Recent Travels
Sunday, January 22nd, 2006My recent travels in Thailand are Ratchaburi Floating Market about 3 weeks ago (maybe some of you have already seen the photo album) and Bang Saen+Pattaya beach (again) just yesterday. So here’s how the story goes…..
Once upon a time….(haha just kidding), it isnt a fairy tale fellas….!! 
RATCHABURI….
So the 11 of us rent a van to Ratchaburi, a province south-west of Bangkok. It was about 2-3 hours to get there. When we got there, I saw this canal with little boats on it….people, sellers, buyers, tourists…..so crowded, and got me excited in a second. My photography adrenalin was really pumpin…haha…I was so excited in taking pictures. I instantly geared up my equipments and started snapping. We rent a little boat (like a wooden canoe) and went down the canal..through the whole floating market. Handicrafts, all kinds of food, noodles, clothes, fruits, vegetables, fish, hats, all kinds of items…u name it….is all there on little boats. You can dine on the boat too….whenever we want to buy something, u just tell the boat driver to stop and he will pull aside to the seller. I keep on taking pictures…both with my SLR camera and my digital camera. I also pimped my ride….hehehe…I mean that I through the journey, I had it all on my handycam, good thing I had a cameraman at that time… 
I took up 2 and 1/2 rolls of film….phew….
After lunch at the floating market, we went down to Chom Pon cave, it means Bat Cave….not too many visitors though, and it was kind of under maintenance and I dont mean it literally that there’s a maintenance going on, I meant that the place havent been taken care of very well….kinda dirty. But there was sooo many monkeys there on the outside…reminded me of Sangeh in Bali. The cave was okay, I was kinda scared of the bats on the cave ceiling….thousands of bats….and we made little noise as possible. There was an opening on one side of the cave’s ceiling in which the ray from the sun is shown down clearly amid the darkness of the cave. It was really beautiful…..and then there’s a big sleeping Budha statue inside also. It was a cheap entrance….20Baht I think.
The Hot Springs was our next stop ( I forgot the name of the place). We went up to the river and discovered that the water was warm….and then we went upper, and the water was even warmer…it was hot. There was hot vapour between the huge rocks….we enjoyed nature for a little while and took some pictures. After the Hot Springs we went home and stop at a Pagoda on the way, it was said to be one of the biggest Pagoda in South East Asia. There’s a market on the parking lot….many foods….and I bought my favorite snack…fried crickets hehehehe….and my friend bought fried cockroach….big big cockroach…2-3 times the usual toilet cockroach…yucks… and I decided to have a little taste to check my gut….hahahaha…and it was okay..
PATTAYA….
My second visit to Pattaya…hmm…still as impressive as my first.
Permitha AIT was having a trip and welcome party to the new students. We went with a big bus….2 storey bus…o boy…o boy!!!! I sat upstairs in the front Throughout the way to our destination, we sang and make jokes, give out doorprizes…and sang again….and again…it was a very festive mood 
Before going to Pattaya, we went to Bang Saen beach, 1/2 hour from Pattaya. There, we had the welcome party, played some games, do some singing and dancing Poco2… Then we went to another site and ate lunch on the beach under tents….it was a yummy lunch…chicken nuggets and seafood It was so hot so I stayed under the tent, felt the urge to play beach volleyball, but it was glaring hot 
There were some kids who played in the water..and there were also banana boats to rent. Some of us dozed off to sleep under the tents, some went sightseeing in the market, some rented bicycles….and me… just walking around taking pictures and then sitting on the beach chair, lying back and enjoying the atmosphere…
At 3 oclock, we went to Pattaya. Not like my first visit, this time I know where I wanted to go….to Hard Rock and eat pizza at the Royal Garden food loft. I ate there on my first visit and was eager to eat there again this time. I imagined the pizza since one week before the trip…hehehe. It’s really an ordinary pizza, but I love the atmosphere at the food loft, we can eat while looking out at the sea. You can eat outside or inside. But I ate inside coz there’s air conditioner there. Before eating, I went to the Hard Rock Cafe, didnt go inside since it’s not opened yet in the afternoon….but of course I took some pictures on the Hard Rock sign (I think everyone does that…hehe). Then I bought some Hard Rock Pattaya merchandises.
After that we walked a long walk to the Royal Garden. It was already dark after we ate there, so we went for a walk again and catched the songteauw (I dont know how it’s written) - it’s a pick up with roofs, for transportation - and went to the meeting point in Alcazar. Alcazar is like Tiffany, a cabaret show. When we got there, the show was just over and there were so many people outside. Too bad I didnt get to see the ‘lady boys’ and take pictures Actually, I wanted to see the whole Walking Street, but there was no time. The bus driver was already mad coz we couldnt leave on time (hell it was only 5 minutes late, dude!!! chill out!). Again, like my first visit, I’m still eager to go to Pattaya again and go to the whole Walking Street and explore the area with a rented motorcycle, and play beach volleyball on the sand
I thanked to God for giving me good trips…..ahh what a wonderful life… 
ps. See Ratchaburi album for the Ratchaburi trip and Pattaya 2nd which is coming up soon in February since I used up all of my photo quota this month
