Wrapping up and chilling out

IT MIGHT BE at least four months until winter but there’s plenty of snow in Bangkok these days thanks to the arrival of a wintry wonderland at Japanese lifestyle mall Gateway Ekamai.

The chill is delighting citizens eager to escape the sultry humidity that shrouds Bangkok like a wet blanket and they gleefully don overcoats, gloves and boots to ski down snowy slopes and slide along the ice.

Run by Snow Town Thailand, a subsidiary of property company KK da Vinci Group from Japan, the Snow Town has drawn more than 3,000 visitors since opening early this month.

More than Bt100 million has been spent on constructing a miniature Otaru, the small habour town near Sapporo in Hokkaido. It’s spread over 3,000 square metres on Gateway’s fifth floor and is divided into three zones: Snow Playground, Snow Restaurant and Snow Shopping Store. 

“Thailand is hot all the year round and we know how Thais yearn for the cold. We want to offer everyone the chance to try skiing and snowboarding too. This is the country’s first snow town to combine an indoor snow theme park with restaurants and retail shops direct from Hokkaido. We use high-tech machines to generate the artificial snow and we keep the thermometer way down to ensure it stays frozen,” says assistant manager marketing Yannanan Eaktaanaravikul.

“Visitors can also enjoy our selected cafes and restaurants, which offer a wide range of typical Hokkaido dishes and desserts made from top quality ingredients.”

Visitors are welcomed to Snow Town by a family of polar bears, a ceiling fresco of penguins and a white floor designed to resemble a glacier.

Inside MacEarth, the biggest ski resort service in Japan, has opened its first outlet in Thailand and offers a range of jackets, gloves, boots and snow tubes for rent at Bt100 apiece.

Private skiing and snowboarding classes are available at Bt1,200 for children and Bt4,000 for adults. Taught by both Japanese and Thai instructors, they’re a must for anyone considering a winter sports holiday.

Over in the Snow Playground, the young and the young-at-heart can have fun snow tubing down a gentle 700-metre slope. A favourite spot for selfies thanks to an attractive snow-covered church in the background, this area is also popular with little kids who can bomb their elders and each other with snowballs. Snow bunnies can also experience a blizzard thanks to the snowstorms that blow through town daily at noon, 6pm and 9pm.

Victorian-style street lamps illuminate the Snow Restaurant zone, which is home to 12 old-fashioned shophouses serving up a variety of easy-to-eat Japanese dishes and sweets.

They include Hokkaido Kaisen Nihonnichi, which is famous for its sushi, sashimi and Japanese egg rolls topped with crabmeat. Meat Sapporo offers four kinds of shabu shabu as well as premium Australian lamb shoulder marinated in special Japanese sauce.

Snow Miku Cafe is the place for manga fans serving its cartoon-inspired toast, pancakes and drinks with a selection of paints and drawing paper.

The attractively decorated Hana Hana has Flower Cotton Candy, crispy potato sticks with honey cream dip and spicy tomato and red apple candies. 

Kokubo Cafe offers several kinds of frozen crepe cakes, chu cream and rolls made from fresh milk flown in direct from Hokkaido. Ajino Tokeidai has ramen in traditional shoyu soup and curry rice while the Family Steak House serves premium grain-fed beef cuts.

A must for the girls is the photo studio where visitors are invited to dress in traditional yukata and kimono. The adjacent TeamLab Island Sketch keeps children absorbed in creating paper crafts, which are then turned into an animated cartoon on a large 3D interactive projector. 

Seven stops further along the eastbound BTS line is the Chinese answer to Snow Town. Opened last October, the popular Harbin Ice Wonderland cools and entertains visitors with its subzero temperatures and an exhibition of sculptures carved from 600 tons of ice blocks by a group of 25 skilful Chinese masters. 

Located on a 3,360sqm plot in the busy residential Bearing area, it’s operated by Singapore-based construction company CIW, which was behind the successful “2 Degree Ice Art” exhibition at Marina Bay a couple years ago. This ice wonderland is designed to look like a miniature town and is home to some of the best-known landmarks from around the world. 

“The success of the 2 Degree Ice Art exhibition inspired us to bring a similar show in Bangkok. We believed Thais would enjoy subzero temperatures and learning about ice carving and ice dyeing.” says CTW’s Miow Seong Yao. 

“To prevent ice melt, we do put a limit on the number of visitors per round because their combined body heat risks raising the temperature to above minus 8 degrees Celsius.”

A coat and glove rental service is available by the entrance along with a photo corner with a blue screen so visitors can put together their own backgrounds for those all-important selfies.

The exhibition itself is divided into 10 zones, with the first dedicated to Thailand’s elephants, which have replaced the old Chinese chedi. Alongside is a pair of Thai giants in front of Wat Phra Chetuphon and a traditional Thai temple, a reminder of the day when His Majesty King Bhumibhol met Queen Sirikit at the Thai pavilion.

The Ocean Paradise cave is home to several colouful, ice-dyed marine creatures including dolphins, turtles, sharks and clown fish. 

The Snow Park is the place for snowball fights and also offers icy slides and rides in snow carts. A three-metre-long ice wall boasts carvings of such iconic landmarks as London’s Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Kuala Lumpur’s famed Petronas Towers, a snow-capped Mount Fuji, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Taj Mahal.

When night falls, the Ice Bar serves a selection of creative cocktails and teas in ice cups to the sounds of live music interspersed with DJ spins. 

CTW’s lease in scheduled to expire at the end of this year and the company is currently searching for a new home.

Next month, the Wonderland is celebrating Mother’s Day with an ice carving show by specialists. 

 

COLD INSIDE

The Snow Town Bangkok is situated on the fifth floor of Gateway Ekamai shopping mall. It’s open from 11am to 10pm on weekdays and from 10am to 10pm on weekend. Admission is Bt100 for adults and Bt80 for children under 90 centimetres in height. Snow Playground’s tickets are priced at Bt100 for a 30-minute round. For more information, visit www.SnowTown.co.th or |call (095) 547 6870.

 

The Harbin Ice Wonderland is at 3776 Sukhumvit Soi 70/4, a short walk from Bearing BTS station. The exhibition zone is open daily from 9.30am to 9.30pm and the Ice Bar operates from 10.30am to 2am. 

Tickets are priced at Bt250 for children, Bt350 for adults and Bt550 for foreigners. Find out more at www.Harbin-IceWonderland.com or |call (091) 872 1268.