“Tonight….we are young…..so let’s set the world on fire….”
” We can burn brighter than the sunnnn…”
I woke up with those lines from the song…apparently Fun got a way to my sub-conscience and found a way to stay and woke me up at 5:30 in the morning..my head was spinning, my neck felt stiff and still my eyes were a bit red..maybe i was just lack of sleep..i sat down trying to figure what happened last night..but well…forget it..my stomach needed grub..and as i recalled..we would have a buffet breakfast..never skip a buffet breakfast..I dragged myself to the restaurant with Yos only to find we were to early and had to wait for 15 minutes until they were open for business. All of the teachers woke up late and with tired faces…coffee..we need coffee..breakfast was simple..just toast, fruit, some thai food and drinks..we didnt spend a lot of time there since we needed to pack and leave Sunshine Hotel to new places around Pattaya..
After packing and a series of photo taking as usual, we headed out to the bus..Nongnoch Garden was our next destination..The name Nongnoch surely gave a funny impression to Indonesian ears like other Thai names..I once encountered a hostel named “Kahwin Place” which means “mating place”.. wow..now, Nongnoch..surely a string of alphabets can mean differently in different languages…anyway,it only took us half an hour to reach Nongnoch..Nongnoch Garden is a vast garden consisting a large collections of palms and orchids. Nongnoch also has miniatures of landmarks of the world like the Stonehenge, Eiffel Tower, Wat Arun etc. Aside of plants, this place had something else to offer..cultural and elephant show..that’s what we had for the next 2.5 hours.
The show was initiated by a beautiful Thai singer singing a Thai song continued by some traditional dances which later on continued by a mock kickboxing match and the hightlight of the show was a mock war which included war elephants..Still tired from the night before and the breeze of wind in this theater swayed me to a sleep..i enjoyed the show..well at least the part when i was awake..haha…
After the cultural show, we continued to watch elephant show just outside the theater.I saw somebody on an elephant trunk..wait..that was david…the hell was he doing there?Then i just realized that we could take pictures with the elephant by paying 100baht..well why not? you can’t always have two elephants carry you with their trunks..
The show then began..some elephants were out of their pen running to the field ready for some actions. The elephants played soccer,basketball, hurl darts,perform massage and even draw a picture with their trunks..some say that the pictures r even better than our art teacher haha..just kidding kam..:p..The pictures were drawn on T-shirts that could be bought for 300baht..kinda pricey, but where else you can have an elephant draw a T-shirt for you?
Enough with the show, we were given a free time for an hour to roam the garden..which was actually impossible to cover all the sections of the garden. We then rushed to some parts of the garden to take pictures as we always do. We met statues of mammoths,pigs, a maze made of plants…pretty nice though, some thought that this could be a good place for Pre Wedding pictures, why not?of course if u can bear the scorching heat of Pattaya sun..
Heading back to the bus was a toll, as some of us still didn’t have the heart to leave this place without pictures and pictures..we were half an hour late from the schedule..Some of us were lost but then were found..time was lost..couldn’t be found…:p (forget it..it’s just me being me)..anyway, we continued to our next destination Khao Chi Chan Mountain Cliff or popularly called Laser Buddha..It’s a sculpture of Buddha image adorned with golden tiles on a cliff..a remarkable work of Thai craftmanship and religious devotion, this picture has been a magnet for tourist..tourist won’t have to pay for visiting this place. We spent half an hour taking pictures with Laser Buddha as our background..good God this place is hot!
Enough with the pictures we had lunch in Pattaya en route to Bangkok..we had a nice lunch in a decent restaurant..nice tomyum and some of the dishes were familiar to our tongues like sauted kangkung, fried noodles, fried chicken and of course..rice..cant live without rice.. Filled with all the food, we started our bus ride back to the City of Angels..Bangkok..most of us fell asleep in the bus..i took the luxury of moving to the “VIP Lounge” of the bus with the lads..sleeping like a log eventhough some K-Pop music coming from somebody’s handphone kept on playing…It usually takes only 2 hours to reach Bangkok from Pattaya..however, we chose the wrong time to head back..it was the rush hour..Bangkok, even though not as bad as Jakarta, is famous for its traffic during rush hour. All the vehicles moved slowly on a narrow road..familiar with this traffic, i felt wanna come out of the bus and took a BTS ride to Platinum Mall (our next destination)..of course i didnt do that..staying in a group was the best option since i wasn’t in my solo backpacking trip as usual. Patience is a virtue..
After waiting impatiently for 3.5 half hour, we managed to arrive in Platinum Mall..of course we needed to walk a bit to beat the traffic around the mall. Platinum Mall is more or less Mangga Dua of Bangkok..only neater and cleaner..equipped with aircon, it has drawn tourists to spend their bahts here..Most of the female teachers were excited about this place and without further ado went into the mall after given the instruction and time limit..2 hours..in front of Dunkin Donuts..Cleverer shoppers led by Suyanti (one of the cinkoest shopper i have ever known) chose to cross the road and headed to Pratunam Market.. A market similar to Glodok where clothes are sold on the side of the streets and small kiosks..I chose to follow her believing that cinko is a remarkable species in terms of shopping..i made the right decision..i bought some clothes for my mom and sisters and a white Jason Miraz hat with a good bargain…but however after meeting Alun n Ira, i felt i was robbed..Alun could get the same shirt, that i bought for 150 baht, for only 120 baht..30 baht’s difference was a hit for a backpacker like me..The key to get a cheaper price in Pratunam and most of the markets in Bangkok is buying in bulk..and they will give you a good price..no wonder many Indonesians love to buy things here and sell them back home..Spending an hour in the humidity of the market drove me crazy, i went to the meeting point as fast as i could only to find that i was the first person there..followed by Bipin, Tessier and soon others to come with hands loaded with shopping bags..well..some of them arrived later…apparently shopping was a strong magnet for Indonesians…
Then we continued to our hotel..CMYK Hotel which was located in Huay Kwang.I had been to Huay Kwang before, this place has a night market connected with a MRT station nearby…Easy transportation means longer night..not wasting more time..we chose to see Bangkok at night…which was lame…hahaha..We spent our night wandering the streets only to find people selling stuff like lingerie,fake rolex,pirated CDs etc…well Bangkok is not Pattaya after all…heading back to our hotel and crashed to our beds..
Tonight..we are tired….