This is why we came to Phuket, Thailand: to see Claire Dilly (see earlier related post for context). SO WORTH IT! It was so great connecting with Claire in real life. And of all the places to spend time together, her recommendation was perfect! This evening we visited the renowned Siam Niramit in Phuket.

*Claire, Bill, Elena and Violet playing with parasols in Phuket*

Siam Niramit is one part restaurant, one part Thai Theater, one part theme park and one part zoo. Imagine if you combined a historical walk through with live animals and an acrobatic performance while having a buffet dinner. It’s all the things wrapped into one powerhouse evening event. Good call, Claire!

*There were many picture opportunities throughout the evening*

One of the greatest parts of this place is that they know you’re here to engage with the dancers and artists, so they are not shy about taking pictures (and having fun while doing so).

But the costumes are only part of the fun. Violet got to feed the fish and they were knocking each other over to grab whatever was in those fish pellets. I’ve never seen so many fish in such a large grouping like this before. They clearly have “feeding time” down pat.

And of course, the same goes for feeding the elephant, bulls and goats. Of which Violet was able to participate in all of it, taking her turn at each of the spots set up.

Once the elephant had received all the cucumbers from Violet, it was trained to hold out its trunk for a picture. Which I gladly took.

*The elephant’s “thank you” pose after receiving food from guests*

And of course, we kept going as this place was huge and had so many parts to it; each one sharing a bit more of Thailand along the way.

*Feeding the bulls (after the elephant)*

*And the goats … attempting to have them kiss eating the same grass*

And then we found the boats that would take you around the rest of the village. This was like a short gondola ride under bridges and around the various buildings to get a canal-like view of what’s there to see all around this cultural center.

After the boat ride, we poked around the rest of the shops including some of the exhibits that showed how the silk was made and then woven into various materials. Violet was fascinated by the use of an early seahorse to break up and even grind up various grains.

In one of the rooms, there was a musical performer. At first she thought I wanted to take her picture, but then I asked if it was okay if I recorded her playing one of her songs.

And there were others demonstrating different instruments. My brother plays the marimba and this one sounded similar (to my untrained ear) as I was passing through.

After this, we had a fabulous buffet meal. No need to take pictures of this part of the experience. It’s like every buffet you’ve visited with various foods grouped together by flavor pallet. In this case, we had an entire Indian section (both vegetarian and non-vegetarian) as well as a large Thai section and a kids offering with family standards of chicken nuggets, hot dogs and spaghetti with meatballs.

And then the main event. Even the pre-show was filled with a blend of various forms of music and art.

And the main event shared various regions of Thailand and both the cultural aspects and spiritual traditions. There was even audience participation where the conductor taught the a random audience member to ring her set of bells at exactly the right moments. It was a bit of comedy and music interwoven.

*Wonderful evening performance of Thailand music and dance*

On the way out as I was sharing my gratitude with Claire for taking us to this show, I asked her how often this show runs. We were here on a Wednesday evening in the middle of a week. While it wasn’t a “packed house” I was still impressed with how many people were participating. Claire shared that this performance ran 6 days a week! Wow.

All told, we were there from about 6pm until after 10pm, so fully entertained for more than 4 hours and at no point was I looking at my watch wondering how long we’d been here. The evening flew by. I’m glad we had time to catch up with Claire given how much activity the event venue had in store for us.

Siam Niramit with Claire Dilly! (November 12, 2025)

Andamanda, Phuket (November 13, 2025)

Nai Harn Beach, Phuket (November 11, 2025)