Phuket’s first water park to open at end of January
Multiple slides and tubes at Splash Jungle with, over to the right, the Superbowl.
You’d think that a holiday place like Phuket would have had a water park long ago. The fact that it hasn’t was not for lack of trying. Several plans have been put forward, including one for tourist epicentre Patong, but for one reason or another – investment, permits, shareholder disagreements – none of these plans ever came to fruition.
Now, however, Phuket is to see the opening of not one, but two water parks in the next four months. In April, appropriately around the Thai water-fight festival of Songkran, the Phuket Waterpark is scheduled to open in Kathu, in the centre of the island. We’ll bring you more on that soon.
For all the family: The Aqua Play Pool.
But first, on January 29, the Splash Jungle water park at the West Sands development, next to the airport, will be opened by Thailand’s Minister of Health, Jurin Laksanavisith.
Splash Jungle will have five big attractions:
The Lazy River: 335 metres of water meandering through seven “parts of the world”, from Asia to the North Pole.
The Wave Pool: Hours of enjoyment for all ages, simulating the currents and waves of the sea, but in safety.
The Boomerango: Starting with a thrilling drop through a tube, followed by a high back-and-to ride ending in a splash pool.
The Super Bowl: Starting with a drop through a tube, riders are launched into the Super Bowl, with centrifugal forces keeping thjem high on the wall for several turns before they exit into a splashdown pool.
The Aqua Play Pool: Aimed at whole families, this has multiple water features including slides, a giant tipping bucket and water cannons.
In addition, there’s an aquarium and a children’s slide pool, and escape for parents in the Igloo Sauna or Hot Spring Pool. There are three food and drink outlets serving up full meals, sandwiches or snacks.
Costing 500 million baht (about US$15 million), the Splash Jungle covers 2.2 hectares (14 rai) and was built by White Water Industries, the biggest name in the game with more than 4,000 projects completed and rides created in Disneyland and Sea World.
The park will open to the public on January 30. Entry tickets will cost B1,795++ per adult, and B1,050++ for kids from 100 to 130 cm tall. Kids under 100 cm in height get in free.
So people – practice shrinking, Now.
