The answer to the question of where to go to Pattaya will be interesting to all lovers of travel and exotic relaxation, because Pattaya is the most popular and regularly visited resort by Russian tourists in Thailand, where you can find a lot of fascinating excursions and beautiful places to relax and make an impression about this interesting eastern country.
Resort History
60 years ago it was a completely quiet fishing village on the shores of the Gulf of Thailand. According to one version, Pattaya became popular thanks to American soldiers who spent their vacation in this place in 1959, according to another, wealthy Thai people began to build private holiday cottages here.
In the 60s, an American military base was located near Pattaya, and soldiers often visited the resort for recreation. After the stories of the military returning home, the Americans began to come here to the resort, and the infrastructure of the village and then the town received such rapid development that hotels and restaurants grew like mushrooms.
In 1978, Pattaya became a city and now annually celebrates November 29th as its birthday. Since the 1990s, tourists from Eastern Europe and Russia began to come here, and now Pattaya is one of the resort towns beloved by Russians. Each visitor is concerned about the question of where to go to Pattaya and what to see.
Pattaya Resort
This is a very active and vibrant city in which amateurs of parties and restaurants, and families with children can spend a fun and exciting holiday.
The most popular excursions for tourists at this resort:
- excursion on the river Kwai (duration 2 days);
- the main attraction of the resort is the entertainment area Walking Street;
- Mini Siam Park, in which there are reduced copies of architectural sights from around the world;
- Holidays on Koh Lan Beach and other islands that can be reached by ferry;
- Nong Nooch Park, which allows you to enjoy the beautiful nature, make interesting photos, feed the elephants and watch the show;
- Visiting the Temple of Truth will be interesting to all visitors.
Before the trip, you should ask about the weather and the number of tourists who came to rest in Thailand.
How to choose the best time to travel
Depending on the time of year, the weather in this part of Asia is different: there are rainy seasons (September-October) or too hot months (April-May). For example, Pattaya in February withstands the maximum influx of tourists. It is at this time that there is always a dry season, when the amount of rain is minimal. The average temperature in February - 26-28º - is quite comfortable for a beach holiday, and by the end of the month it even rises to 34º, while the water is 23-26º.
Starting in March-April, the number of rains has increased, but housing and entertainment prices are beginning to decline, since the high season has already ended. April is considered the hottest month in Pattaya (daytime up to + 34º, water + 27º), therefore it is better for tourists who cannot tolerate the heat to go here.
The rainy season begins in May and lasts until the month of October, although the rains are very often short-lived and nightly.
September-October is the peak of the rainy season, it rains for more than half a month, but tourists are waiting for low housing prices (compared to the prices that Pattaya is famous for in February) and a wide variety of delicious fruits.
In November, the resort begins a dry season, which lasts almost until May. The amount of rain is minimal (5-7 for several months).
Excursion to the Temple of Truth
The temple is located north of Pattaya on Cape Richvat, they began to build it back in 1981 with the money of the millionaire L. Viriyapan, who conceived this building as the "House of All Religions." Viriyapan was so delighted with the Thai culture and oriental religions that he decided to combine them in one temple.
Outwardly, the temple looks very extraordinary: it was built exclusively of wood and decorated with carved figures that depict mythological and religious heroes. Its height is 105 m (similar to a 20-story building). The design is based on the philosophy and religion of Buddhism and Hinduism, and each of the corners of the structure has its own meaning. The construction process continues even now, although its mastermind died in 2000: carving masters work and carve wooden figures and ornaments. Sometimes they even tell tourists about their plans and work.
Inside, the Temple of Truth rests on supporting columns carved from mighty trees, before the felling of each tree, the monks perform rituals and cleanse it of evil spirits. In the center there are steps in front of which each person can pray to the sounds of the mantra.
There are separate halls reserved for the religions of Thailand, India, Cambodia and China:
- in the Indian Hall on each wall there are images of elements: fire symbolizes a dragon, earth - flora and fauna, air - swaying trees from the wind carved on the wall, water - ocean waves;
- The Chinese Hall includes many voluminous statues of a being who wanted to become a buddha (Bodhisattva);
- The main decoration of the Thai Hall is 7 avatar statues dedicated to all days of the week, as well as a stand for calculating your birthday;
- the last hall is dedicated to family well-being - there are statues of a wife, husband and three children, where tourists can ask for the birth of their children (for this you need to rub the handle of the statue of the baby), about the health of parents (rub the knees of the spouses).
All temple walls, roofs, ceilings, and staircases are decorated with unique woodcarvings, where thousands of wooden figures of people, mythical animals and creatures intertwined in a silent oriental dance look at tourists.
Trip to the River Kwai
An excursion to the Kwai River from Pattaya is the most interesting and eventful trip, which lasts 2 days and usually includes many stops with Thai attractions:
- Coconut Farm - A very informative story about coconuts, the production of palm sugar and butter.
- Thai floating market, located at the beginning of the river, where Thais sell various fruits and souvenirs from boats (prices are too high).
- The wood carving center consists of exhibition halls where you can see outstanding works of Thai decorative art.
- Tigrovaya Cave Monastery is a beautiful Buddhist monastery located near the town of Kanchanaburi, to which you need to climb 160 steps by stairs. Upstairs there is a holy spring and 3 stupas representing various styles of Buddhist architecture.
- The beautiful waterfalls Sayok Noi and Sayok Yai, which are filled only in the rainy season (at other times this is a small trickle), next to them there is a small market with oriental sweets.
- Erawan waterfall has 7 tiers, at the bottom of each a natural bath with fish is formed, in which you can swim.
- Rafting on the river in pontoons or boats ends with bathing everyone in life jackets.
- An elephant village where you can ride these animals and watch the show.
- A cave with a statue of Buddha, which served as a bomb shelter during World War II.
- Mineral springs with hot water (44 ° C).
- An excursion to the Kwai River from Pattaya provides an overnight stay at a hotel located on the water.
- Railway bridge over the river. Kwai is also known as the "Death Railway", because during its construction in 1942-1943. 16 thousand prisoners of war died (from countries of Asia, Germany, Australia, America and Japan).
Nong Nooch Botanical Garden
Nong Nooch Tropical Garden (Pattaya) is a world-famous park, distinguished by the unusual and diverse events held on its territory. Its history began in 1954, when the locals Nong Nooch and Pisit acquired 240 hectares of land for planting fruit plantations. But then, after Ms. Nong Nooch’s trip to Europe, where she saw European gardens, their plans changed - a large tropical paradise was begun on this site. After its opening in 1980, the park gained great popularity among tourists and local residents, now almost 2 thousand people visit it daily.
In addition to the collection of tropical plants, copies of various architectural and landscape art monuments are of great interest to tourists. For example, here are miniature gardens of Versailles, Stonehenge, miniature copies of Buddhist stupas representing various provinces of Taiwan.
There are orchards with orchids, bonsai trees and ferns, gardens of butterflies, birds and original potted structures. To entertain tourists, folklore shows and performances with elephants are held.
Nong Nooch (Pattaya) is conveniently divided into several thematic gardens (French, flower, cactus, palm, etc.), and also contains a zoo where you can feed animals (for a fee), and a pond where the largest freshwater arapaima fish swim ( length up to 4.5 m).
Big Buddha and observation deck
The Big Buddha in Pattaya - the temple complex on Pratamnak Hill - is considered one of the main attractions of the city. The complex consists of several buildings, the main one is a golden statue of the Big Buddha (built in 1977) with a height of 15 m, to which there is a staircase, snakes with dragon heads are located on its sides. Below are the bells that can be called with a wooden mallet, being cleansed of sins in this way.
Upstairs around the Big Buddha, several small sculptures are installed in different poses: a fat Buddha, an ascetic, etc., each personifies its day of the week. There is also an observation deck with a view of the town and the Pattaya Park tower.
At the foot of the stairs there is a small building, sometimes services and readings are held for Buddhist monks. You can get a blessing from them (for money): a monk reads a prayer and, in the form of a talisman, ties a cord around his wrist.
Resort nightlife
The center of Pattaya's nightlife and entertainment venue is Walking Street, which becomes pedestrian in the evening and matches its name. It is located near the Main Beach and the pier, from which ferries leave for Koh Lan Island during the day .
The street is quite small - you can walk on foot in a few minutes - but it is full of restaurants representing all kinds of cuisines of the world, souvenir shops, nightlife (up to 2 nights), shops - this is a place where tourists will always be interested in going to Pattaya at night.
The main highlight is bars with striptease, erotic shows and establishments with local hookers. Go-go-bars and half-naked girls (as well as transvestites and boys) provide tourists with a full range of sexual services, however, photo and video shooting is strictly prohibited.
On the same street there are 2 night discos (admission is free, but you need to buy alcohol), a lot of drinking establishments.
Family holidays in Pattaya
Vacationers who come to Pattaya with their whole family will always be interested in where to go with children in Pattaya, in addition to visiting sandy beaches. Therefore, you can immediately reassure them: there are many interesting places from which children of any age together with their parents will be able to choose suitable ones:
- The Khao Kheo Zoo, located 35 km from the city, is located on a vast territory where all animals live in the wild (8 thousand animals, including elephants, tigers, monkeys, kangaroos, etc.), here various shows are held with the participation of animals.
- The Si Racha Tiger Zoo, which houses 400 Bengal tigers, as well as a crocodile farm, also hosts shows (located half an hour from Pattaya).
- The oceanarium, located in the Jomtien area, represents 2,500 marine inhabitants that children and parents can watch through the glass of underwater tunnels.
- Mini Siam Park is located near the city center, it houses miniatures of famous architectural monuments of Asia and other countries of the world.
- The recently opened Thailand’s largest water park, Ramayana, has become one of the most popular holiday destinations where all parents can go to Pattaya with their children. The water park is divided into 14 zones: children's and wave pools, a slow river, a water attraction "Vortex", various water slides and many other attractions.
Other attractions
In addition to the excursions that various companies and tour operators represent in Pattaya, there are many places where to go to Pattaya on their own is recommended for all tourists:
- The ancient city, also called Muang Boran, will appeal to travelers eager to plunge into the history of Thai culture and architecture. This is an open-air museum where all the attractions of Thailand (116 structures) are built, only in a small size. It is located 1.5 hours from Pattaya in the province of Samut Prakan.
- Yannasangvararam Temple Complex (30 km from Pattaya) is a favorite meditation place for local and visiting Buddhists, where exotic temples in various oriental styles are located, one of the rocks contains a footprint of the Buddha’s foot, to which 300 steps lead.
- The Museum of 3D-paintings at the Art in Paradise Hotel presents 150 paintings of various subjects, where interesting photographs are taken when a person becomes part of a picture.
- Night market on the street Tourists are very fond of tourists for low prices and local flavor.
Tourists reviews
According to the reviews of tourists who visited Pattaya, it was the sights and exotic nature that left an indelible impression of the rest. The solution of the question of where to go to Pattaya or how to go on the next excursion never caused problems, because the choice is very wide and diverse. Children are always enthralled by the zoo, the aquarium and the water park. Even adults, as follows from the reviews, can spend hours watching underwater inhabitants and animals in their natural habitat. Well, the botanical garden delights with its beauty.