A second new indoor snow and ice themed centre, Snow Town, has joined Bangkok’s recently opened Ice Wonderland.
Each of the two centres are in fact named after a region in a neighbouring country, Harbin (from northern China) Ice Wonderland and Hokkaido (the Northern Japanese island famed for its deep powder snow resorts) Snow Town.
Indeed Snow Land has been created by Japanese lifestyle mall Gateway Ekamai and is run by Snow Town Thailand, a subsidiary of property company KK da Vinci Group from Japan. It has clocked up more than 3,000 visitors since opening in early July.
The £1.8m ($3m) development, reported to be themed on Otaru, a small habour town near Sapporo in Hokkaido, is spread over 3,000 square metres in the Thai capital’s Gateway’s fifth floor and is divided into three zones: Snow Playground, Snow Restaurant and Snow Shopping Store.
“Thailand is hot all the year round and we know how Thais yearn for the cold. We want to offer everyone the chance to try skiing and snowboarding too. This is the country’s first snow town to combine an indoor snow theme park with restaurants and retail shops direct from Hokkaido. We use high-tech machines to generate the artificial snow and we keep the thermometer way down to ensure it stays frozen,” assistant manager marketing Yannanan Eaktaanaravikul told The Nation website.
Pictures of polar bears, penguins and a white floor designed to resemble a glacier welcome visitors who can rent cold weather gear from MacEarth, a Japanese ski shop.
Ski lessons are offered from Japanese and Thai instructors and there’s a snow play area for children. The Japanese theme continues in the Snow Restaurant zone which has a dozen Japanese style eating establishments, including sushi and also manga inspired outlets.
Snow Town Bangkok is open from 11am to 10pm on weekdays and from 10am to 10pm at weekends.
