Today we got up EARLY as we had booked a “Pattaya Landmark” Tour and they were picking us up at 8am. Once we got up and got going the time changed to 8:30am so that gave us some more time to eat breakfast and have a more relaxed meal. Soon it was time to go meet our tour so we went and waited in the lobby. This was to be a small tour group which is what I like as I find with my walker I am often behind people and cannot hear what is being said. The driver and tour guide arrived, and there was only one other person on the tour! One reason I had selected this tour was it said that it was customizable. I had tried writing the tour company that we wanted to customize our tour and not go to the Floating Market as we had been there the previous day – but no one got back to me. So I expressed our wish to the tour guide and she said she would see what we could do.
We started off by going to visit the Buddha Mountain which really is an outline of the Buddha on the face of a low mountain/hill. It has a beautiful garden in front of it and there were some monks in orange visiting that day. There also was a memorial stone dedicated to the area. After that visit we got back into the van and drove past Jomtien Beach which is the area of Pattaya we were staying in, and then onto the Big Buddha Temple. At this point, I let Andrew visit the Big Buddha Temple as there were a lot of stairs to get up to it and this was the start of the day and I was really interested in a future stop and having energy (and possible climbing) power for it. Andrew, with the gentleman from India and the tour guide went up and experienced a lot of things besides this huge sitting Buddha on the top of the monument area. I actually did not realize how big the area was and how much was up there – from my vantage point near the parking lot it looked just like a golden Buddha sitting down. When they arrived back (and one Coke Zero later) down from the open-air Temple, we were off to view Pattaya from a view point. What a beautiful view it was! The ocean so teal and the actual downtown a crescent moon shaped beach away. We looked down on the Bali Hai Pier which is also called Pattaya Pier and Walking Street (basically the Robson Street of Pattaya) which are both in South Pattaya. The Pier is a hub of activities with boats taking people to the local islands mainly. Then we proceeded to the Sanctuary of Truth, which is what I was really looking forward to seeing!
The Sanctuary of Truth is a museum/castle like structure in Pattaya that is the most popular place to visit when there. In 1980, it was commissioned by a local business man (not even rich) to appreciate philosophy, art, culture and faith – without it representing a single religion. Inspired by the temples in Ayutthaya (we are going here Dec 3rd from Bangkok), the carvings show respect to father, mother, teacher, the king, and the elephant-headed god. The northern hall features wisdom of emancipation. The southern hall features astronomical themes, namely the sun, moon, and other planets impacting people’s well-being. The western hall features representations of the classical elements (earth, water, wind, and fire) and the gods who conquer the four elements. The eastern hall features familial representations. The main focus of the Sanctuary of Truth is to visually portray important eastern religious concepts and the cycle of life. The sanctuary is made of several different types of wood, giving different parts of the sanctuary different textures. The oldest wood that has been used is takien wood, used to build the main post at about 105 metres tall, is expected to last for 600 years. The detail in the carvings is absolutely memorizing. Best of all, it is also wheelchair accessible!
The construction has not been completed (estimated to finish in 2025), so all visitors have to wear hard hats! Mind kept trying to fall off – hard to take pictures and look up at all the carvings and balance a hard hat. We were provided with a van to take us down to the structure, however first we had to stop at the view point to take pictures and if you wanted, you could go to the simple restaurant or buy souvenirs. The souvenir shop was not accessible so I did not go into it. Also at this viewpoint anyone not wearing proper “respectable” clothing had to “borrow with a fee” a top with sleeves or pants to wear. As you lined up to go down the very long flights of stairs to the Sanctuary of Truth, the clothing police (just lay people but I like the term!) watched people in the line. For all temple like places in Thailand people must have their shoulders and knees covered. It was funny though, while we were waiting for the transport down to the actual structure, we watched a man, who looked like he did not want to wear the elephant print pants (which is the print on the fabric of the pants at all of these places), lower his Bermuda type shorts pretty low on his hips, and cover that up with his shirt (which had sleeves – so okay there) – so the pants would covered his knees. It seems that somewhere between being “approved” to descend the stairs and getting into the structure, that his pants made it back onto his hips! I generally wear clothes that cover my knees so that is not an issue and I have a light scarf that I use to cover my shoulders. Andrew’s regular shorts are not long enough so he generally wears his long linen pants when we might be running into an occasion where we will be visiting a place where modesty is needed.
The person drove us in the van down the hill, picked up our hard hats and then drove us around the the back of the building which is where we were going to join our tour which was coming down the stairs from the viewpoint at that time. Imagine my surprise to see an elevator, disguised with ornate carvings on it to lift me into the building! I know it is said that the place is wheelchair accessible and I was wondering however this was going to be done without messing up the beauty! Up the elevator Andrew and I were escorted and into the Sanctuary of Truth. We walked around for a little bit before the tour joined us. Even in the building, it had ramps for me to take instead of the few stairs! I think, other than taking pictures, I spent the whole time just amazed at the handiwork of the builders of this ornate building. I have made notes on my pictures as to the various things we learned as we were guided around the structure – it totally was awe inspiring that people had CARVED the whole structure and that no nails or other things were or are used today as work continues.
At the end, we went back up the hill on the bus and found our driver sleeping in the shade in the van (drivers deserve a break!) and we were then off to what I thought was Walking Street – that is what was advertised in the tour as the next stop. However the tour guide (which I could remember her name) asked me if we could skip it as we spent more time at the Sanctuary of Truth and we must remain on schedule. Now I had a plan for the Walking Street – to get money exchanged! We were going through a lot more cash than expected and hotels in Thailand need a special permit to change money. The Renaissance did not have one and cannot change US$ to Thai Bhat. So when we were waiting to be picked up, the concierge suggested to go to one of the exchanges on Walking Street – sounded like a plan to me! However now she does not want to stop – so I said it was fine with us as long as we were taken to a Foreign Exchange along the way. So that is what happened – Andrew and the tour guide went and had some US$ exchanged (I only travel with US$ not Canadian as they get the best rate) so that we could continue to pay for things! While I knew coming to Thailand that credit cards outside of the hotels were not used as much – they are just not used at all in some situations like taking taxi’s and some shops.
Then, as I had mentioned that we had been to the Floating Market to our tour guide at the beginning, she offered to take us back to our hotel and then take the man from India to the Floating Market – so that is what we did. As we were hungry and the sun was starting to set, we decided to walk to the restaurant at the front of the hotel for dinner – it has been busy with private parties for the last 2 days based on the note left in the room so tonight it should be open for business – but it was not! It was now closed until December 7th – after we leave! So we watched the sunset from the patio and I saw all the stairs down to the beach and then we returned to the 609 restaurant, who were pretty used to us by now, and had a great “sharing plate” dinner!
Tomorrow is a relaxation day for us – nothing planned right now – lets see what trouble we can get into!
