FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

Mauled by Monsters!

Mauled by Monsters!

Or just take a selfie with a gentle Isanosaurus

WELL, IT’S bone dry in northeastern Thailand, but Bangkok didn’t exactly expect to have dinosaurs roaming around. That’s what’s happening, though, at the new Dinosaur Planet theme park that opened downtown two weeks ago. 
Amusement providers Fresh Air Festival, Rightman and Workpoint Entertainment spent more than Bt500 million setting up the Jurassic playground, which is run by a fourth outfit, FWR. 
It occupies 15,000 square metres at the huge future site of the EmSphere mall. Where shoppers will soon enough be stalking bargains, more than 100 full-scale, lifelike dinosaur replicas are eyeing visitors with evil intent.
There’s also a Dino Laboratory, a 50-metre Ferris wheel and a 4D movie theatre.
The beasts on view weren’t hatched in the lab, Spielberg-style. They were modelled and assembled in a Chinese factory that makes monsters for Hollywood. Don’t tell the kids, but it’s all plastic foam, durable but also flexible enough that they (the dinosaurs, not the kids) can wave their tails and swing their heads. 
Fresh Air Festival chief executive Vinis Lertratanachai says the corporate team were working together on television’s “Mahajanaka the Phenomenon Live Show” and the talk show “Mum Teng Nong FestiWow” when someone from Rightman suggested an amusement park using the dinosaur models from China. 
“We flew to China and discovered this vast industrial estate where engineers and artisans were creating electronic dinosaur robots that were amazing in every detail. 
“When we got back, aiming to draw foreign tourists and local families, we searched for the best location downtown Bangkok with easy access to the BTS.” 
A year’s lease on the EmSphere site was secured, Vinis says, and they spent two months setting up Asia’s first dinosaur theme park, inspired by dinosaur movies. 
More research and much effort went into recreating a prehistoric jungle, tremendously aided by experts from the Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden in Chon Buri. Architect A49 dreamed up the magnificent interior decor. Workpoint created animations for the park and Rightman does the light-and-sound spectacles. 
As in the movies, beyond the towering stone pillars at the entrance, the park is divided into eight zones. You first find yourself in Dino Square, a friendly enough beginning to the tour with a calm Apatosaurus and a dizzyingly tall but still gentle Argentinosaurus checking everyone’s tickets.
 Dino District is next, a series of multimedia presentations about what the planet was like 200 million years ago when the dinosaurs ruled – and then suddenly didn’t. Stroll through the “space tunnel” and you’re in the Big Bone Gallery, with its touch-screen encyclopaedia showing what 100 species of the giant reptiles looked like without their clothes on – or any flesh. (If it had any blood, the Brachiosaurus might be blushing.) 
The Dino Lab comes straight out of the films, with dinosaur eggs in various shapes being hatched by scientists. The real palaeontologists in the crowd will be more interested in the “Stars of Dino” exhibit, a mock archaeological site complete with vintage-looking tools and a map showing where to find the fossil remains of Desmatosuchus, Ichthyovenator and other hard-to-pronounce creatures. 
There must be some more or less “living” dinosaurs around here, right? Yes, once you head off on safari, there’s a herd of 22 of them scrounging for food in a shady forest that changes in appearance as you move along, from typically Triassic and Jurassic to Cretaceous. 
You can interrupt the dino dining long enough to get a selfie with an Isanosaurus or a Parasaurolophus, but don’t miss the supper show, which features a ferocious, mind-the-horns battle between a Styracosaurus and a Spinosaurus. 
Covered in blood, you need to get to the Ocean Kingdom for a rinse. Here you can watch a documentary about the giant lizards of the deep while dozens of “bubbles” bounce around the floor to create the illusion of being underwater. 
A Bt200 investment above and beyond the admission price is required for a ride on the Dino Eye, the 50-metre-tall Ferris wheel that affords panoramic views of not just the theme park but much of Bangkok as well. 
For more of an adrenaline boost, get in the queue for Raptor X-Treme. Shipping containers have been mocked up like an office complex with hidden RC codes you have to find to avoid being eaten by the Tyrannosaurus or, far worse, molested by its small but vicious sidekick, the Velociraptor. 
Families calm their nerves next door at the Dino Farm, where the kids can ride on a Triceratops or Anchiceratops for Bt100 or dig up replica T-Rex bones for free in interactive games. 
The 20-minute Great Volcano & the Extinction Live Show is an animated feature about the prehistoric world projected on a volcano as a cast of dinosaurs take turns on stage demonstrating how they tried to avoid extinction (not very well, obviously). There are three shows a day. 
Please be warned that the food court does not serve Bronto Burgers or any other Flintstone food, leaning instead to Japanese favourites like ramen and curry rice and global standbys such as ham-and-cheese sandwiches. There are, though, pastries shaped like dinosaurs filled with chocolate custard. The prices are reasonable. 
In the gift shop are T-shirts, tote bags, ceramic mugs, key rings and educational toys bearing the likeness of various long-dead lizards.
“We’re opening 4D Deep World next month,” Vinis says, but the big question is what happens when the lease on the site becomes extinct. “When that happens we’ll move to Pattaya,” he says, “and we’ll have twice as much space to house more attractions!”
 
MEGA-BITES OF FUN
Dinosaur Planet is for now on the future EmSphere site on Sukhumvit Soi 22. 
It’s open daily from 10 to 10.
Admission is Bt600 for adult and Bt400 for children between 90 and 140 centimetres in height. 
Find out more at www.DinosaurPlanet.net/en.
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