PATTAYA: THAILAND

Leisurely lightness of being

Pattaya is a perfect antidote to the busy Bangkok. It has the ideal mix for a relaxed beach holiday – blue skies, big white cotton clouds, clear water, and tourists paragliding behind speed boats.

Text & Photographs: BHAVEN JANI

 

Departing from the new IGI T3 was a breeze. In spite of a grand inauguration just before the Commonwealth Games in Delhi last October, it has received a fair share of criticism on account of leaking rooftops, power failures leaving passengers stranded, lack of information to its esteemed customers, and if it isn’t funny, even for its mammoth size due to which several passengers haven’t been able to make it to their flight on time. No such interruptions came our way on the night of our departure. My wife was excited to get her first international visa stamped on her passport while my three-year-old son looked forward to the time away from school. The trip to Pattaya, via Bangkok was eagerly anticipated by all of us.

We arrived at the airport the mandatory three hours prior to departure and were soon in the queue at the Air Asia counter. Being a no-frills airline, it helps to read up its rules. You need to pay extra to book a preferred seat and to get the front seats (that have more leg space) pay some more. I recommend that you check-in your baggage online too. Also convert to Thai Bahts at the first available forex counter. Completing the formalities, we made the long walk to gate 14B that is at the farthest end of this massive and swanky terminal. My son enjoyed pulling baggage along the travelators.

Having heard about the popular Visa on Arrival (VoA) in Bangkok, we had decided to save ourselves from a visit to the VFS office. All you need to carry is a valid passport, two recent passport-size photographs, filled-in immigration form of arrival, produce a return ticket indicating you’d be flying back in 15 days (that’s the limit of visa at VoA) and an address of stay in Thailand. You’re also required to carry an equivalent of ten thousand Bahts per person, but no one really checked us on this. Thailand welcomes its visitors with open arms. Our first stop was Bangkok, where we spent several days before moving on to Pattaya. Bangkok is a city full of rich heritage and culture. Wat Phrae Kaew, Wat Arun and Wat Pho are its most famous temples laden with intriguing architecture and teeming tourists. Not to be missed!

While Bangkok was hectic and all about running from one sightseeing location to another, Pattaya was the perfect antidote. All we had to do was relax on the beach and get ourselves wet in waters of varying depth. And if it wasn’t the sea getting us drenched, the rain did the job.

Pattaya is a sprawling beach city with many high-rise hotels and residential buildings dotting the seafront. Blue skies, big white cotton clouds, green water, tourists parasailing behind speed boats and steamy spicy Thai curry laid out on the table on your balcony of the 30th floor of a luxury apartment. I dreamt of these ‘simple’ pleasures in life pointing my camera up at these towers. We rented a motorbike that proved to be a great asset as we went zipping through narrow alleys and cutting across long-winding traffic on the Beach Road.

Pattaya Hill Resort our hotel for the long weekend, as the name suggests, is situated atop a hill in South Pattaya, affording panoramic views of the beach from our 18th floor abode. It’s a few miles away from the main beach and going down the hill slope, negotiating steep curves was great fun on the bike. Motorbikes in Pattaya are the equivalent of a Scooty in India, and very popular with tourists, easy to manoeuvre and convenient to park.

The main Beach road in Pattaya is a huge curve facing the sea, with the best of hotels and restaurants offering great deals. Next to this road and besides the sand is a cute winding walkway with trees lined on either side providing great shade and a place to sit, relax and gossip with friends. And then there is the beach itself, with endless shacks to stretch and sip chilled beer or pina colada and munch on endless varieties of seafood. Every few metres, there is a tout offering rides to various islands or a paragliding adventure. However, they are kind enough not to pester if you say no.

The Big Buddha, a temple atop another hill opposite our hotel, was a great place to climb. Here, a tall statue of the Buddha is surrounded by various smaller statues in different poses. Each statue has a nameplate with a weekday inscribed on it; people come here to give offerings to the respective deity each day of the week. Pretty interesting. We decided to pay homage to all of them on a single day, not wanting to annoy any of them.

Another hill close by has the Navy memorial on it and offers sweeping views of the beach and city. The hill also houses a Radio station. We made three trips up this hill, two on consecutive mornings and one late evening. The place is very peaceful and you can spend hours lounging around breathing fresh air and watching the green sea extend to the end of the earth.

While the beach is the centre of attraction here, Pattaya has something for almost everyone. There are various malls that also house entertainment places like ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not’ and ‘Underwater World’. If you are looking for a religious outing, change into something more modest and take a tour of its various temples.

‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not’ situated next to the Marriott on Beach road has a few scary acts even before you enter it. As you move up the escalator to the second floor, you see a painted face looking you in the eye. And the eyes follow you as you move around. I went weak in my knees with fear as I checked out the head and didn’t see any body beneath it. Was I daydreaming? It came as a huge relief when my wife pointed out that the face & eyes were real but the person was lying horizontally with his body hidden behind the box. I gave a half laugh at my embarrassment as she laughed her heart out.

All three days, the weather kept its tryst with monsoon every evening, but would provide great sunshine and clear skies next day morning. We roamed the Beach Road and 2nd Beach Road like maniacs, exploring every nook & corner and niche & crevice. It was my son’s first trip on a bike and he just refused to let-go of it. And he enjoyed the sea as much. It took him a while to muster up courage to step into the water, but once in, all inhibition was gone. He’d cling around my neck and jump up with the waves. In no time his confidence was so high, he wanted to get down from the perch of my shoulders into four-feet deep water. All this excitement lasted till his first gulp of salty water when a particularly high wave crashed on us. I too was a bit mean by not raising him high enough, letting him have a taste of things. After that, he wanted out. My wife meanwhile sat under the shade, not wanting to get tanned. I am not a sea person myself, but found it addictive. Once in the water, I didn’t feel like stepping out. Fighting the waves, jumping up with the big ones and diving with the real high tides, for hours on and on. I already had a tan and it couldn’t get any worse.
Pattaya has an equally alluring nightlife. The languid pace of the day acquires a totally different hue as the sun goes down the horizon. The streets are full of neon lights, bars start playing loud music and podiums get set up on the street for live events. If you arrive in Pattaya at night, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it to be Las Vegas.

A trip to Pattaya would be incomplete without visiting Sriracha Tiger zoo. It’s less than an hour’s drive and can be done as a day trip. Or even better, plan to stop there while driving down from Bangkok to Pattaya. Their main attraction, the tiger show, is amazing, like right out of a circus from yesteryears. Tigers stand on their hind legs and follow their handlers, roll across the floor like a playful baby and even jump over each other. In between, a pig came on stage and correctly identified sticks of various colours strewn on the ground by placing them inside boxes of same colour, very impressive.

My son was meanwhile totally unimpressed with all this, claiming that even he knew how to identify colours and he too can roll on the floor without much prodding. His non-stop chattering amused us as much as the acts inside the ring. Watching a tiger show is as much a humbling experience as guilt inducing. Humbling because it shows what the human intellect and endeavour can conquer, and guilt ridden to see such mighty creatures perform silly acts.

Next was the crocodile show and this was a first for us. Two handlers played around with 7-8 crocs in a small arena as onlookers cheered and gaped. Most of us have seen crocodiles sit still for hours with their mouths open, waiting for a prey to unwittingly enter inside. What we haven’t seen is how fast they can snap their jaws once something enters it. The speed with which the jaws close shut and the sound generated when its teeth crush against each other can send a shiver down your spine. It can instantly break a piece of wood into two. And by no stretch of imagination are crocodiles considered smart or intelligent or trainable. Hence, to see the handlers shove their heads inside a croc’s open mouth was nerve-wrecking. Agreed that such shows are conducted daily for years on, but what about the theory of probability, what if the crocodile decided to bite, today!

In another section, you can hold a tiger cub in your laps and feed it while being photographed. The cubs are extremely cute and you want to cuddle and carry them home. Their shrill cries also make you sad they’ll spend their life in a small cage whereas they should be roaring their way through the jungles.

Another attraction is the Scorpion queen. A lady is pretty pally with scorpions and carries them all over her body. Poor girl, she stands there all day as visitors come, click her and move on.

Overall, I was a bit unsatisfied with my experience at the Sriracha Tiger zoo. That Indian feeling of ‘having got value for my money’ was missing. Maybe it was the incessant rain, or the additional charges of holding the tiger cubs, but I’d rate the Safari park in Bangkok higher than this.

Finding an Indian restaurant isn’t very difficult in Pattaya. We dined at a couple of them and the food was just passable, but then the Thai alternatives weren’t any attractive, especially if you are a vegetarian.
Soon it was our last day in Pattaya and time to pack. Part of it went in reminiscing the past week that had gone by in a jiffy. But we still dared take a last trip across town before returning the bike. It’s probably only here that you can spend three days doing nothing and still call them productive. Later in the morning we sat in silence in the back seat as the driver drove us to the airport.