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Siam Ocean World - Bangkok


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"Covering an area of 10,000 square meters on the basement of the luxurious Siam Paragon shopping mall, Siam Ocean World is one of the largest aquariums in Southeast Asia. A subsidiary of the Oceanis Australia Group, the world's leading aquarium operators, Siam Ocean World is fast becoming everyone's favourite day-out city attraction, as well as a learning centre for kids."

It was the last night in Bangkok, I'd been on a sweaty bus for 4 hours returning from tourist hell Hua Hin; I thought I was mad to visit Thailand and not look for ONE beach.... so I travelled far and wide just for a taste of pristine white sands and turquoise waters...... and it smelt like dog poo, the sight of burnt white skin made my own crawl & not a soul had bothered to clean up after themselves, plastic bags crashed with the waves and plastic bottles floated as far as the eye could see.

As reprieve from this evening stroll on the beach's disappointment, I went to Siam Square for dinner & Air con.....

Entering the enormous shopping center, the downstairs food court offers you ANY cuisine you could wish for - and they do it well.... but it was hard not to notice the enormous tanks diving up the court..

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So I sat down with my Sashimi don (the irony was lost on my fishy audience - fortunately)

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...and parrot fish watched me as I watched them watching me eat my dinner

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They are extremely stoopid looking, and I love them very much.

Anyhoo - all these tanks were alluding to something, so I had a bit more of a look around - in fact the whole bloody shopping center had an aquarium theme... (funny that)

I later discovered that it was a ginormous Aquarium.... guess what I was doing for the rest of my evening?

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Let's play: Name that fish.. cos I don't know what the one above is.

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Striped Frogfish

Edited by melbournebetta
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With the above Red & White one - Y'all realize I dont actually KNOW their names, I just shot the poster next to the display tank each time I took a pic.

Cheating? Yes.

Interactive learning? Sure!

D'awh - Looks like i'm on my own again (why isn't anyone ELSE up at 1am??)

One for Matt and Joan:

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MY FAVORITE OF THEM ALL - my two passions colliding!!!!

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n'awwwwwwwwwwwwww

I loved his little face and his little nose and his little eyes. ohhhhhhhhhh he even has glitter! awawwwww glitter sparkle pony!

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OH OH TRICKY: Name this fish #3 (below)

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Weedy Scoprion Fish (Below)

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(there are so many more shots - feel free to comment on how AWESOME that shot of the weedy fishy is)

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Phyre: Yes I believe it's latin for NAWTY - they were amazing, super deep fluro colours!

Stony Stonefish, where is he?

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Dere he is!

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These dudes were CRAAAAAAAAAAZY, I had the poster and the name but I deleted it somewhere.

Name this fish-thing challenge #4:

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is it a scallop?

MASSIVE displays:

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I Know this one I know this one!!! Australian Lung fish!!!!!

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What's this one Sarah? Starts with an "S" and ends with "Amanda"

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Beever woudja believer!

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At this very moment i became homesick for my dog

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There was the mantidory shark cave walk through thingy:

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And finally a cheesy Tuk Tuk at the end.

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I then became very angry when I had to exit through the gift shop, and there was no obvious exit.

15 mins later, red faced and grumpy I left through the emergency exit.

That was the end of my sojourn in Siam Square.

x Siamness

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AMAZING!

Fantastic shots Ness, looks great! These photos would make great prints/cards/keyrings/etc.

Is that.. a tiger salamander...?? Squeeee.. I want! Ah well, illegal and stuff, but I still want.

Looks like you had lots of funNess. :)

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I can't tell you how RELIEVED i was to discover this place !

......After 9 days with constant contact with my travel partner I remembered (ON THE LAST DAY) that while I love people and what you can learn from them, I also LOOOOOOVE solitude! (and quiet time with my animals)

So on my first solo-mission, just to get away - and accidently shopping in a joint that has an aquarium in it's basement was a welcome discovery!

Aquariums are funny places, I wondered how the fish felt about being photographed with a flash every thirty seconds, and then realized they were probably doing better than the poor blighters in the food court - there were signs asking you not to tap on the glass, but ...well... kids were everywhere - and the NOISE!

(Not to mention that I doubted the lights were ever off - this place closes at 11pm and opens at 5am, so unless they covered the tanks, they'd have very little dark time.)

However they all looked in decent condition, and had plenty of places to hide... there was even a huge planted tank with just huge shrimp... I wanted to photograph for Matt, but that was also the most popular tank and I couldn't find a spot to squeeze in and shoot.

Much like any aquarium, the lighting is kind of engineered to make you look like a good photographer! (but I'll take the credit, sure)

I think Melbourne aquarium has a no flash policy....... ?

My little Cannon G9 is about to be upgraded to the G12, it's an un-imposing chunky hand-held number, that has more zoom than anyone could ask for, and is SUPERB for shooting fishes! (I treat mine like a toy, its been to the dessert, dropped, thrown, dripped on during fush shoots, you name it) - still works!

Anyhoo, was thinking of you'se all when I shot each one.

Sarah - yep ! Le Tigre Salamander! The Axi in the next tank was giving me the foulest look, so I left him be.

That Natiulis was surprisingly quick for a big heavy solid thing with no apparent eyeballs!

x Ness

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Thanks Ness :) What did the shrimp look like? Did they have one giant claw each? Or 2? Like out of proportion claws? The other shrimp you posted is marine, still can't think of the name.

The clownfish you posted is the black anemonefish.

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First in best dressed I say!

Miss Del - tell us what the Not Nemo fishy is!!

Matt - the fish in the big food court were tiny - around 50c piece and red n white... I couldn't get in close because people were too busy eating their prawn dishes (ohhhh snap)

The shrimps didn't seem to mind.... looked freshwater?

xx

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