Feeding the Seagulls (with video)

Every year from October until April, a flock of seagulls migrates to Thailand for the cool season. During the hot summer, they fly back north to Siberia to escape the tropical heat. Each year, they settle down just outside of Bangkok at an area called Bang Pu.

Bang Pu Recreation Center is a small coastal resort area operated by the Royal Thai Army and open to the public. The area opened in the 50s, and was especially popular as a daytrip with Bangkokians in the 50s and 60s. Today, it's just a short taxi ride from the end of the Skytrain line and only about an hour from the city center (though it feels like you are far away from Bangkok).

While the area is most famous for the seagulls, there is also a very nice and very popular seafood restaurant built out at the end of the pier.

I was especially excited for the super fresh and super cheap seafood that the army restaurant serves! It's always a highlight of a daytrip to Bang Pu. (As a side note, it was Chinese New Year, so everyone including the staff were wearing red!)

When you go out to eat seafood with your Thai fiancée, you must remember to come with an empty stomach! Pinky ordered in Thai, and I was a little bit shocked as food just kept coming to our table.

We had:

crab fried rice

deep fried softshell crab (my favorite!)

a sweet coconut crab dip for vegetables

some spicy seafood soup

and way too many steamed mussels (half of which we had to bag up and bring home with us)

After lunch, we walked out on the pier to see the seagulls. They were calmly bobbing in the water, but as soon as anyone approached with food, they went crazy!

Bang Pu is a protected natural area, and you can buy food to feed the seagulls.

You can buy a little packet of food for just 20 baht, and the birds will fly right up to you to eat out of your hand or swoop down to catch any pieces that you throw up into the air. They are really amazing!

It was nice to get out of the city for the first time in several months (even if we just took the Skytrain to get there). The weather is still pleasant, and the air is dry. There's a wonderful breeze at the seaside, and it was just perfect! 

It is going to start getting super hot soon, I know, so I'm trying to enjoy being outdoors as much as possible while I can!

Pinky brought her good camera, and we were able to take some nice photos of the birds swooping down to take the food from our hands. I also brought my action camera and shot another vlog to share with you!  I'm trying to film one video every week to bring my blog's readers along on my adventures in Thailand.

Video: Feeding Seagulls at Bang Pu