Tuesday, September 26, 2017 – Pattaya

We’re on our own today!  Some people are going to the beach (if you’ve lived in Florida, this is not an appealing choice!).  Some are going to relax around the pool;  some are going to explore Walking Street, which is filled with many bars, some restaurants, and a few shops.  This is Pattaya’s red light district and is especially “colorful” at night. 

We are going to have a leisurely breakfast, meet Helen, and take a taxi to the Sanctuary of Truth. 

Thank you, Trip Advisor!!  This wooden structure was begun in 1981 (an auspicious year!) by a millionaire, who made his money in insurance and a Mercedes-Benz dealership.  He wanted to leave a legacy that would promote world peace and unity.  He invited artists from across Asia to contribute their concepts which include many religions and philosophies, like Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, and others. 

The concierge calls our taxi and he comes quite quickly.  When we arrive he stops at the ticket office and waits for us.  The admission is five hundred baht but one of the Thai gentlemen says we get a special deal because we’re Americans, only one thousand baht!  Everyone laughs. There is a package that includes a cart ride around the outside of the temple and a foot massage!!  We pass and get back into our taxi.  He drives us all the way down to the actual entrance and as we come around a curve and first see the structure, there is a collective gasp!  At the beginning of a trip one should use simple adjectives, so that when you get to something like this, there are some left to express the awe you feel!

When we get out of the cab,  a young woman asks if we have cover ups.  Rio had said we didn’t need them; but he was mistaken.  Apparently Ginger’s sleeveless top is all right but my shorts aren’t, so I leave a deposti and borrow a sarong which she ties around my waist.  We first enter a large and fairly dim shed-like structure  in which twenty or thirty artisans are carving wood to be added to the temple.  We even get to try our hand at it!  A lovely Thai lady comes up and tells us that she will conduct a fifty-minute tour for us in English if we would like. We would!!

She begins by telling us about Mr. Lek, the founder, then shows us some of the joints which are used to hold the temple together.  There are no screws or nails, or anything metal.  The joints are all dovetails or lap joints or tongue and groove or pegs or mortise and tenon or wedge and peg.  There are one hundred and seventy columns, each composed of twenty-six pieces.  The wood is mostly redwood;  there hasn’t been teak in Thailand for many years.  Sometimes the wood comes from a middleman, and then they don’t know what kind it is.

The project was begun in 1981 and is currently about eighty-five percent complete.  They estimate that it will take another thirty to thirty-five years to complete it.  The individual elements are created in clay first to ensure that they will fit correctly;  then a template is made from which the wood is carved.

The figures represent many different religions and it would be so very hard to really enjoy the experience without someone to point them out. There are workmen everywhere and visitors are issued hardhats to protect them from falling wood or tools!  Our guide also doubles as a photographer!  She asks for people’s iPhone or camera if that’s what you’ve got, and is pretty proficient with all of them;  and of course she knows all the best locations!  If we lollygag, she reminds us that after the tour we can stay as long as we like and take photos everywhere.

This is the elevator!

 One of the four entrances contains a statue of a mother, father, and four children.  It represents the family, of course, and our guide tells us that F=father, A=and, M=mother, I=I, L=love, and Y=you FAMILY = Father and mother, I love you!  Everything starts with the family.  When you are young, mother nurses you and teaches you how to eat, talk, walk, and run. And when parents get old, the responsibility for their care should fall to their children.

Our guide’s nickname is Apple because she uses an iPhone all the time!  She told us that she is a second-generation guide;  both her parents were guides here. She apologized for her English pronunciation (which was pretty darn good!) and said that she only studied English in high school, not college.  She said that is why she spells out the words that are important for us to get.

In the central area there relics of Buddha and seating for people to pray or meditate.  I think it would be a little difficult to ignore the construction noises;  but promptly at noon, everything becomes quiet and the workmen scurry down the ladders to go to lunch.

One could spend days here!  There is so much to see and the changing light presents new opportunities all the time.  We finally force ourselves to go back outside and run into Colin and Marj!  They’ve just arrived and we share what we’ve learned and then all go to the refreshment area for drinks or ice cream. Ginger gets watermelon juice, I get coconut milk, and Helen gets a whole coconut, so she has both the meat and the milk!

We make one more tour around and even though you could never really be finished, we agree that it’s time to go.  We will have to walk back;  but it’s not that far. We pass another place to borrow a sarong and the young woman takes mine, along with the plastic number that acts as my receipt, and walks back to her stall.  She’s gone a really long time and I finally walk over in search of my two-hundred baht deposit.  She is a bit embarrassed and I think she had to get the money from a friend at another shop.

We follow the path (and the exit sign) and come to the stairs that Colin and Marj had mentioned.  From their description we were not looking forward to the climb;  but it really wasn’t all that many steps and we are back at the ticket area.  We ask about a taxi and one of the pick-up trucks is just getting ready to leave. It’s only two hundred baht for the three of us and as we’re getting under way a couple jumps on board.  He is an American and his friend is a Japanese girl he met in Alaska.  He’s pretty outspoken and I’m thinking ugly thoughts until he says he has stage four cancer.  Then I feel guilty about them.  There is another couple in the truck, a young man and woman from Siberia!  They came for the warmth and are going to Viet Nam next!

Back at the hotel we make tentative plans to go to the pool before the drag show at 7:30.  There’s lots of time to relax and blog or check email.  Ginger is ready to go swimming and I take my computer and sit in the shade, enjoying the breezes.  Somehow we’ve missed Helen and when we get back to the room she doesn’t answer her room phone.  Ginger gets dressed and we figure we’ll go out in search of “protein on a stick” (POS), check out the beach, go to the show and have dinner afterwards.

 As we’re leaving our room we notice an envelope under the door!  It’s a note from Helen saying she got hungry and went back to our seafood place for some dinner. She’ll come back to her room for us to connect, especially since we have the tickets for the show!  We go out, give the beach about five minutes, don’t find any POS, also don’t see the theater, and head back to the hotel to find Helen and get directions.

As we’re standing in the lobby and the concierge is ringing her room, Helen walks in!  Now that we’re all assembled, we go adventuring.  There’s a little street restaurant where Ginger and I can get some spring rolls and shrimp cakes, along with a beer.  That should hold us through the show!  We finish just in time to take our lives in our hands and cross the street to the theater.

As we get close to the entrance, several of the performers are waiting for us with open arms, to pose with us for photos.  Then they demand one hundred baht from each of us.  That doesn’t fly and we head inside to find our lovely second-row seats in the center section!  Unlike many shows that encourage photos during the show, here they are forbidden which is disappointing – lots of gorgeous costumes and beautiful people!

 The stars of the show are all perfection and glitz, and they are backed by a chorus of boys and “girls”.  All the costumes are sequins and feathers and have amazing headdresses, which must be hard as heck to balance.  One number is Japanese in flavor, another is reminiscent of old Siam, there is a Tina Turner impersonator, doing “Rollin’ on the River” and a soloist who sings “One-Man Woman” in profile, with one profile being male and the other female.  The choreography is fairly simple but effective and there are usually two stars performing together, with different movements to compliment one another.  All in all a great way to spend an hour or so.  Afterwards there is another gauntlet to run;  but we sneak away around the side!

We’re not really hungry and decide to go back to the hotel and check out the rooftop terrace bar.  Helen had been up here earlier for happy hour and they had run out of all the local beers; she had to get a Heineken! And Doreen ordered a second mojito, only to be told they had run out of mint!

The drinks menu only has about fifteen different cocktails, not beer and no wine.  It takes a while to even get the menus and after we’ve decided what we’d like, no one comes to take our order.  There are only a handful of people up here, so the staff is certainly not overworked.  Helen finally goes and fetches someone and we place our orders.  After another five or ten minutes – how long does it take to make a mai tai?? – Ginger’s had enough and we get up and leave.  Strange customer service, especially when everything – and one – else has been so perfect!  We wonder if it is age discrimination – or gender??  Either way, we saved a little money!

We drop Helen off on the eighteen floor, descend to the ninth and toddle home.  (The hall still smells like lemon drops;  but it’s better than the paint smell!)  We don’t have to bring down our luggage in the morning until about eleven thirty, so it will be an easy morning!

OOOO!  I just got these photos from the elephant farm!!