Mia: Who made TVs?
Me: I don't know.
Mia: Maybe Jesus?
Me: Well Jesus did make everything.
Mia: Jesus is so smart. He should get a sticker. He’s a good boy.My daughter providing us laughs a minute on our $6 taxi ride to The Mall Bangkae.
You won’t read about this place on Trip Advisor, I looked. You won’t find a website, they don’t have one. But finally here is a place you can find it. Travel With Bender reveals one of Thailand's best kept secrets.
So how did we find out about this place? Bangkok.com was pretty much the only place I could find it mentioned. They mention 3 waterparks and after reading bad reviews on the other 2 we decided no news was good news. After all, the park was only opened in 2009 so it really couldn’t be that bad.
Fantasia Lagoon is located at The Mall Bangkae (map below). Getting to The Mall is hard work. It's only a local shopping mall, which not even many of the locals are aware of. Our taxi driver asked 5 different people and eventually called a helpline. We described where we wanted to go and then she told him in Thai. On arrival at The Mall, we were greeted by a large open area set up like street food stalls. There were so much beautiful and colourful foods. Things we had never seen or tasted before. The kids chose this rather tasty treat. It was kind of like a crispy pancake with a melted marshmallow inside. It was way too sweet for me, but Josh downed 3!
Anyway after that we made our way to the top floor, level 4. This is a great shopping centre; there is a little pond with real birds, fake hippos & elephants. The lift overlooks this as you go up. On the 4th floor is the entertainment precinct. There is bowling, movies, lots of little food stands, a kids play area, an amusement park and Fantasia Lagoon.
Before we entered we bought Caius a $5 pair of swimmers from the Swim Wear shop and a 30-cent ride on a Thomas the Tank Engine. Finally we climbed the grand stair entrance to Fantasia Lagoon.
Fantasia Lagoon is on the roof of the shopping mall. The lady at the desk was so friendly and told us there was a special on until October. Entry at student prices, 100 baht! I am not sure what the usual entry fee is but we paid just over $3 each admission and the kids were free. Bargain!
We walked through clean glass doors and stood in awe. The place is simply amazing.
Before you get too excited, this is no Waterbom Park, there is maybe 4 or 5 slides for older kids, its main aim is younger focused. But believe me this was no New Kuta Green Park either! This place is made for toddlers right up to maybe 12 year olds. There are so many sections to this place. Pirate ships, water play lands, lazy river, waterfalls… I mean just look at the pictures, it’s hard to explain.
One thing about this park is that everyone must wear swimming caps. They hire them out at about 30 cents each. It seems weird, but it’s a great idea to stop all that gross hair floating in the water. They also hire out tubes for floating in the river; these were about $2, towels and lockers.
There is one food joint inside, but it only consists of drinks and chips. However there is no greedy Western culture behind this park. You are allowed to exit the park and return with your food. I left Josh and the kids munching on pretzels while I exited to find us some Thai junk food.
I came back a little while later with:
Cup of corn |
$0.60 |
|
A crepe with blueberry jam |
$0.60 |
|
3 mini pancakes with sausages in them (hot dogs) |
$1.00 |
|
2 sausages |
$0.60 |
|
Noodles |
$0.60 |
|
Spiral potato on a stick |
$1.00 |
|
Total cost of lunch |
= |
$4.40 (AUD) |
After lunch we went some more. Mia was not allowed on the larger slides, there was a (broken-English) 1 metre 20-height restriction. But I managed to talk them around and she loved them. One was especially scary and given it’s Thailand, I didn’t let her (or myself) do it again haha.
The high slides go for a while, and are quite slow. But the view is amazing. Remember you are on top of a building and you can see for miles. I loved those slides. The water was shallow in every pool. We were told by a local that Thai people don't swim. It feels rather dangerous going down a slide into 80cm water, but we survived.
The kids loved running through the fountains, doing the pirate slide, splashing in the pools. We stayed from 10:30am – 3:30pm. I reckon if they didn’t look so dog gone tired with Caius falling asleep in my lap on the lazy river we could have stayed longer.
The water seemed clean to me, a few bugs and leaves, but they had staff there with nets working constantly. The music was really repetitive and quite frankly annoying, it plays through the whole park and gives it great atmosphere, but if you are there for long periods of time I think it is maybe 3 songs on replay! The ground near the pirate ship was a bit dirty and chipped, but overall I was really impressed with this place. And at roughly $10 for lockers, caps, tubes and entry it became one of our favourite attractions here in Bangkok.
Next door to the waterpark is also a small amusement park. It has a beautiful fake ceiling with blue skies and white clouds. It is filled with rides and activities on a pay as you go basis. We had a walk through, but were too tired to stop and do anything.
I have some hesitancy in writing this post. I wonder if it’s kept a Thai secret for a purpose. But as always my goal is to nut out fantastic family-friendly places and give you something to look forward to on your visit to Bangkok. It’s not just a big city, you will love it.
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Address:
English: 275 Moo 1, Petchkasem Rd. Phasicharoen Bangkok 10600.
Thai: 275 หมู่ 1 ถ.เพชรเกษม แขวงบางแคเหนือ เขตภาษีเจริญกรุงเทพฯ 10600