Daily Report: The Million Year Stone Park

Today, Geoff and Honey Mae, April and I went to The Million Year Stone Park and Pattaya Crocodile Farm. It's not the easiest place to find — even if you are a local — but it's still worth a visit if you want to go. I went there about 16 months ago if you want to read about that visit. The price is 300 baht for white-skinned people and 100 baht for brown-skinned people, so it's a little bit less expensive than Nong Nooch Tropical Gardens or Underwater World.


The pretty gardens of The
Million Year Stone Park.The sculpted gardens are really quite attractive, with a great collection of petrified wood and coral.... at least as pretty as Nong Nooch, albeit one-tenth the size. They still make for a pleasant walk and offer lots of great photo opportunities: You're guaranteed to get a gorgeous photo of your significant other if you take him or her along.


There is a nice little collection
of animals at the park, although
nothing too exotic for Thailand.
Go to Khao Kheow zoo to see that.
The animals for the most part aren't as interesting or fun to look at (or kept as comfortably) as what you find in the Khao Kheow open zoo, but the location is only a minuscule fraction of the distance from Pattaya. The Million Year Stone Park also has a good collection of Asian bears.


Epril has done nothing
except hang out with fat
hairy things since
arriving in Thailand.


I still laugh every time
I look at this photo.As with every other place that features animals on the Eastern Seaboard, visitors have lots of opportunities to sit down and have their photos taken with the animals. As compared to Nong Nooch, here 2 out of the 3 animals (the baby tiger and the Asian bear) were not obviously drugged... but the tiger still was pretty drunk. I guess if you are going to let hundreds of tourists per day sit down and hug a tiger, the only way the tiger is going to put up with it is to pump him full of sedatives. I still think it's a wrong — or at least sad — thing to do, and can't recommend contributing to the condition of the animal by paying to have your photo taken with it. However, the baby tiger was certainly playful, and the giant bear seemed quite lucid.

There are also elephants who will pick you up with their trunks so that you can have your photo taken, and for the particularly bold, you can sit down on a live crocodile and have your photo taken. As always, having your picture taken with any of the animals costs 40 baht... and some animal handlers hint at expecting a tip.


It isn't as dangerous as it looks.
Still fun to watch... although the
show could use some subtitles
since it is entirely in Thai.The Crocodile Show as always was entertaining... if once again, a little sad... with the showman goading the crocodiles into attacking him, and even climbing on top of one and holding it underwater until it began to fight back. (That last bit is a new addition to the show that wasn't there last time I went.) I think the most interesting thing is how easy it is to lull a crocodile into a sleep/stupor and how difficult it can be to wake them up... unless you hit some certain part of the crocodile. I was amazed to see the showman not only put his hand in a sleeping crocodile's mouth, but literally put his arm up to the shoulder down the croc's throat... without the crocodile even flinching.

However, once the crowd realized that the showman could walk up and punch the hypnotized crocodile square in the nose without it noticing, when he stuck his head in the mouth of the crocodile it was a bit anticlimactic. Well... it was still fun to watch Epril gasp and applaud and enjoy herself.


The giant catfish are my favorite.
These ones are actually small...
only 200 pounds or so.


Tigers are plentiful at Million
Year Stone Park.As always, the most fascinating part of the Million Year Stone Park to me is the giant catfish, one of the largest freshwater fish species on earth. It really is incredible to see these fish close up, and to feed them. They are about the size of dolphins, really... but without that friendly dolphin smile: Instead, there is just a huge gaping maw on a flat featureless head.

Also, of course, are the crocodiles... thousands of them, kept in enclosures around the grounds. I'm quite sure that Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, would have had a hissy fit if he saw the place, but I really doubt that the pigs and cows we eat are kept in conditions any better than these... and these crocodiles at The Million Year Stone Park are harvested for commercial purposes. (The restaurant in the park serves crocodile steak for 400 baht or so... which is probably as cheap as you are ever going to find it.)


A crocodile makes a great
leap at some chicken
dangling above.


A nice photo of Epril
splashing water around.Conversely, you can feed the crocodiles instead of eating them: For 30 baht, a lady will tie a piece of chicken using a bit of vine to a long bamboo fishing pole that one can dangle out over the crocodiles to watch them leap and snap at the hanging meat. You can either let the crocs gobble up your bait at the first go, or tease the crocs, piñata style, for hours on end.

Anyway, finally it was another walk through the gorgeous gardens, with stepping stones across the pretty water fall, before heading home. The Million Year Stone Park is a nice enough place to spend an afternoon, and the giant catfish and feeding the crocodiles are can't-miss attractions. Overall an enjoyable time.