Inside a 40m-long dragon boat-shaped building on Beach Road in North Pattaya is the first teddy bear museum in Southeast Asia. Under the concept of “A Journey With The Teddy Bear In Pursuit Of Treasure”, Teddy Island Museum has 12 zones decorated with more than 1,000 stuffed animals under different themes for visitors to enjoy themselves and capture their happy moments with cameras.
This museum was opened in October last year by a Korean company. The difference between this one and most teddy bear museums in other countries is that here the toys are not kept in glass boxes so visitors can hug them and take pictures with them. Even grown-ups can feel like they are travelling back to their childhood when they loved reading fairy tales and dreamed about being one of the characters.
Stepping into the museum through the entrance decorated with a few huge teddies, you will first enter the Inca Zone depicting the civilisation of the Inca via the small models of palaces and houses and a number of soft toys wearing ethnic costumes.
Walking through the life-size model of a stone cave with what looks like lava flowing from the walls, you will eventually reach the Dinosaur Zone with several sculptures of the creatures that dominated the planet for 165 million years before their extinction.
In the Fossils Zone, you will join in teddy bears’ adventures in excavating the sand and searching for dinosaur fossils. You will then enter the Africa Zone decorated with a Land-Rover and a lot of animal dolls in a safari-like atmosphere. You can see some visitors posing for pictures in front of or on the bonnet of the vehicle with many plush animals.
Adjacent is the Thailand Zone, which shows some Thai art and some traditions and festivals, such as Songkran when people pour water onto elders’ hands to seek blessings.