Day 3: Thailand Adventure (Part 1)

Oct. 26, 2009. We knew it’s gonna be a long day for us so we again started the day early. And this time, breakfast call time is 6:00a.m. While I was still busy blow drying my hair, I heard Len and Candy knocking at our door. Apparently, they were looking for Mommy as I heard them say, “Mommy, asan ka? May surprise kami sa ‘yo.” I peeked from the bathroom and saw them handling a gift to my Mom. It was the Chinese-inspired umbrella that Mommy has been asking me to buy. And they both said, “Happy birthday, Mommy! Ayan ang gift namin sa ‘yo.” Well, I guess my 2 friends overheard my conversation with Mommy about that umbrella when we were in Wat TriMit the day before. And so, they granted Mommy’s wish. My Mom jumped for joy and insisted that she’d bring the umbrella to Pattaya so she could have photos with it. Ganyan kababaw ang kaligayahan ni Mudra. She’s not so hard to please.

We went up the hotel resto and found there there aren’t much people there yet. Kami ang unang nakapila sa buffet table. As in ganun ka-aga! Hehehe!

At 7am, we’re all finished with breakfast syempre rice na naman para maraming baon sa tiyan and went down the hotel lobby to get a cab. We were lucky to have found one waiting at the hotel’s doorstep. We initially asked the driver to take us to Ekkamai where we’d take bus going to Pattaya. The driver, Yom, offered us taxi service for the entire day for THB2,500 (roughly P3,500 or USD75). It was kinda pricey as I have read from the net that average one-way fare would cost THB 1,000 (around P1,400 or USD30). We haggled for that price and Yom agreed. He just asked us to pay for all the toll fee that cost THB90 (around P130 or USD2.75). And from that time on, Yom, has become our official driver.

We intended to spend the entire day in Pattaya and visit two famous tourist spots, Nong Nooch Garden and Mini Siam. Yom suggested that we also go the Tiger Zoo as t’was also along the way. We didn’t allot budget for that but still we agreed. There nothing much to lose anyways.

It took us around 1 and a half hours to travel from Bangkok to Pattaya. Roads were a bit similar to that of Laguna. It’s funny because t’was like traveling from Manila to Sta. Rosa or Calamba.

At around 10am, we were already at the Tiger Zoo. I didn’t know what to expect from this place as I haven’t read anything about it from the net. But from the name itself, I bet there are Tigers and other animals. LOL. Entrance fee was priced THB 400 per pax (roughly P560 or USD12).

Having seen the Singapore Zoo, for me this was a bit too simple. Well, here are some snaps we took as when we entered the place.

Since we are a bit short of time and intented to check out the place for just an hour or so, we were only able to watch 2 shows: Crocodile Show and Pig Racing.

Crocodile Show

Pig Racing

After the shows and as we’re on our way back to meet up with Yom, we saw some other animals and took some pics with them…

Then, off we went to the next pitstop… Nong Nooch Garden.

It took us another 30 minutes to travel from Tiger Zoo to this 5-hectare garden and I tell you, it’s really worth the trip. Mommy was overly impressed how spectacular the garden was.

I’ll now let the pics prove Mommy’s amazement:

Since the place is way too huge, we had to take a shuttle service (at THB50) to at least see some major sections of the garden.

We were taken to the Cactus Sanctuary (not the official name, pauso ko lang yan! hehehe!) and French Garden. And here are our pics…

Cactus Sanctuary

French Garden

It was just a short 30-minute trip, inclusive of photo ops. We were then taken back to the shuttle bay.

Len really wanted to experience to ride on an elephant but I chickened out. So, she decided to pass on it instead. So we opted to have some light snack. Since we already knew that we’d miss the Elephant Show scheduled at 3pm, we  wandered a bit more and just took some interesting pics of elephants and other tourists as well…

… but these two really caught my attention,

Nalurkey naman daw ako sa heels at attire nitong dalawang babaitang ito! Di ko kinaya ang outfit nila! Hehehe!

At around 3 pm, we moved from this place for our next pit stop… the Mini Siam!

To be continued…