Imagine a place where you can enjoy your favorite cup of coffee in the company of dozens of koi fish as they swim through ankle-deep water that covers the entire floor. That’s Thailand’s koi fish café in a nutshell.
Remember Amix Coffee, the “flooded café” of Ho Chi Minh City, where hundreds of decorative fish of all shapes and sizes lived on the water-covered floor as patrons walked among them? It drew a lot of criticism from animal rights activists and closed down after just a couple of months, but if you liked the concept, you’ll be happy to know there’s another flooded café you can visit. Sweet Fishs Café is a unique venue in the Thai city of Khanom, where people can walk through ankle-deep water populated with dozens of koi fish.
Photo: Sweet Fishs Café/Facebook
Sweet Fishs Café first went viral on social media last month, when a short video of its aquarium-like floor went viral on Reddit. From there, it spread like wildfire, being shared thousands of times on Facebook and Instagram, and even being picked up by international news outlets. However, the location of the café was never revealed.
Some sources speculated that the place was located somewhere in Vietnam, probably because of the Asian country’s fascination with koi fish, but a simple Google search revealed that Sweet Fishs Café is actually in Khanom, Thailand.
Apparently, the unusual venue is part of the Ton Than Resort and Spa, a popular tourist resort with a history of over 14 years. Its owner, Yosaphol Jitmung, told MGR Online that Sweet Fishs Café was designed as a “tourist magnet” to attract visitors during this difficult Covid-19 pandemic. To that end, the idea has proven a massive success.
Yosaphol Jitmung admitted that he was inspired by the original Amix Coffee, in Vietnam, and seeing that no one had replicated the design in Thailand, he figured it was worth a shot. One of the biggest challenges of implementing this concept was the filtration system. Four large pool filters work 24 hours a day, and staff changes the water every morning, before opening hours, and in the evening after the last patron leaves.
Visitors are asked to take off their shows and disinfect their feet before entering the café, as well as not to touch the fish or disturb them in any way.
Koi fish make up the majority of fish Sweet Fishs Café, because they are eye-catching and generally not afraid of people, but there are also “doctor fish” that nibble on dead skin, as well as other species.
Yosaphol Jitmung said that he invested around 400,000 baht ($12,000) in Sweet Fishs Café so far, noting that the structure was already a part of the resort, and most of the investment went into the fish and the filtration system.
So there you have it, your next must-visit attraction the next time you’re in Khanom, Thailand.
