IRL Adventures| That Time I Went to a Cat Cafe
Hello, hello BAYOG fam! I’m back with another Anime IRL Adventures post~ As you all know, I’m BAYOG’s Hella Basic Asian Chick. I’m also a fatty, a traveler, and I love experiencing new adventures~ We’ve talked about visiting [Nara deer], [purikura fun], and [eating crepes in Harajuku]. Today we’ll be talking about the time I went to a cat cafe~
Asia is known for having many different themed cafes and restaurants. Sometimes the theme has to do with a certain character, franchise, animal, item, trend, etc. Like the [Totoro restaurant] I went to. Theme cafes are super trendy and popular. I’d say that Japan is most famous for it’s theme cafes. I might be wrong, but I think the trend of these kind of theme cafes were popularized by Japan. Anyways, the most well known kind of theme cafe are cat cafes! These have shown up in some manga, anime, and dramas. It’s like your typical cutesy cafe, but there are a bunch of cute kitties you can play with as you eat and drink.
Like I said, I’m a hella basic Asian chick. I also absolutely adore animals. You can find me befriend all animals, particularly cats and dogs. My roommate had a cat and a dog. My sister has a cat, and fostered two kittens. I grew up visiting my uncle who had like 20+ dogs. 9/10 times I can get a dog or cat to love me. I’ve even befriended strays that I’ve come across on my travels. Being an otaku, I of course had a cat cafe on my bucket list. Luckily, I had that very opportunity when I went back to Thailand in 2015.
Actually, it started with me finding out that there was an alpaca farm and themed restaurant near my house in Bangkok. If you didn’t know, I love alpacas. I just suddenly had a random obsession over them one day. So for reals I’ve wanted to go see one in real life. So I went to that and had my dream come true. After seeing the alpacas and eating dinner, we wanted to get pancakes for dessert. Unfortunately, the pancake place next door was closed. However, I noticed there was a cat cafe across the street!
My aunt was hesitant. (Side Note: I say aunt, but she’s my mom’s cousin who’s 4 years older than me; We don’t have have that second cousin, fourth cousin, or whatever mess. We keep it simple) To be honest, she thought me wanting to go to the Alpaca Farm was kind of weird. However, she ended up enjoying it. Still, we went across the street. Thus, we ended up at Cat Cafe by Lila. It was a small cafe. However, there were plenty of cute kitties everywhere! When we went in, I immediately gasped and kept going “OMG!! AWWW!!!” Though my aunt tried to act all cool, but she started slowly showing her interest in the place.
It was a small place, and decorated pretty simply. However, it was so adorable. It had bright light pink and white on the walls. It helped brighten it up and make it look bigger and comfy. The walls had cute kitty murals.
Most importantly, there were so many adorable kitties! They had big chonky ones and tiny lil’ babies. Most of them were of the super fluffy variety. There had to have been at least 15 cats. Some of them even had little outfits on.
However, the cafe also had some rules you would need to abide to if you wished to play with the kitties. It’s understandable. They gave us a sheet with adorable illustrations. It explained the rules in both Thai and English. Although, the English instructions aren’t as detailed as the Thai instructions. They also verbally explained it to us. It’s pretty simple to follow. Most of it was common sense. Still, OH MY GOODNESS! The sheet was just so, so adorable. The staff was also incredibly helpful, friendly, and sweet. I think they also checked up on us alot to make sure we were enjoying ourselves. I think they were slightly fascinated and curious about me. Mostly because I don’t look Thai at all, yet here I was speaking Thai fluently. I was also speaking English fluently. They were super surprised to find out I wasn’t a foreigner or mixed, that I was just an American born Thai. It was cute because they also were trying to practice their English with me. Which was really good. So they’re super friendly and happy to help any foreigners.
Of course, it’s an actual cafe. Like most theme cafes, you have to pay something like an entrance fee. You’re also required to purchase something. Usually each person must order at least one item. Like I said before, we already ate. However, we wanted something sweet. So we also ordered some drinks and a crepe and ice cream.
I just remember getting an iced cocoa frappe for a drink. It was cute. Taste wise it wasn’t anything to write home about. However, it was still pretty refreshing since Thailand is so damn hot. The crepe was meh. It didn’t look impressive, and the taste was just like okay. Still, it was nice to have an ice cold drink and ice cream to cool us down.
We definitely played with every cat that we could while we enjoyed our refreshments. It was later in the evening. Most of the kitties were tired and just napping. Still, quite a couple of them would come by. You also had kitty toys you could use to get their attention. If I remember correctly, you can also buy treats for them. I was ecstatic though. Like, you don’t understand how many times I spazzed out over the cats.
The darkest I’ve ever been cuz I got hella sunburned and tan lolol
There were alot of cute and interesting kitties. This guy always had his tongue hangin’ out. He looks so sick of my shit. However, he was a sweetheart.
Then there’s this guy. I was so amused by how he was sleeping. He just kinda went flat LOL. I think he was the oldest one there. If I remember correctly, the owners said that he fathered most of the cats there.
They had a little set up by the window. Probably to use the kitties’ cuteness to help draw people in. A couple of the younger ones were passed out here. Some of them had little hammock like places to nap. This cutie was adorable and loved belly rubs.
Sure, the food was just average. However, it was a super enjoyable experience! The staff was so sweet and friendly. They made me feel really welcomed. Most importantly, there were so many adorable kitties. You could see they were well loved, and that they enjoyed receiving love. Even my aunt, the skeptic, was enjoying herself. She ended up taking soooooo many pictures and selfies. My grandparents wondered why we came back kind of late. My aunt showed the pictures. They were like “We’re glad you had fun, but WTF..? Why are there so many pictures?? LOL Did you really go for your niece, or did you go for yourself?” It was just a super fun and chill adventure. I truly enjoyed my whole experience, and I can say that it won’t be my last.
Have you been to a cat cafe? How was your experience? Have you ever been to any other theme cafes? Do you wanna hear more about my visit to the Alpaca farm and restaurant? Let me know!~