Pattaya City Tour

We had our conference in NongNooch Tropical and Botanical Garden, Pattaya, which by taxi, was 30 minutes away from city center. Nong Nooch Garden was a beautiful place, which fused both nature and man-made scenery. Please read more about the garden in our previous post. Arranged by the conference organizer, we had the chance to tour around Pattaya for a half day tour and visited Khao Chi Chan Buddha Mountain, World of Gems Collection Company, and the streets along the beach.

Pattaya City is built along the coast of Gulf of Thailand, in the province of Chon Buri. We had the impression that Pattaya was a place with beautiful beaches and clean sea, along with picturesque villages and coconut trees. We only spent two evening at Pattaya City, and it turned our old impression upside down (we stayed in NongNooch most of the time in our 4 days in Pattaya). 

Pattaya is in fact a major metropolitan in Thailand- high rises, busy streets full with people, hotels and shopping complexes, bars, pubs, restaurants, and thousands of tourists from all over the world. It is a great place for beach and sun worshippers, pub and disco addicts, and shoppers who love endless walking streets with hawkers and stalls line up beside the streets. We may be wrong again, but for us, Pattaya City is not a place for us to seek peace in mind.

Khao Chi Chan Buddha Mountain is located at a hill at Khao Chi Chan Road. The site was around 45 minutes from Pattaya City, 20 minutes from NongNooch Tropical Botanical Garden. The important facts- the Buddha was drawn on a side of a hill. So there was no sculpture, just a drawing of Buddha, using laser guided technology. No doubt, the drawing was huge (maybe one of the biggest in the world). It worth a short visit, if you have the time and don't mind to travel far away from Pattaya City. Try to visit this place in the morning, as the sun is moving to the back of the hill in the afternoon， providing strong backlight, which is not a good condition for photo taking.

The painting on the hill side was huge.

A small garden in front of the Buddha Mountain.

We went by this house on our way to Buddha Mountain, along Khao Chi Chan Road. We visited an upside down house at Tamparuli, Sabah before, so decided to skip this place.

The beach stretches along the Beach Road.

We were lucky to see the sunset at Pattaya.

The sea was calm and the sunset was beautiful. But the beach was full with people (upper left), and even more on the pedestrian walkway beside the beach (upper right). Beach Road was busy (lower right), with hawkers selling clothes, watches, shoes, dolls, books, electronic gadgets, snacks, and many more.

We had the opportunity to visit two major shopping malls in Pattaya- Central Festival (upper row) and Mike Shopping Mall (lower row). Central Festival was newly built with a good food court providing wide variety of food at the lowest level of the mall.

Pattayasaisong Road was very busy as well. Pattaya Night Bazaar (upper row) and Pattaya Avenue were good place to hunt for souvenirs, but keep in mind that the price could be a bit expensive. Street food court like the one in front of Mike Mall could be found scatter around Pattayasaisong Road.

Talk about food, Pattaya might not be the best place to hunt for cheap Thai food, but the food served here was as good as the food we tried in Bangkok. Recommended food- Thai mango (upper left), which we could eat it with sticky rice (upper right), Thai style spring roll and fried chicken with sliced mango (lower right), and the raw vegetable with special Thai sauces.

Other nice food- Thai pork rice (upper row), tomyam, and fried cockles with egg.

Beside long dull conference, we had the chance networking with other participants from all around the world.

Beach Road and Pattayasaisong Road were the most busy streets in Pattaya. Getting somewhere nearby to stay means we can easily assess to the most happening places in Pattaya. Food and items sold in air-conditioned malls were a bit expensive. We could find cheaper and locally made items on the street further away from the places where tourists amassed. We didn't really went into the walking street, as the atmosphere inside was too condensed to us. It was like the whole street was on party. Well, who knows,  it may be the place for you. If you wish to go to Pattaya without stopping at other places in Thailand, then take a flight to Utapao International Airport can avoid hours of tiring journey on the road. Oh, by the way, about the gem collection company, forget about it unless you like to buy the gems very much.

Getting around Pattaya was easy, with many choices of transports. From Utapao International Airport, we took an airport limousine to our hotel at NongNooch (upper left). The price was fixed, which the taxi coupon had to be bought at the counter. The driver was a polite and careful guy. He paid respect to all the King's portrait that he could see along the road. If you can get enough people for a trip, you can get a fully air-conditioned van (upper right). If you are travelling alone, motorbike taxi can be an option for you to travel light (lower right). We had the experience to board on a songtaew or minibus. Songtaew is a specially modified pick-up truck, which can accommodate more than 10 person. It is one of the cheapest transportation favourable by both tourists and locals.

Are we going to visit Pattaya again in future? Yes, only if we have something really important to be done there, and definitely not for leisure and get away trip. Again, we wish to emphasis that Pattaya is a great place for those who love busy beach with a lot of water sports, pubs, disco, party street, shopping at malls and streets. 

 You can read more about our experience in Thailand at:

[Pattaya City Tour] [Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden, Pattaya ]

[Phuket Free and Easy] [Phuket Attractions] [Phuket Old Town]

[Food and Accommodation and Shopping in Phuket] 

[Bangkok]

 [All Our Destinations]

Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden Pattaya

We attended a conference at the conference center in Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden, Pattaya. The place is located around 30 minutes away from Utapao-Rayong-Pataya International Airport by taxi. It would be another 30 minutes drive from the conference venue to Pattaya City. Well, we were right at the middle point between the airport and Pattaya City. It was a 4-day conference, thus we decided to stay in NongNooch Resort, which was just 5-minute walk to the conference venue.

We followed the trip organized by the conference organizer to visit a few places of interest around Pattaya. We went out with our fellow friends from different countries as well. The trip however, was a busy one, as we spent most of our time attending the conference. The resort was built in the Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden, thus we could walk around during the free time.

In fact, Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden (or NongNooch Pattaya Garden) is one of the attractions nearby Pattaya. Started as a fruit orchard, the garden was turned into tourist spot since 1980. Today, it is more like a man-made park than an orchard. We didn't see any public transport nearby. But, tourist buses were everywhere. The entrance area and the theater were crowded, while the crowd getting lesser as we walked deeper into the garden. 

The garden was more than 600 acres (some sources stated 500 acres). We took two evenings to explore around (including the cultural and elephant show), and yet to see everything in the garden. Well, we would advise to allocate at least half a day at the resort to enjoy the shows and the scenery around the garden.

The garden opened from 8 am till 7 pm. The entrance fee for garden only for adult and child (1 - 6 years old) were THB 100 and THB 50 respectively. For the garden plus cultural and elephant show, the ticket fees were THB 366 and THB 244. We didn't have to pay for the entrance fee for the garden, as we stayed inside it, but had to pay for the shows.

We reached Utapao International Airport at around 4 pm. We queued for 30 minutes at the immigration counter. The airport was small. The space outside of the arrival hall was limited (upper left), with a few counters selling tickets for taxi and mini bus (upper right). The waiting area was actually outside of the airport building (lower right). We bought a ticket for taxi from Utapao to NongNooch Resort with THB 750.

NongNooch Resort for us, was located far away from city and airport (upper left). There was a really big nice swimming pool there (upper right), with very big and comfy room (lower right). The balcony was a good place for a rest and coffee.

The resort was very nicely decorated. Exquisite wood and stone carvings could be seen everywhere, accompanied by beautiful flowers and plants.

Conference center (building on the right) was located beside a big lake. Click the picture for bigger panorama view.

There was a beautiful Butterfly Hill at the entrance. But strange, we couldn't see any butterfly there. Click the picture for bigger panorama view.

A garden with a fusion of Thailand and French Garden. Far behind was Dino Garden, which we decided to leave it behind. Click the picture for bigger panorama view.

Further from the entrance were the Cars Garden (upper left), Bromeliad Display Garden (upper right), Italian Garden (lower right), and Pottery Garden.

 There were animal models everywhere, mammoths were available in Mammoth Garden nearby the antique house (upper left), elephants in the Pottery Garden (upper right), koala (lower right), and fennec fox.

Cultural show was another big attraction of the garden. The show with combination of history, ethnics, musics, religions, sports, and even ancient war was great! We were amazed by how fast the backdrops and the decoration were changed between the transition of performance. Arranged by the conference organizer, we watched the show at the VIP area.

 The elephants were staged!

After the cultural show, the elephant show followed at the elephant theater. Elephant show was arranged at the end of the cultural show so that the visitors could see both shows continuously. Both theaters for cultural and elephant shows were located next to each other.

 The conference banquet was held on the lawn with open air stage.

The Broadway-style show with the performers from three different genders (hope you got the idea). 

Moving around the garden was easy. We could use the shuttle bus (upper left) which we could simply hop on and off. To our best estimation, the shuttle operates with 10 - 15 minutes interval. A better way to explore the garden- follow the elevated pedestrian walkway (upper right). The walkway would lead us to most of the places in the garden. Of course, we could opt to take a small round on the back of an elephant (lower right), or simply took a walk along the street.

The garden was very big. To walk around, comfortable footwear, enough drinking water, umbrella, sunscreen, and mosquito repellent, are needed. There were vendors and stalls selling souvenirs, food and drinks along the pedestrian walkway. The price was reasonable. More information about the garden is available at the official website of NongNooch Pattaya Garden.

Is this a must visit place in Pattaya? In our opinion, it depends on the purpose of your tour. If you wish to sweep all the tourist spots into your travel diary, then the garden is highly recommended. But if you visit Pattaya just for the beautiful beach and endless beers and bars along the streets, then you can forget about the garden. For us, it is a must visit place in Pattaya. We had visited it, after all.

You can read more about our experience in Thailand at:

[Pattaya City Tour] [Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden, Pattaya]

[Phuket Free and Easy] [Phuket Attractions] [Phuket Old Town]

[Food and Accommodation and Shopping in Phuket] 

[Bangkok]

 [All Our Destinations]

 

Food, Accommodation and Transportation in Phuket

Food
What can represent Thai food more than tom yam (or tom yum) and pad Thai (fried plat noodle in Thai style)? We had these typical Thai food during our stay in Phuket. Besides, we tried many other food e.g. mango and sticky rice with jackfruit, fried noodle, fried oyster with egg, beef noodle, BBQ chicken, fried rice with pineapple, Japanese food, and Western food. We would like to share our experience with food in Phuket, place by place.

First night at Phuket, we went to food court at third floor in Patong Promenade, opposite of Jung Ceylon main entrance at Thanon Ratuthit Songroipi. We ordered tom yam goong for extra portion of prawn in the dish, fried oyster with egg, and pad Thai, the rice-noodle as well. Frankly speaking, the food were quite expensive and the taste, not very good. For us, the taste of the tom yam was not strong enough. However, it might be good for those who couldn't  take very spicy food. The fried oyster with egg was disappointing, oysters were much smaller than what we had expected, while the pad Thai, well, the taste was acceptable but a bit too sticky. The price, 130 Bahts for tom yam goong, 110 Bahts for pad Thai, and 650 Bahts for the fried oyster with egg.

Second day, we took seafood tom yam at Chokun Seafood beside Rawai Beach. The tom yam was a bit too sour, but with unexpectedly big potion of squid and prawn. That was the second best tom yam in our whole Phuket trip. How about pad Thai? Much better with enough prawns and spring onion, and the rice-noodle didn't stick together too much. The price, 150 Bahts for tom yam and 80 Bahts for pad Thai.

Tom yam and pad Thai at Patong Promenade (upper row) and Rawai Beach (lower row), different taste and prices.

The Food Court at Patong Promenade (upper left). In fact, the whole area was full with eateries (upper right). Rawai Beach (lower left) could be seen from Chokun Seafood.

At night, we went to Shabu Shi at Jung Ceylon for buffet dinner. All right, it might sound crazy for us to take Japanese-Korean type food in Thailand, but the good comments were luring. The time limit was 1 hour 15 minutes per entry. About the choices, not very much but enough to keep us busy as we need to cook most of the food with a hot pot. The taste, to be frank, average compared to the same class of restaurants in Malaysia, but the price was reasonable (365 Bahts per person). By the way, the restaurant was very crowded and the queue was long at night. So, we need to go to the restaurant early, maybe before 7 pm to avoid the queue. Although it was fully air conditioned, it could be warm and a bit squeezy when the number of customers increased.

Shabu Shi at Jung Ceylon (upper left), with plates of food served through conveyor belt (upper right). Some of the food were raw (lower left) while some were ready to be eaten.

The morning before we departed to Phuket Old Town, we tried the Western breakfast at our hotel. Many reviewers gave their thumbs up, and we couldn't be more agree with them. The food was fresh and the coffee was nice. We tried two different sets of breakfast with the average price of 150 Bahts per set, the food worth the price.

Breakfast at Baan Paradise Hotel.

We took two meals in Phuket Old Town. One at Dibuk Restaurant, at Dibuk Road. The restaurant was bigger than it looked from the outside. It had a little garden inside with remarkable relaxing atmosphere. However, the waitress didn't understand English. We ordered our food by pointing here and there on the menu, but finally still ended up with getting the wrong food. Anyway, the green curry with "heart shape" rice was good to see, but the taste was not strong enough. The curry soup was not concentrated enough and the fried rice had nothing special too. The price, 150 Bahts for the green curry and rice, and 100 Bahts for the fried rice.

We took our afternoon break at Kanda Bakery Restaurant, attracted by the prices- 70 Bahts for tom yam and 40 Bahts for chicken and corn soup. That was the cheapest tom yam for our entire trip. The tom yam was a bit sour but still acceptable, which the chicken and corn soup was nice.

Meals at Phuket Old Town- green curry with rice (upper left), fried rice with chicken and vegetable (upper right), seafood tom yam (lower left), and chicken with corn soup.

Dibuk Restaurant, outside (upper left) and inside (upper right). Kanda Bakery Restaurant was not easy to be found (lower left). However, the Bank of Ayudhaya opposite of the restaurant was prominent.

That night, we went to the night market beside Banzaan Fresh Mart. Surprisingly, we found the best tom yam there. Served with vermicelli, the tom yam had a balance of hot and sour. Although lack in seafood, the taste was the one that we were looking for. We tried the pork rib rice noodle and BBQ chicken at the night market as well. The price, 80 Bahts for pork rib noodle, 100 Bahts for tom yam, and 70 Bahts for the BBQ chicken whole leg. The food again not cheap, but the place was full with people.

Pork rib rice noodle (upper left) and tom yam (upper right), bbq chicken (lower left) and local orange juice were some of the food that we tried in night market at Banzaan Fresh Mart, Patong. All of them were nice.

The night market was full with locals and tourists (upper left). The owners of the stalls served good tom yam (upper right) and pancake (lower right) were always busy. The pancake with coconut tasted good.

Last day in Phuket, we took our breakfast at Dang Restaurant, located at Thanon Ratuthit Songroipi near to Bangla Road, 3 minutes away from our hotel by foot,. We tried fried noodle with vegetable and noodle soup with beef. The fried noodle was nice, but the noodle soup with beef was a bit less tasty. Afternoon, we took our lunch at Banzaan Fresh Mart. There was a food court at the upper level of the fresh market. Several stalls offered cooking service, helping visitors to cook the seafood bought from the lower level, with charges, of course.

Banzaan Fresh Market with the lower level selling fresh vegetables and seafood, and the upper level offering service to cook them. For us, the price for seafood was not cheap.

Fried noodle at Dang Restaurant (upper left), pineapple fried rice (upper right), mango and sticky rice with jackfruit (lower left), and pancake were some other food that we tried. The mango and sticky rice with jackfruit that we bought from Big C were nice. The pancake, although praised by many, was totally not our favourite (tasted like third class roti canai pisang in our country). Big C was located in Jung Ceylon Mall, while pancake could be bought from the street beside Patong Beach, nearby Banana Walk.

Accommodation

Accommodation should not be a problem in Phuket. Hotels and guest houses were plenty. We found about 10 other guest houses on the same street of our hotel Baan Paradise, starting with the rate as low as 300 Bahts per night. Staying in Patong means we stay at the busiest part of Phuket.

The recommended area- a few streets away from Bangla Road, Jung Ceylon Mall, and Patong Beach. For us, we booked our room through Air Asia Room. The rate was the same compared to Agoda.com. Well, if you are the adventurous type, you can always do the booking for the first day and search for a cheaper and better one after that.

Back to Baan Paradise Hotel, the location, unbeatable. 10 minutes walk to Patong Beach, 5 minutes to Jung Ceylon Mall and Bangla Road, and 10 minutes to Banzaan Fresh Mart. How about amenities? Bathroom with hot water shower, room completed with tv, mini bar, air conditioner, plus room service, we couldn't complain about this small hotel. One great plus for us- high speed wifi in room. It would be perfect if complementary breakfast was given, and the staff, with more knowledge in tourism.

Baan Paradise Hotel from the outside. The motorbikes in front of the hotel were for rent (upper left). The lobby of the hotel (upper right), the room (lower left), and some of the amenities in the room.

Rooms for rent are everywhere.

Transportation

To travel around Phuket,  we had several choices- rent a bike, rent a car, carter a car with driver (taxi), bus, tuk-tuk, and of course, we could always depend on our feet. We didn't rent any tuk-tuk during our stay in Phuket. First, it was expensive, with non-standardized fare across the island. How cheap the fare could go was highly depending on your haggling skill. Well, we found that the fare were hard to be lower than 100 Bahts, even with the distance of less than 10 minutes walk. 

Phuketshuttle.com provided very good airport shuttle service. As far as we knew, meter taxi would charge extra 100 Bahts for whatsoever reason. So, the trip from airport to Patong for meter taxi would end up to be 650 - 750 Bahts. So, we preferred to book our limousine through Phuketshuttle.com. What we needed to do was looking for our name tag outside of the arrival hall (We can ask the airport's staff how and where to look the limousine too. Just tell them that we have our booking through the website).

There were two types of taxis in Phuket- running on meter and without meter. We didn't use any metered taxi. We rented a taxi for 5 hours trip, with the fare of 120 Bahts. The service was good. Our experience, try not to get the service from the travel agents as their would mark up the price. What we did was, we planned our destinations, and then asked the taxi driver for the price for the whole trip. We didn't stop at any of the tourists traps. Instead, we spent most of our time visiting places like Wat Chalong, Big Buddha Temple, Rawai Beach, Phromthep Cape and Kata Viewpoint. We received valuable information by talking to the driver as well (mostly about local food and attractions).

Our half day trip taxi (upper left) with very polite and helpful driver. He insisted to open the back door for us. Our experience on bus trip was unforgettable. Just look at the "bus" (upper right) and you should know the reason. That was our first time getting into a truck which had been named a "bus". A small truck named "tuk-tuk" (lower left) was available all over the place. However, never hoop onto this thing before you know the fare. Motorbikes for rent could be found almost in every corner in Patong area. Well, you need to make sure your international licence is still valid before you ride away with this 250 Bahts-a-day motorbike. You might end up paying 2500 Bahts to the enforcers for riding without licence.

We discovered that some of the tuk-tuks had very powerful sound systems. Well, this might be useful to blast refuse-to-get-out customers away.

During our stay in Phuket, we found that the street was safe, people were polite and helpful, the place was clean, the scenery were good, but with the price was high for almost everything, everywhere. If you are planning for a nice quiet retreat or a long out-of-the-city vacation, you might want to stay away from Patong area. But if you wish to experience a busy beach-life vacation, then Patong might be a place for you. 

[Phuket Free and Easy] [Phuket Attractions] [Phuket Old Town]

[Food and Accommodation and Shopping in Phuket]

Phuket Old Town

Phuket Town is referred as "Phuket" on the road signs, located at the eastern side of Phuket Island. Impressed by the tourism leaflets describing the historical and cultural richness of the place, we were decided to visit the old town within the boundary of Dibuk Road, Krabi Road - Thalang Road, Phang-Nga Road, Rasada Road, Yaowarat Road, and Rommanee Road.

We used the bus service from Patong to Phuket Town. The bus station at Patong was located at the southern end of Thawewong Road by the beach. We were lucky to catch the bus by just walking half way down the road (from our hotel). The bus was blue in colour with "Phuket-Patong" written on it. We waved to the driver, the bus stopped, and we hopped in. Seats were plenty at 10:30 am. We reached Phuket Town at 11:30 am. Our return trip from Phuket Town to Patong was much faster, in around 35 minutes.

 We were in a "conventional" bus on our trip to Phuket Town (upper left), but we returned using "extra-large" version of tuk-tuk bus (upper right and lower row). Can you imagine the 30 minutes journey uphill and downhill on that "bus"? Anyway, we survived, and the experience, unforgettable.

We went to Tourism Authority Centre of Thailand at the eastern side of Chalong Road to look for more information about the attractions around the town. Then, we walked through Rommanee Road into Dibuk Road, and headed to Phuket Restaurant & Cooking School after our lunch at Dibuk Road. The cooking school is the biggest colonial mansion in Phuket. It has another name- Blue Elephant Governor's Mansion. It was the residence for the Governor of Phuket. There were another two mansions nearby, which were owned by Chinese tycoons- one was abandoned and in bad condition, while another required entrance fee. Blue Elephant Mansion is big, but far from magnificent. The renovation killed all the nostalgic feel of that building. In fact, we could find many mansions with similar designs scattered across old towns in Malaysia.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand was air-conditioned, serving free coffee and drinking water (upper left). There is a park with golden dragon statue beside it (upper right). The old buildings can be seen around the area (lower left). The walkway in front of the shoplots, or "ngoh-kaa-kee" is identified as something unique among Phuket's architecture, but the walkway is very common design in Malaysia. Almost all shoplots in Malaysia are built with "ngoh-kaa-kee".

We couldn't find much information from the tourism information center in the old town. In the center, we found a few booklets on racks, photos with description hanging on the walls (upper left), a resting area with a well which contained water inside (upper right), a few model of the old buildings (lower left), a display of Chinese food, and of course, several other items, including a conference room (not shown in the photos).

 Rommanee Road was marked by this bright pinkish shop.

Rommanee Road was quiet during our visit.

This is the typical design of Chinese residence in Phuket Old Town- face of a dragon, with the windows resemble the eyes, upper windows resemble the eyebrows, while the door resemble the nose and the mouth.

Blue Elephant banners hung by the road (upper left) marking the location of the big mansion (upper right). Well, the "blue" actually described the inside rather than the outside (lower right). The cooking class was conducted by local chefs.

We bought three different seasoning pastes from the cooking school.

From Blue Elephant Mansion, we went to Phang-Nga Road through Krabi Road. We found that On On Hotel at Phang-Nga Road was quite attractive with  strong "old-Shanghai" design. That was the filming site for the movie "The Beach". We didn't watch the movie anyway. Along Phang-Nga, we took photo of the old clock tower (a landmark showed on many leaflets). Then, we reached The Trickeye Museum at the end of the road. The museum was an highlight in a few tourism leaflets. However, we turned back without entering the museum as the entrance was over-priced- 500 Bahts per person for the so-called 3D-drawings that we could see on internet? No way. On our way back to the bus station at Ranong Road, we took a rest at Kanda Bakery Restaurant along Rasada Road and enjoyed tom yam and chicken and corn soups (the cheapest in our Phuket trip).

On On Hotel.

Old vehicles around the old town.

Phuket Trickeye with eye catching sign painted on the wall. It looked outstanding among the old and dull buildings.

Bank of Ayudhaya was a prominent landmark in the old town.

The whole old town made us felt like a modern version of Ipoh Old Town, or a tiny version of George Town in Penang. Unlike some of the heritage old towns in Malaysia, Phuket Old Town was relatively quiet. Many shops were not operational anymore. Many of the buildings were either too heavily renovated, or too old to stand still. Tourism information was shallow, without much information on cultural and living heritage (or maybe we didn't search hard enough). A bit disappointed, but it was still a fruitful trip. At least, we had seen the connection between Phuket and Penang Island in our country.

More about our sharing on Phuket:

[Phuket Free and Easy] [Phuket Attractions] [Phuket Old Town]

[Food and Accommodation and Shopping in Phuket]