Located on the outskirts of Bangkok’s suburbs in Min Buri is the Thai version of a vast Asia and Africa safari. The park is pretty big, at 440 acres of land, and is set up with both land and marine sections. Friends of mine thought that it might make for a good couple of hours to see it all, and with only one small child – we did manage to see all the land attractions in about two hours.
The main feature of the park is its drive in circles of areas that have the animal populations of Africa and Asia. This is laid out in almost three circular drive areas with different animals in these areas in settings that are supposed to be similar to their natural environment in Southern Africa and in Asia. The stagnant green water in the first and last parts of the park – did remind me of those environments – though do not think that was by design!
We arrived for the safari in the middle of the afternoon and paid the ticket at the entrance. The drive is a slow one at about 15mph, with many a stop as animals cross the road – and signs in Thai and English telling you what animals were in that area, as well as a map detailing the same. You will have a chance to see lions, tigers, giraffes, rhinoceros, zebras, cheetahs, water buffs, numerous deer, Asian black bears, ostriches, and many other animals.
We figured out too late that the best animal photos are really dependent on the time of the day you are there. Seeing lions and tigers sleeping in the shade is not as powerful a vision as seeing them all walking around or swimming! The last driving area is by far the most dangerous, with signs everywhere saying do not roll down your windows. With tigers and lions outside the car – my windows definitely were not coming down!
The park also features A/C coaches that you can take instead of using a car. It seemed to me that the buses never really slowed down to allow the riders to get as good views as those in cars. The advantage is that you are higher up off the ground and do have better visibility, and do not have to drive.
It also has a walk through marine Park that has daily dolphin and sea lion shows. They also have a restaurant there. We saw the park area in passing, but did not stop. It did seem that most of the shows there were before 1pm, which is probably in keeping with the heat of a Thai afternoon. If you are taking kids along and doing both of the aspects of Safari World – don’t expect to be done with it all in just several hours. Do buy some drinks to bring with you for the Safari Drive. One visit to Safari World was enough for me!