Crocodile Farm in Bangkok, Thailand

My father has a Thai friend who lives in Bangkok. He kindly drove us to the Samutprakarn Crocodile Farm (21 km East of Bangkok). I originally wanted to take our girls to the Rose Garden where you can see Thai Cultural Show, so we were all driving to the direction to the Rose Garden. So we thought. However, we found out that my father’s friend had the Rose Garden (27 km West of Bangkok) and Ancient City (40 km East of Bangkok) confused, thus we were headed to a wrong place. However, when we realized that we were on the opposite end of the city from the Rose Garden, we were close to the Crocodile Farm and Zoo. I decided that we would make a day out at the crocodile farm and the zoo, which I thought that would be a lot of fun.

I was bummed about not going to Rose Garden, but the Samutprakarn Crocodile Farm and Zoo were quite fun for my girls. The size of the Crocodile Farm is a great for toddlers to walk around. It is small enough that it’s not too tiring and you can see everything without any stress.

If you are having a short stay in Bangkok and want to see something other than temples and markets in Bangkok, Crocodile Farm is a good choice for you. Especially if you are traveling with young children, they will love a break from a city tour and see animals and crocodiles at the Crocodile Zoo. I enjoyed seeing the crocodiles although they were mean looking and kind of scary! I thought about Steve Irwin, the Australian Crocodile Hunter who unfortunately passed away. The Crocodile Zoo is close from Bangkok which is convenient. You can take a Sky Train to the end of the line “On Nut” and take a taxi from there to the Samutprakarn Crocodile Zoo.

People recommend Dusit Zoo in Bangkok, but it is not a very good time to go there still now (February 2011) in the current political climate in Bangkok. I am sure that the zoo is as nice as it has always had, but the area you’ll have to pass to get to the Zoo is where the demonstrations often take place. I didn’t know about this and I went to the Marble Temple (Wat Bemchamabophit) which is located right by the Dusit Zoo. I saw many police guarding at a few different locations and it is a little eerie to see that. I also saw one small-scale demonstration. My father’s friend recommended that we avoid that area. Come to think of it I remember thinking why there was hardly any traffic there. Locals probably try to avoid using the roads in that area. It is not a good feeling to pass by a demonstration and you never know what could happen. It is very tempting to go to Dusit Zoo, but if I were you, I would pick somewhere else having experienced what I saw and felt because there are so many other things to see in Bangkok.