Set in the basement level of the Siam Paragon shopping mall at the corner of Rama I and Phaya Thai Roads in central Bangkok, SEA LIFE Bangkok Ocean World is the largest aquarium in South-East Asia and one of the principal indoor tourist attractions of the Thai capital. The aquarium covers approximately ten thousand square metres of net display area and contains around thirty thousand individual marine animals across approximately four hundred different species drawn from across the various marine ecosystems of the wider Indo-Pacific region. The aquarium opened on 30 November 2005 as Siam Ocean World, a joint venture between the Australian aquarium specialist Oceanis Australia and the Thai retail company Siam Paragon Development. The original development was carried out at a total cost of around one and a half billion Thai baht and was one of the largest single aquarium projects anywhere in Asia at the time of completion. The facility was acquired by the international Merlin Entertainments group in 2012 and rebranded as SEA LIFE Bangkok Ocean World under the wider international Merlin SEA LIFE network. The aquarium is organised across seven principal themed zones following a continuous walk-through visitor route. The opening Weird and Wonderful zone presents the more unusual marine species including the famous Japanese spider crab, the seahorses, the various jellyfish species and the small electric eels. The Tropical Reef zone presents the colourful inshore coral reef environments of the wider Indo-Pacific region, with several large communal display tanks containing the various tropical reef fish, anemones and small invertebrates. The Penguin Ice Adventure zone is the principal individual highlight for younger visitors. The refrigerated zone reproduces the rocky coast of southern Africa and hosts a small colony of around twenty African penguins, with a small underwater viewing window allowing visitors to watch the penguins swimming directly from the underwater perspective. The supplementary Sting Ray Pool allows visitors to gently touch the various harmless small stingrays under the supervision of the resident aquarium staff. The principal individual attraction is the central Open Ocean tank, a large eight-million-litre cylindrical display containing the substantial collection of larger marine animals including several species of reef shark, large stingrays, the famous resident sea turtle and several species of large pelagic fish. The principal walk-through tunnel, a hundred-and-twenty-metre transparent acrylic passageway running through the centre of the tank, provides visitors with a continuous overhead view of the various swimming animals and is one of the most heavily photographed individual features of any indoor attraction in central Bangkok.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Siam Paragon, Rama I Road 991, Bangkok, Thailand

Website: https://www.sealifebangkok.com

Opening Date: 30/11/2005