Pattaya is a city in Thailand, located on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, about 165 km southeast of Bangkok located within but not part of Amphoe Bang Lamung (Banglamung) in the province of Chonburi.
The place is famous to tourists as there are nice beaches around but we didn't go to any of it. If you also want to move away from the traffic and pollution in Bangkok, Pattaya is truly a good option. Although it has also been known that prostitution abounds, we didn't find the place to be loaded with prostitutes. (probably in other parts, or during nighttime...)
The places on our list for that day were: Sanctuary of Truth, Nongnoch Garden and the Buddha Mountain.
We spent more time in Nongnoch Garden and there we rode the elephant. =)
The Sanctuary of Truth is a temple made 100 percent wood. And because it is made of wood, the construction is ongoing. It first begun in 1981 by Mr. Lek Wiriyaphan, the founder of the Ancient City in Samut Prakan Province. With exquisite an unique architectural features, the building was conceived out of the vision that human civilisation has been achieved and nurtured by religious and philosophical truth. It is an unfinished project, but worth a visit even now. You pay 500 baht for the entrance.
 |
| Sanctuary of Truth |
Buddha mountain displays a laser-carved and gold-plated monumental Buddha image. About 130 metres tall and up to 70 metres wide, it is rated as one of the biggest Buddha images in the world. An outstanding landmark in Pattaya's countryside, it is visible over a long distance.
 |
| Buddha Mountain |
After visiting these two places, we were starving. We saw an eatery on the way to Nongnoch Garden, and so we stopped by. As this was not a classy restaurant, the servers/owners didn't know how to speak English. Menu was in Thai! The only English word the waitress knew was chicken and that's what we ordered. Truly challenging, eh. Actually if you are just not choosy, you can go cheap on food.
We were now excited to go to Nongnoch Garden. Apparently this garden started off as a traditional fruit plantation in 1954 and was designed on 1,500 rai/600 acres of land. However, inspired by the beauty of world-renowned gardens abroad, it was redesigned as a tropical garden of ornamental flowers and plants, initially meant for botanical observation. In 1980, the garden was opened to the public and soon turned into one of Pattaya's most popular tourist attractions.
 |
| Nongnoch Garden |
Apart from the biggest botanical garden in Southeast Asia, Nong Nooch features a variety of attractions like elephant riding (surcharge 400 Baht/person), an exotic zoo, animal shows, and a fascinating Thai cultural show with dance performances and Muay Thai demonstrations.
 |
| elephant ride @ Nongnoch Garden |
The highlight of every visit, however, is probably the truly amazing elephant show that is great fun for spectators and performers alike, it seems. You can watch the jumbos play a game of football, basketball, bowling and darts. Some elephants turn out to be real hobby artists and paint images with their trunks, while others have specialized in a special kind of foot massage. Most amazing, however, is that this entertaining show doesn't only provide great fun for the audience, but that the impressively skilled and specially-trained elephants seem to enjoy the show performance and the various challenges themselves just as much as the visitors, and display a great sense of humour and ambition! Entrance fee is 400 Baht for foreigners.
And of course like any Filipino, we took a lot of pictures here. Talk about portraits and pictorials!
We went home around 4pm. The way back took around 2 hrs or more I think becuase of the traffic on the way back. We met our friend at the Paradise Park Mall where we had a sumptous Thai dinner. Afterwhich, we had ice cream in Swensen's. Swensen's was not yet available in the Philippines at that time but it was set to open a branch in Mall of Asia. Swensen's is an American ice cream shop and it offers a variety of flavors and combis. I ordered for a rum-something ice cream + some other toppings... Yummy!!! And the good thing about all this good meals is that our friend paid for them! =)
Went home tired and a bit drunk of that rum ice cream! hehehe...
Tomorrow we are leaving...sniff***
No comments:
Post a Comment