A Visit to the City of Pattaya

January 31, 2013. After our amazing Bangkok trip, we headed straight to Pattaya. We hired a hotel taxi and it took us almost 3 hours to reach our hotel, Royal Orchid Pattaya. It is 0.5 km from the beach, has an outdoor pool and a 24-hr restaurant.

There are several interesting places to do in this city, and we were lucky because we are close to the venue of the WTA Pattaya Open where Ana Ivanovic played and competed with other great tennis players from all over the world.

Among the many interesting places, my favorite is the One Million Years Stone Park where we have met the elephants, giraffes and zebras up close and personal.

Another attraction that amazed me most is the mini Siam. It is a mini version of Thailand in one and has almost all the attractions in the country and some famous landmarks from all around the world.

An Amazing Bangkok Experience

January 29, 2013 - It was a crazy Tuesday morning as I had to rush on almost all things and to make sure that all are accounted for before my 5-day vacation. My long list of New Year's resolutions had wise money spending on it so I had to consider taking a shuttle to the Clark airport instead of adding mileage to Blued or Silverwind and save possible conversion of potential to kinetic energy. I went straight out from Monday shift to check a Philtranco shuttle service to Clark to bring us to DMIA. It was only 1:00 pm when we arrived at the bus terminal and our flight is at 8 in the evening. We took the 2:30 pm trip and arrived DMIA just on time - three hours before flight. We arrived BKK at 11:00 pm and had stayed at an airport suite for an overnight stay. The locals are friendly but only few of them speaks and understands English (which somehow made our trip complicated and inconvenient because we need to always ask for someone who understands English). 

We took the airport link (MRT) to our next hotel, The Baiyoke Sky Hotel, which is close to one of the train stations. It is the tallest hotel in Thailand and we stayed there for a night. It is close to almost all the shopping areas and is very accessible to public transportation.

The hotel has a revolving roof and an observatory deck where you can view the city in a 360 degrees perspective.

We spent the hotel day within the area of Ratchaprarop where most shopping areas are located and where the Baiyoke Sky Hotel is. The hotel is very well recommended. There are several things to do inside the hotel - boutiques are located at the lower floors where you can shop all day long. Thai food and coffee are best enjoyed while mastering your swing and shots at the golf area. They also have fruit buffet located at the 18th floor and will surely satisfy your taste buds. Bathing under the sun on the 20th floor combined with a relaxing thai massage and an hour in the gym will truly make you stress and worry free.

The relaxing stay at the Baiyoke Sky Hotel started our great Thailand experience. There, we met a Filipino receptionist and has given us tips and contacts to our next destination, Pattaya. After checking out, we visited the temples, also known as "wat". The Grand Palace is simply amazing and so are the rest. 

After roaming around the temples, we had to bid goodbye to Bangkok for a while and say hello to our next destination, Pattaya. On our way there, we passed by several good monuments situated in almost every street intersections and they are all amazing.

Next stop: Pattaya