Under the Sea Day 2 Part 2

After the excitement of the Market we dropped our purchases off at our hotel and went and found some food.  Well deserved after all that energy expended in the heat of shopping!  Then we found ourselves a serene, cool and air-conditioned hole.  Actually it was a rather large hole, the basement of a shopping mall that contained "Siam Ocean World!" Siam Ocean World salts their aquariums with salt imported from the Promised Land.  Or somewhere over there. Very chic.  We both enjoy aquariums and it was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon and evening.  Very relaxing.  For the first time we saw Giant Clams!

Look at the size of these Spider Crabs.  We have seen them on Planet Earth but I didn't realize quite how large they are.  This one is almost as big as this child!

Obviously the glass magnifies things a little but these things were huge!
There was a very deep and beautiful reef tank that was 2 stories high, you will see it below and then further along in the blog as well.  First we saw it from the top story.  And later we saw it from below. So relaxing to watch the fish.

Check out this fish.  It looks like there are brains on top of his head!
 
He was huge too.  Like 3 feet long! He barely moved at all, the whole time we were in the aquarium he stayed on his perch.  We saw puffer fish, which the Japanese call Fugu.

I didn't realize that they were so large, these guys were at least a foot long.  Most people know that they are dangerous to eat.  In fact one Japanese sister that I worked with the other day said that you have to be a trained and licensed Fugu chef to serve it.

This eel fascinated me, I couldn't get a great picture but maybe if you look closely you can see that the inside of his mouth is the same spotted pattern as his skin.

We saw the Rock Fish.  The most poisonous fish in the world.  Look at him, so smug.
 
This aquarium had a River Monster Tank!  If you have seen the TV show you will know just how interesting that can be..  There were all these fish that we saw on the show.  I had never heard of them before we watched it and it was neat to see them in real life.  Yes, we are nerds that watch River Monster Reality TV.  It's way cooler than it sounds.  Honest.

Not the best picture of the fishes but you can see that they are monsters.

At this aquarium we had an entrance package that entitled us to lots of VIP perks.  Such as free popcorn, a free Pepsi, a souvenir key-chain, a tour of the aquariums inner workings and a glass bottom boat tour of the main tank.  Which was interesting, but not as glamorous as I thought it would be.  Still.  Got to do it.  The coolest part of the package was the Happy Feet Happy Fishes bit.

Yes, those are our toes.  And those are teeny fish.  They are cleaner fish and we enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with them for ten whole minutes while they cleaned our feet.  It was just like FEAR FACTOR!  Almost.  It was very strange but seriously cool.  I felt weird though because there were two Thai gals getting their feet cleaned at the same time and they had barely any fishes on their toes.  Ours were getting swarmed.  We clean our feet all the time here so I don't understand it.  In case you were wondering it feels like tiny tickles all over your feet.  I'm shocked Matt did it because he has very ticklish toes.  He was giggling the whole time.  Also in case you are wondering the tub was super clean and jetted and they disinfect your feet before you put them in it in the first place.

We made our way to the bottom of the reef tank where I fulfilled my lifelong dream of sitting in a shell and pretending to be the Little Mermaid.

Well, maybe it's not quite as cool as that.  Still.  It was probably as close as I'll get.

For Matt, no trip to the aquarium would be complete without gazing at his favorite sea creatures, the sharks.  They are really amazing creatures.

There were other cool things to see at the aquarium, I thought this was a pretty ceiling:

Check out this shark feeding station!  Matt dreams of being shark food, er, I mean diving with sharks.  Apparently you can actually pay people real money to get in some sort of plexiglass death trap and sit on the ocean floor somewhere in Australia while they chum the water for Great White Sharks.  Yup.

Meanwhile I checked to see if I could generate as much electricity on this bicycle as an electric eel does.  I totally can.

Of course the modern day sharks that Matt wants to get up close and personal with are nothing compared to the MEGALODONS of old!
 
Well that was all for the aquarium, then we were off to collect our souvenier key chain and watch our complimentary 5D movie.  Yes. 5D.  They shoot battering rams in your back and spray air in your face at the exciting parts.  I think I'll try 3D next time.

We are off on another adventure tomorrow so should resume posting next week sometime!  We miss you all.  Goodbye from Under the Sea!



Unless you want to see more pictures?  Ok, next time!