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Samphran Elephant Ground & Zoo: We caught a taxi and headed out to Nakhon Prathom, about a 2 hour drive from Bangkok, to go to the Samphran Elephant Ground & Zoo. As foreigners our tickets cost quite a bit more than what the Thai were charged, but we were able to skip the long lines to make the purchase. We first watched a crocodile wrestling show. The second show we say started with a magic act and then continued with an elephant show. They first demonstrated the technique used to catch elephants in the wild, but the elephant was able to get away during the demonstration. The elephants then came out and performed numerous tricks and had contests. The final part of the show was a mock battle, complete with pyrotechnics.
We spent some time wandering around the park looking at the animals, which included tigers and monkeys. There was a haunted house there as well, but Peep was too scared to go in, so we skipped it. But Peep did get the opportunity to pet a baby elephant before we found our taxi driver, who waited for us while we were in the park, for our ride back to our hotel in Bangkok.
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Sea Food Market Restaurant: For dinner we hopped on the free water taxi offered by the hotel to the nearest skytrain station. We transferred to a second line then walked several blocks to get to the Sea Food Market Restaurant, a well known tourist spot dad had heard about from someone he plays golf with that regularly travels to Bangkok on business. Along the way we stopped at the mall so Peep could pick out a couple pairs of pants that mom and dad paid for as a Christmas present.
At the restaurant, we started by grabbing a shopping cart and selecting the food we wanted to eat before proceeding to the checkout counter to pay for it. The food was then taken to the kitchen, where we could watch it being cooked from outside the restaurant. We then went back inside and enjoyed our dinner.
On our way back to the hotel we saw many people crowded in public squares set up with projection screens televising the festivities related to the king's 80th birthday celebration.