Intro
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| All photos are clickable. |
Welcome to the Kingdom of
Thailand. Land of everyday summer, white beaches and cheap prices.
The main reasons we decided to go there for a vacation are: no visa
required for Russians, hot climate and just $700 per person in cash.
The main goal was to get acquainted with eastern culture and to swim
in the warm South-Chinese sea. We've made it.
Our trip program
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Early awakening
River market
Elephant village
Floating down River
Kwai
On-water hotel
Day 6
Thermal waters
Some waterfall
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Arrival
Our flight to Bangkok took
8 hours and it was not very convenient – we had armchairs with
nonfolding back at the end of the business class cabin. Bangkok
airport Subarnabhumi is really large – it took us about 10 minutes
to get from our gate to passport control. After that we got into a
bus and started moving to our first and main location – Pattaya.
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| Pattaya Park Hotel Tower Building |
It's a popular touristic
resort full of Russians and Chinese. I must say, that here you'd
better speak Russian than English if you want get along with locals.
There were even 4 Russian channels on the TV in our hotel.
Pattaya Park Beach Resort
That is the name of our
hotel. It is famous here because of two reasons – one of it's
buildings is the highest in the city and it has it's own aqua-park.
But we ignored those places of interest and didn't pay our visit
there.
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| Our room |
The hotel looks nice
and fresh. We had a cosy superior room with two beds and a balcony at
the top 15th
floor. Actually it was 14th one
because in Thailand they skip the 13th
floor in all buildings.
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| View from the 15th floor |
South Chinese Sea
It is warm all day long
and all the year. We went to the sea at the first day of our journey
in the evening.
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| Night sea |
The next day we went here
at noon – it was a mistake, we got sunburns right away.
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| Pattaya Park beach |
They say that beaches in
Pattaya are not really clean as well as the water. In fact I can say
that it isn't worse than those in the Black Sea. The water is full of
floating sand and so it looks dirty. If you want to get clean white
sand beaches and sparkling transparent water you have to go to
islands that are not far from the city. We visited Kho Lan island
that is 20 minutes far from the city pier. It was really perfect. The
pictures can't depict it's real beauty.
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| Kho Lan beach |
In total we hit the
beaches three times and two of them we got sunburned. During our
first visit I occasionally got undesired tattoo of a dragon on my
right forearm. Some sticky Thai man made it while I was repelling. He
wanted 3000B ($100) for his work and I gave him only 300B($10). The
tattoo went away after 7 days leaving white strokes on my skin that
were not exposed to the sun. They are still present.
Excursions
All in all we had 8
excursions in 10 days. I think it was way to many. The main problem
for me is the fact that all the excursions begin really early –
around 8 am. You can see the plan of what we saw at the beginning.
Three excursions were included in a tour and 5 were bought. We gave
12000B ($400) for two persons. Everything was quite OK – nice
guides new buses and some interesting places.
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| Million year stone park |
Except these: 2 gem
factories, latex pillow factory, African oak factory, souvenir shop,
tea shop and medical herbs shop. I didn't like them.
Food
Thai food is spicy. I
didn't like it.
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| Tom Yum soup |
Thai snacks are also hot.
I didn't like them either.
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| Thai snacks |
Three first packs went
straight to the bin – way too spicy.
Snake and crocodile farms
Some of the most common
must sees of Pattaya are crocodile and snake farms. Snake farm is not
very big and the only interesting thing here is the show. It is
really interesting and interactive - performers are trying to involve
audience in the show, throwing snakes at them. A short video depicts
the beginning of the show.
If you are very hungry you
can have a full meal made of yet-alive snake. I should state that
that was the only meal here - there is no cafe and besides snakes you
can eat boiled corn if you like.
Crocodile farm is a bit
more interesting.
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| Crocodile Farm |
There are plenty of hungry
crocs need to be fed with chicken by you.
Besides crocodiles there
is a real zoo with different animals and birds. We took some photos
in advance because we missed the real zoo because of the rain. Crocs
here look kind of bored - the lie without movement and are not really
willing to eat your chicken for 80baht ($1.5). Besides the zoo there
is also fine stone garden - worth seeing and taking photos - it
reminded me the Peterhof garden in St.Petersburg. The show here is in
Thai, take a view if you like.
Massage
We paid a visit to a Thai
massage parlor. I had a wonderful foot massage for an hour just for
200B ($6,5). Because of tickling I was smiling and even laughing
during all the session especially in the end when foot massage turned
into neck and shoulders massage. I really wanted to test traditional
Thai massage but because of the sunburns I had to miss that part.
Better luck next time.
River Kwai adventures
That was the most
interesting two day excursion started at 4:40 am. We visited on-river
market, took a ride on the back of the elephant, took a bath in hot
thermal waters and float down the River Kwai in a safe jacket.
River market:
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| River market sellers |
Elephant village:
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| On an elephant |
And elephant ride:
Thermal baths:
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| Taking a thermal bath |
River Kwai:
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| River Kwai from the bridge |
One of the specialties
here is the hotel situated right on the river. It was quite cosy
though not 5 stars.
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| My legs in a hammock |
I spent evening hours
lying in hammock and reading a book.
Rainy season
Climate here is tropical
with just two seasons - dry and rainy. We were here during the humid
rainy season. At first we were afraid that rain will be pouring all
the time but we were wrong - rain was predominantly during nights and
late evenings. There were even two or three days without any drop.
And during the day it was damn hot and sunny here - you'd better not
stay under the sun at noon - you would become wet with the sweat in a
minute.
I can't not to mention
that tropical rains are very strong - one morning we were visiting
the opened zoo when the rain ruined our plans and we were totally
wet, although we had an umbrella.
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| Sad rhino in the rain |
Our group decided to
cancel the visit and return to the hotel with later refund of the
half of the excursion price. The climate is also very humid - the
first thing you mention exiting the airport is the humid and warm
air. But you will get along with it in no time and it doesn't bother.
Air conditioning here is essential - we can't stay in our room more
than half an hour without it. Even the rain is very warm here and
when you walk in the streets full of water below and above you won't
get cold.
Transsexuals
Pattaya is full of
transsexuals. Our guide said they feel safe here. I saw one in the
market – he wasn't very attractive. But I can't say that about ones
we saw at Tiffany's show. They look fantastic.
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| Not girls |
And the show is
really impressive, definitely must see thing in Pattaya. The show
lasts a little more than an hour and depicts cultures of different
countries of the world shown by katois (local name of transsexuals).
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| Picture from the Internet |
Bangkok
After 7 days in Pattaya we
moved for 2 days to Bangkok.
It's a big modern city of
skyscrapers full of people of different cultures: Thai, Chinese,
Arab, African and Indian. Russians here are minority. We lived right
in the center of the city among skyscrapers.
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| View from the 26th floor |
Sidewalks are never empty
– they are crowded with sellers of different kind. Taxi here is
also interesting - always bright and fresh colors: pink, blue,
green.
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| Nice colored taxi |
Subway here is underground
(metro) and overground (skytrain).
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| Skytrain in Bangkok |
It's always overcrowded
inside. Stations are announced in Thai and English. You can also find
station name on the monitors inside which show commercials.
Royal Benja Hotel
That's the name of our
hotel. I really don't know what Benja is, but it's definitely not
English. This hotel was really cool. I guess it's about 4 stars,
though it has 3 stars in the Internet description.
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| Rojal Benja Hotel room |
2 beds, LCD TV,
separated bath tub and shower, cool carpet on the floor, wi-fi for
$10 a day. I liked it more than our hotel in Pattaya. We lived on the
26th
floor in a 31 stories high building. Though I didn't like 4 speedy
elevators here – pressure drops hurt your ears.
Dream World amusement park
During our last day in
Bangkok we visited Dream World Amusement Park. It's a huge territory
of European style adventures. We were here for 4 hours though didn't
visit every of 54 attractions.
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| Dream World park |
The most stunning thing
was a water ride when we were totally wet altogether with our camera
and money. I must mention that the main thing that is missing here is
a real roller coaster. Instead of it there is some 'coaster' though
not 'roller'.
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| No cheating |
Things I liked
Thing i really liked there
was everyday summer. 365 days a year here is summer. With +30 degrees
Celsius, sea, white beaches and warm rains in the evening.
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| Kho Lan beach |
I liked fresh fruits and
seafood. I liked to wear shorts, t-shirts with short sleeves and
slippers day and night and not being afraid to get cold. I liked
really cheap things there - food, clothes, souvenirs. I liked a
bottle of fresh drinking water in a fridge renewed daily. I liked to
lie in the armchair in the balcony in the evening shade, drink
something, listen to Vivaldi and watch the glowing city.
Things I didn’t like
I didn't like to get up at
7am almost every day to get to our excursion at 8. I didn't like the
absence of free Wi-Fi service even in Bangkok, even in McDonald's. I
didn't like to be white there - every seller is trying to interest
you in his goods or service in a very persistent way. I didn't like
to be in the sun at noon - you start sweating in a second. I didn't
like speedy lifts in the hotels - feel yourself like in a jet plain.
I didn't like national Thai food - it is not for the Europeans
because of amount of chili pepper in every dish.
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| Real spice |
Things I found interesting
Thai people don't eat
bread, drink milk, hot drinks and tea. When we were in some Bangkok
cafe and ordered tea, after some discussion with the water - we got
can of Schweppes instead of tea.
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| Cashew chicken - tastes nice |
They drive the left side
of the road. I guess every third vehicle here is a motorbike. Thai
people are not fond of sun bathing - they think that white skin is
beautiful and brown skin is for plantation workers.
Now it is officially 2555
year in Thailand. That is so because 95% of the population are
Buddhist and they count years from the day Buddha's birth, which was
2555 years ago. Find a year on a receipt.
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| Welocome to year 2555 |
Anyway more than half of
the shops here issue receipts with European style date. I guess this
can be a major problem when building computer systems operating with
dates.
Conclusion
Thailand is a wonderful
country of eternal summer. But i guess it's too hot for a European. I
don't think I come here once more - the world is too big and full
other wonderful countries. See you somewhere else.
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| Took a picture with some local |
