How bad(/good) would you say Safari World is?
I'll be in Bangkok later this month, and I'd love to see African manatees, but I'm not sure if this zoo is for me.
@Ned if you like snakes, I can recommend doing a night walk with a tour guide while in Bangkok.
I saw a tentacled snake, a puff-faced water snake, a paradise flying snake, a whip snake, and a few white-lipped pitvipers, as well as box turtle, garden lizard, snakehead (fish), 2 frog species and bats.
You also have a chance as spotting reticulated pythons, although we didn't (but we did see one earlier that day so that wasn't a big deal)
Of course, since this takes place during the evening, you could easily combine it with other activities!
I can also recommend an early morning visit to Rot Fai Park for wildlife of the feathered variety. Saw 29 bird species there like koels, coucals, rollers, owls and bee-eaters (as well as many squirrels and a few tree shrews, and the inevitable water monitors.) This is also we were saw the python. My eBird list; https://ebird.org/checklist/S154786763
I also did a day tour from Bangkok to go whale-watching in the Gulf. Not many people are aware this is a possibility, so you might want to look into this as well. (We saw Edens whales, but you could also spot finless porpoise, irrawaddy dolphin or Indo-Chinese humpback dolphin)
@ralph thanks for the information. I have booked a night herping tour with Tontan tours. It sounds a bit dodgy, searching around the suburbs for snakes while being pestered by stray dogs by the sounds of it, but if I see a few snakes I'll be happy.
The botanical garden looked like it might be good for birds as well. I've looked that up on ebird but will also look through your list.
I didn't know about the whale watching, but I shall check it out.
Thanks again.
It's not up to date (eg for transport options to sites, etc), but you can find lots of bird sites all around the country. Bangkok is in section 3 Central Thailand.