Mini Siam What A Dump

[imaneggspurt]

We quite often stop at mcdonalds and see all the bus loads of tourists going into mini siam ,so today i thought we would take our daughter,.first thing was they tried to charge full farang entry fee ( 300 baht ) for my 6 year old daughter, my wife pointed out she was born in thailand so got her in for the same as my wife 100 baht ( 200 per cent loading for farang ! ) .i wont bore you with all the details but i will say dont bother, its a dump, just like pattaya park ( been there lately ? ) ..any recommendations anyone for where to take kids ? im getting depressed !

Edited August 31, 2008 by imaneggspurt

[NotNew2You]

We quite often stop at mcdonalds and see all the bus loads of tourists going into mini siam ,so today i thought we would take our daughter...any recommendations anyone for where to take kids ? im getting depressed !

I would say to steer well clear of any place that has those loads of tourist buses parked in the parking lot...not usually a good sign (at least in Thailand). One place I would highly recommend (if you have not been already) is the Khao Kieow Open Zoo just up the highway from Pattaya. This is actually a pretty decent zoo (for a developing country) and many of the animal enclosures are large and open-plan (not depressing small cadges). There is a large collection of animals (with the tiger exhibit being particularly nice and newish).

If is quite large and you can actually drive you car around inside the zoo to the various animal habitats. The cost is very cheap as it's a government run facility and not a private money-making operation. Something like B 50 or so per person and there is also a per-car rate. Farangs are maybe B 100. Could easily spend half or whole day here.

They also open portions of the zoo at nite for a "nite safari" thing. This is a separate charge and runs something like 6-9 or 10 pm. Pretty cool to see the animals at nite as this is when many species are most active...also cooler at nite!

There are also public aquariums in Rayong (Ban Phe) and also a small one at a university in Ban Saen just past Sri Racha. There is also a turtle nursery at the Navy base in Satahip.

Edited August 31, 2008 by NotNew2You

[Rimmer]

We quite often stop at mcdonalds and see all the bus loads of tourists going into mini siam ,so today i thought we would take our daughter,.first thing was they tried to charge full farang entry fee ( 300 baht ) for my 6 year old daughter, my wife pointed out she was born in thailand so got her in for the same as my wife 100 baht ( 200 per cent loading for farang ! ) .i wont bore you with all the details but i will say dont bother, its a dump, just like pattaya park ( been there lately ? ) ..any recommendations anyone for where to take kids ? im getting depressed !

I went there a while back and had the same hassle with the entry price, eventually got it reduced when I produced a Thai driving license. It's not all that bad, the models are quite well made and think of the money you can save by not visiting the real thing.

I liked the old temple ruin model of Panom Rung, just like the real thing.

Shan't be going back though.

[Thaifan2]

Was there 5 years ago and it looked run down then .