One of the first things to do with kids when travelling is to Google Search "water park + (enter name of country visiting, in this case: Thailand)". It's a good way to burn their little engines dry and enjoy peaceful driving time on the return journey, completely free of Baby Shark singalongs (current fad song of 2022, insert new-age, nursery annoyance as time wears on).
Google revealed that Ramayana water park opened in 2016, was 2hrs drive South-East of Bangkok, and sprawled across 40-acres with 21 slides and 50 independent attractions (not sure what these were but 50 is a big number, so it must be great).
As many signs reminded us on entry, Ramayanda ranked first in Asia and tenth in the world on TripAdvisor in 2019. This got me pondering; when do historical feats become poorly dated? The first thing I wondered was; where is the new number 1 and how do I get the kids there?
This was an extraordinary visit to Ramayanda due primarily to COVID restrictions keeping the global population worried about their house renovations rather than travel. In particular the Chinese were not taking kindly to a 2-week isolation imposition after international travel and as such 1-million annual visitors were missing from Thailand's landscape.
Nine and I gobbled up the opportunity and road-tested nearly all major slides twice before retiring to the lazy surrounds of the Aqua Play lagoon. This thorough research revealed a Top 5 slides to hit-up (not verified by Nine):
#1 Aqua Play - this will only rate highly for those with kids aged between 2-8 and immature adults.
#2 Aqua coaster - lift your bum over the rollers, if you don't know what this means just imagine bruised plums and ask is that how I want my posterior to appear when I ride the Aqua loop (see below)?
#3 Aqua loop - (as above) think carefully about short, loose shorts unless you have a fondness for flossing nylon fabric out from between your teeth.
• #4 Boomerango - there was always going to be a slight bias for this ride based on the name but nothing quite beats feeling like you're about to flip backwards in a tyre tube on account of a steep, vertical, half pipe.
This was a real highlight of our visit to Thailand. In some ways I wish we had time to explore the surrounding area of Pattaya which seemed to exude elements of the Glasshouse Mountains. This was a vague feeling I had from the staircase tops in the rear instances where there was enough time to look around before jumping onto the next slide.
Children love this water park, the biggest trouble is keeping a lid on them for the journey there. All the evidence is contain within.
25 дек 2022
