The Pirate Park, water park in Surat Thani
A visit to the The Pirate Park, water park in Surat Thani was in place. After our recent visit to Bangkok, we booked a night at
Sabye D hotel in Surat Thani and spent the night, but first it was straight from the night train into the water park.
The Pirate Park, water park in
Surat Thani; the entrance area
Straight ain't the right word though, we had to wait two and a half hours before the water park opened at 10am. The hotel room wasn't available yet and almost nothing else is open in town. It was a bit of a challenge but we managed,
The Pirate Park, water park in Surat Thani; photo opportunity!
The water park is located on the 417, leading out of Surat Thani towards the airport, after the second PTT gas station on your left hand side. Can't miss it, there are big signs and it's pretty much straight on the road.
There's plenty of parking space available outside but non is sun covered, your car will be steaming hot once you get back to it.
The Pirate Park, water park in Surat Thani; adult obstacle course
The entrance fee was really good, 250,-THB for adults and 150,-THB for children under 120 cm, added up to 900.-THB for the whole family, can't beat that!
Once inside, to your left are lockers, showers and bathrooms. There's almost no shade to be found, some shelters are set up with chairs inside and there's a big areas to your right at the entrance where small food stalls can be found, but only two or so were open yesterday which made excellent seating fro our group, out of the beaming sun.
The Pirate Park, water park in Surat Thani; adult obstacle course
This is a bit of a problem, that there's almost no shade to be found. You will burn really quickly, so plenty of sun lotion on your body is required. Best is to act like the Thais and cover up your body with long sleeved shirts and at least knee length shorts.
The other problem I had was that not all of the attractions were cooled down by water, which could cause burn wounds due to rubbing the plastic cover of the attractions and very hot foot soles by walking over very hot rubber.
The Pirate Park, water park in Surat Thani; adult obstacle course
The attractions are air filled, like the bouncy castles at local fairs here in Thailand. That partly explains the cheap entrance fees, but it comes with a few downsides, as explained before. I burned my knee and some attractions were just plain uncomfortable due to the plastic or rubber being way too hot and not being cooled down by water.
The Pirate Park, water park in Surat Thani; children's obstacle course
The actual attractions boil down to two big pools for children, one just to play and with some slides and one big pool with small paddle boats.
The other two main attractions are two lengthy obstacle courses, one for people taller than 150cm with deep water surrounding the course and one for children with shallow water.
Both courses are challenging though and difficult to complete. On both courses there seemed to be plenty of staff at hand that could help out in case of problems.
The Pirate Park, water park in Surat Thani; children's obstacle course
As already mentioned though, some of the rides are not cooled down enough or sprinkled by water so the plastic cover becomes steaming hot and you burn your feet easily. Some parts of the obstacle course have the same problem and it is rather very uncomfortable.
Trying to complete the courses can also be very tiring, pending on how serious or relaxed your attempt to completing a course is.
The Pirate Park, water park in Surat Thani; children's pool and slides
Although there was a big, roof covered area, hence shay but still hot, with typical Thai small food stands, only two out of ten stands were open. There's also an air conditioned restaurant on the premises, but we didn't check out the options available and there's a coffee shop that sells shakes and is part of the park, but is located outside of the park and you need to get a big, fat stamp at the exit so you can get back in again. This is the only place where fruit shakes are being sold, and although various tastes are on the menu, a mixed fruit shake is not an option! Very strange indeed.
The Pirate Park, water park in Surat Thani; small paddle boats in a shallow pool
When we visited, a week day but during a long Thai school holiday, it was not busy at all, I wonder how busy it gets during a weekend, probably a bit busier.
The Pirate Park, water park in Surat Thani; my preferred ride
All in all I'm glad we visited, but I don't see us return that quickly. Too many small things that were missing that once added up, made it for a mediocre experience. The kids loved it though.
Camille
