April 10- Bangkok and Pattaya (sound Patt’ i a)

We are spend a half day in Bangkok. June to October is the rainy season. Sawaddee Ca… good morning, afternoon or evening. Expensive is Pentpent, Hongnam for Toilet. Next week is the hottest time. It is Songran ….water festival… Thai new year.

Fish (tilapia) and shrimp farms… on land surrounded by mango trees. They also have netting under and over these farms to protect them from the lizards that will eat them.

First we went to the Golden BuddhaTemple. It has the biggest Buddha in the world at 5.5 ton of solid gold. It was found by quite by accident. They thought it was just cement. They wanted to move it but when they tried, it was dropped from the crane, revealing that it was sold gold. They had encased it to hide it from the Burmese peoples that were always attacking. It was built in 13th century. Shoes & hats have to be taken off. . To take picture of monk you must ask permission. No selfie-stick are allowed inside. Rabbit is the sign of king on statues

The highways and main road…. So different than in Bali, are as many as 8 lanes wide, not so many motorcycles and people drive within the lines.

10M population in Bangkok (huge!!!) in with 74 M in country with most being Buddhist. Good transportation in city… incl. sky train. Office workers have a 8-5 workday. No time to cook so they all buy street food. 30 Baht about .88 USD. 1.20 CAD exchange rate. Lumpini Park ….with a lake, is used for exercise like tai chi. Hot bus has no AC, cool bus is with AC and costs about $1.

Chinatown Market biggest …4 generations most speak Thai but recently the younger generation are learning to speak Chinese. Coconut pancakes, soy icecream…. Yum, double yum. There are so many different products for sale plus a live market. How would you choose??? Tasted rose apples and guava. There are 136 goldsmiths in Pattaya. Cannabis drink like red bull and THC coffee …. all legal here.

Dorian….not allowed inside most places because they stink but “tastes like heaven”

Tamarind fruit tree on Thailand’s Champs d’Ellysse

Then we visited the Marble Temple… marble from Italy and stained glass from France, built in1889. In 1910, the king at the time when he died, his ashes were buried there. The present king has palaces in Germany besides here. His daughter apparently, is a wonderful person. She had a heart attack 4 months ago at 44 years old and is still in ICU in a coma. The previous king also was wonderful man that the Thai people absolutely worshipped. There are 31,000 temples in the country.

No petroleum produced so have to import (33 baht/l for gas), natural gas is brought in from Myanmar. Papaya, pineapple, tapioca (where you get MSG….I thought MSG was a chemical) is grown in the area. Tapioca takes 8-10 month to reach maturity and reaches a height of 5.5-6 feet. Beauty contest for Miss Water Buffalo called Kuai. 3000 elephants in wild 2000 in protected area for a total of 5000.

Chan Buri is the province where Pattaya is. Some of the things to see and do in Pattaya are Sanctuary of Truth, elephant sanctuary, tiger, Alcazar cabaret show. It is a place that Thais go for vacation.

After arriving at this beautiful hotel Cholchan in Pattaya. Our room on the 21st floor is facing the Bay of Thailand. After settled in we went to the pool for a bit. Oh my, it is so unbelievably hot.

In the evening we caught a taxi…. actually a pickup truck with benches along the sides called ”sont teaw” to go downtown. Only problem with the hotel is that it is so far from the downtown area of Pattaya.