Thailand Fantasea

On the Sunday after our Elephant Safari Tour we had booked a tour/ show at Fantasea. If you have never been there before, picture an Asian Disneyland, replace Mickey Mouse with elephants and less rides more decorations and you will have Fantasea. 

They had a pond with the most Koi fish I have ever seen.

There were various birds and other animals around the place that you could get your photo taken with.

There were rotational stage shows every half hour of traditional dancing. 

They had these maze-like exhibits that had animals in really weird enclosures. There was a white peacock in a white room with fluorescent lighting and fake snow. 

The roof of the exhibit.

At one point they just had cockatoos sitting on a tree that had various light patterns on it. This was honestly one of the oddest things I have ever seen. None of it made sense. 

The pigeon exhibit.

2 pelicans that were in the smallest room. I felt pretty sad for all these animals, they were so not in their natural environments. 

This was the saddest exhibit.

The white tiger.

The tiger was just in this castle like exhibit. No greenery or anything inside, all the walls were white and it pretty much just looked like an insane asylum for the poor tiger.

These freaky souvenirs were everywhere!

It's a pillow, it's a pet, it's a pillow pet!

So this toy has poo on its tongue. Please someone tell me what is going on. Is this a thing in Thailand? Is this like some popular cartoon character or something?

This reminded me of Spirited away and freaked me out.

The kids play exhibit. They really went all out in their decorations.

From inside the elephant castle.

Outside the elephant castle, it's pretty spectacular. 

These are the largest freshwater fish in the world and they are kind of terrifying. They look like sharks without teeth. And they were huge!

We ate an awful buffet dinner in this intensely large dining hall. Then we went to watch the show. It was ok. The dancing was great and there was also magic, but the best part about the show was definitely the elephant tricks. I wouldn't really recommend seeing the show. It's more something you go to as a family with kids. As you walked in to the theatre they had rows upon rows of wall of fame photographs. One notable celebrity was Rihanna. They had a heap more but I can't really remember anyone specific. They also had a place where you could take photos feeding these baby tigers that had there paws in little gloves so they wouldn't scratch people. But to be honest these babies were much more interested in the bottle of milk then the people around them.

They also had elephant rides. You would be walking around the place and there would just be an elephant anywhere you looked it was pretty amazing.

I would recommend going to Fantasea just to walk around. It is a pretty interesting place. 

erica

Thailand Elephant Safari

This was another one of those days in Thailand that completely toyed with my emotions and moral values. I was pretty excited to do the Kok Chang elephant safari, but our hotel had no idea where this place was (it was down the road), so they booked us in to this middle of nowhere elephant safari place that I apologise but I have forgotten the name of. 

The tour bus came and picked us up around 10-11am so we were able to enjoy yet another buffet breakfast at the resort. It was all they had for breakfast and it was nearly $30 a head! But we wanted to spoil ourselves a bit on this trip.

When we arrived at the safari place I was pretty disappointed. It was definitely not what I was expecting. But what was I expecting? A lush green garden where the elephants were roaming free frolicking in streams and when the people called them over the elephants would happily oblige? Obviously not, these elephants were the main source of income for these people. They were chained up on posts, just standing there, eating the sparing hay on the ground. Everything about this place hurt and as soon as we got there I wanted to go home.

Young children armed with these large spikes sitting on top of these poor under stimulated beaten up elephants. None of these elephants looked healthy or happy, and why should they be. They all had cut up faces and chunks out of their ears from where they had been "guided" with the spike.

This was the worst experience in my whole Thailand trip. Even worse then Similan Islands 10hr travel the day before. I wish I never stepped on that elephant. As soon as we sat on the chair contraption and fastened our seatbelts, the young boy in front of us hit the poor elephant with that spike to make it move. I can't express how much I hated this. I wanted to cry the whole time. The poor elephant would pause to eat some grass or go to the toilet and this kid would just hammer it's head with that spike. And if he wanted to turn it around he would jam the spike in to the elephants ear and drag it in the direction he wanted the creature to move. 

I wish I never rode an elephant. 

This was the poor elephant we rode. Look at the cuts on it's forehead. How could you treat such a beautiful animal so cruelly. 

I am utterly obsessed with elephants since Thailand. They truly are such incredible creatures. Those eyes...

...that smile.

After the ride we got to play with the baby elephants. If you want to see elephants but don't want to ride them you should go to one of the safari places and just ask to play with the baby elephants. It's a small cost but it was a lot less upsetting. The elephants pose with you and play with various toys. 

This was a highlight of my trip with Luke. Elephants are literally our favourite animals now.

They kept getting their trunks caught in my hair and then they would proceed to blow my noses. By the end of this I had so much elephant snot in my hair, but I didn't care it was so much fun. 

Playing the harmonica

'Paint me like one of your french girls.'

LOOK HOW HAPPY THEY LOOK! Argh I just love elephants so much!

After the elephants we went back to the resort to hang by the pool until our next tour later that afternoon.

And in summary I would like to just pose the question "WHERE'S MY ELEPHANT!?"

erica