We left for Bangkok on Monday with my parents, my brother and his family. We stayed at the Novotel Hotel in the Pratanum area – also known as the Fashion District.
Night view from our hotel room on the top floor (25th)
Well, maybe it’s the Fashion District, but it I guess fashion is very subjective and it wasn’t my cup of tea. Clothes, footwear, costume jewellery were very cheap, but as you know, you pay for what you get. Caroline had a field day in the mall as Grandma bought her lots of costume jewellery for cheaps.
One night we went to a restaurant outside of the city core to try the Suckling Pig. As it implies, the suckling pig is probably no more than a couple weeks old.
Suckling pig roasting
The piglet is roasted over an open flame until the skin is crispy. The first course is the crackling, the second course is the meat cooked with spices and soya sauce. I like crackling from a big pig, but not a baby pig… I wasn’t a fan of seeing the piglet’s head on the dinning table and it’s eyes somewhat glassy and cloudy. The drive to the restaurant took over an hour, but the trip back was less than 20 minutes – blame it on the infamous Bangkok traffic.
We took the kids to Safari World which is about an hour outside of Bangkok city. Safari World is a hybrid of a zoo, marine park and safari.
Macaws are my favourite birds
Did I mention I like Macaws?
No trip to Thailand is complete without seeing elephants. I guess the elephants have increased their entertainment value – they now walk on tight rope, play basketball, kick soccer ball, and also paint… You can even buy an elephant painting for $20.
Painting Elephant
Sometimes I am conflicted by animal performances, are we contributing to their care or are we allowing humans to use them for monetary gains.
The highlight for the kids were feeding the giraffes. This park has 250+ giraffes. I think this might be more than you get to see on an African safari. I was blown away but the sheer number of giraffes…
Caroline, Ryan (cousin) and Marcus having fun feeding the giraffes
Just a few bucks to buy a bucket of bananas to feed the monkeys, um, no, I mean giraffes
After the feeding, we went back to our vehicle to start the “safari” tour. We drove into the park and saw many animals.. Camels, deers, antelopes, wildebeest, zebra, tigers, cranes, flamingoes, bears, emus, rhinos.
After a long day out.. nothing beats the heat like the juice from a fresh coconut!
Although it is a beautiful place, I have to say that I didn’t sleep well there because of the tsunami warning signs around… When the tide was low, we walked along the beach for quite a distance. See a short clip of the 
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