DAY 1 November 14, 2025, Friday:
SUMMARY: Landed in Bangkok. Met up at Meeting Point. Rented car at Suvarnabhumi airport at 5PM,
Our original plan was to stay the night in Bangkok near the airport and start off early morning at 6:00 AM next day to Pattaya . But our Bangkok apartment owner cancelled on us.
We drove on to Pattaya the same evening, This was possible because Son could avail 3 full seats on his 16 hour flight from the US and was well rested.
IN DETAIL:
BKK AIRPORT CONDO OWNER CANCELLED
Our apartment owner texted us her apartment was damaged, the tenant had left the window open and the rain had ruined the room . She offered to book a hotel room adjacent to her condo and as per the original agreement she could pick us up and drop us there .
Our plan had been to stay near the airport, sleep for 3-4 hours and then pick up our car at 6:00 pm in the evening. Next day early in the morning we planned to drive to Pattaya .
This was basically because son was taking a very long flight from the US and may be sleep deprived . But he had got three full seats Houston-Taipei 16 hour leg and slept very well throughout the flight, and felt rested. So we felt, instead of staying in bangkok near the airport, we might as well drive to our accommodation in Pattaya and sleep the night.
Changed our plans to drive on to Pattaya the same day
Our Garden Place Pattaya apartment was available for that night as well . So we booked for that night also through booking com . The bangkok airport condo owner gave us a free cancellation.
CAR RENTAL PICKUP
Now all that was left was to pick up our car from thai rental cars. But according to our previous earlier plans we had safely booked it only at 6:00 pm . They could not give us a car earlier . We stayed around near rental car kiosks, stressed out on the seats and had a nice nap there too .
We had a good meal of our paratas and tomato relish, dates etc i had brought from home. We bought some water from lawson then noticed there is even free water available from dispensers.
We got our car, son put in garden place pattaya in his phone gps; around 5:45 PM we were off.
GOOF UP LEADING TO WASTE OF TIME/ENERGY
Now comes a twist. We were going in a steady stream of heavy traffic, I was kind of surprised by that. Then after half an hour or so I noticed we may be going in the wrong direction . When we pulled up and checked, we were going NORTH from bangkok airport... it was quite another garden place pattaya .
whatever are the odds of this happening.
This is not son's first rodeo but we were so annoyed by the mistake he had made. Without checking the destination he had just picked whatever had been offered . So we had to again retrace our way back to swarnabhoomi airport and then onward to our garden place pattaya .
I had scouted out all our long trips and made driving links. And the link was ready from our Airport condo to Pattaya.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/mCT7LsYcmT6cvvMQ9 123 km to Garden Place Pattaya
small notes, coins for toll
He had not clicked on that link because now we were only driving from the airport. That led to the mistake
The gps was routing us through tiny little heavily trafficked places, it quite a scary experience in the dark.
Thankfully after some time we hit up the main road Route 7 we were on the way to Pattaya. With all this mis adventure we reached our apt only after 9:00 pm,
The Garden Place Pattaya studio
son walked to the nearby 7 eleven and picked up some rice, milk, yoghurt, bananas and came home. We had a meal of our paratas and tomato relish and I prepared rice for the next day morning as well as afternoon .
We slept only at 11:00 pm
November 15 Saturday: Pattaya city sign, Big Buddha, Sanctuary of truth, Viharn Sien, Buddha Mountain
STAY: The Garden Place Pattaya
Next morning we had an early start and were on the road at 8AM.
It was a Saturday and our first target was the Pattaya city sign for the viewpoint. There were hardly any cars on the road, it was a lovely drive and the viewpoint was excellent.
Phra Tamnak Mountain Viewpoint / Pattaya City Sign
Then we drove to Big Buddha; it was such a serene and tranquil experience standing at his feet .
The Big Buddha Temple, Wat Phra Yai
Sanctuary of Truth Museum, the largest wooden castle in the world
Now we had to go north to sanctuary of truth museum.
We arrived there only by 10:40. Their 10:45 tour has already left, they said they'll give us only the 11:15 slot . We begged them we didn't want the english tour, we were ready to join any language tour earlier . They were adamant at putting us only with the 11:15 and made us buy the ticket and then transported us by golf cart to the area where the guide was giving his explanation. The guide was at a workshop explaining the intricacies of the wood craft/ joints work. The guide was excellent, gave a lot of information throughout, so we had joined the 10:45 group and that was great . They gave us a helmet because there is still construction going on.
The temple is beyond awesome... such intricate craftsmanship in every nook and corner as far as the eye can see. We wandered off on our own and enjoyed the museum.
ELEPHANT ABUSE
There were people even taking rides on elephants . Contrary to what people may think the elephant spine is pretty fragile and it is not meant to carry weight. It is sad to see people unaware of this and using them as pleasure rides .
Anek Kusala Sala (Viharn Sien) (Chinese Museum)
KHAO CHI CHAN, Buddha Mountain
After the previous day's experience driving in the dark we wanted to leave in good time when there is light. Drove off to our apartment.
It had been a fabulous first day in Thailand.
Earlier while getting a car in bangkok airport, the driving itinerary was just to go to Chiang Mai seeing things on the way there .
But when I saw Pattaya is just 120km there was a temptation to include that as well though it looks like we were backtracking . It was so totally worth it. We would have loved to include Mini Siam, the botanical gardens and take a peek at the walking street and see the night views of the sea. All those will have to wait for our next visit.
