)*

We reached the end of the “bridge” and there was a lady with this salamander (ok, I don’t know if it’s a salamander… I just know it looks like a lizard) who made us all touch it. It was cold and surprisingly not as scaly as it looked. I guess this is a distant cousin of the snake?

Wow, this Ocean World place is really something else. It was HUGE! We kept walking (thinking it was already the “end” of the place) until we reached an Aquarium tunnel!! It was like being under the sea and looking up to see all these stingrays and sharks! Yes, SHARKS. The big ones must be at least 7 feet long! And geez them teeth…. Sharp!!! Here’s my Goyard fidji (I switched to the hobo when we got to the hotel) against the sharks *muwahaha proof that thebaghag didn’t ditch the kids and went malling hahaha*.

The Ocean World walk was not over yet! There also were “open” tanks where kids and adults could take the starfish out or touch the baby sharks. This proud baghag was able to touch (and hold the tail!) of 3 baby sharks! Felt kinda sandy at the same time slimy. Eck. We got to the bottom (I think we’re probably a few floors below ground now) where the giant stingray was– and here’s the front view. Scary eyes!!

When we neared the exit, we were all exhilarated. Ocean World at the Siam Paragon is definitely a MUST-SEE. If you take your kids with you to Bangkok, you cannot not go to this place. It was really very impressive and can rival Monterey Bay Aquarium. And consider this– after you bring the kids to this place, you can just take the escalator up to SHOP!!!! So this place is indeed a winner!! FOUR THUMBS UP 😀 *including toes haha*

By the time we finished, it was already almost dinner time, so we just headed back up a floor to the Food Court, which was also HUGE. I swear I’ve never really been in a place with a food court this big AND nice before. Sure, I’ve seen big food courts, but nothing as nice as this place.

More on the Foodcourt and Bangkok again tomorrow 🙂 I’m already loving Bangkok!!

xx