Monday, December 23, 2013

Nongnooch Gardens near Pattaya

I have been in Pattaya ( about 2 hour ride southeast of Bangkok) for 4 days now. So I avoided the big anti-government demonstrations there yesterday. I am due to go back to BKK on Friday, but if things get crazy then I will stay away from there.
The routine is similar with some beach days...it is unusually cold and windy hear but temperature in low 80s F and the sun is warming. It does get to below 70F in the nite. Brrrrrrr!

The beach:

Yesterday a friend and I went to a place about 30 minutes south of Pattaya called Nongnooch Gardens. It is a mixture of European formal gardens, zoo and elephant camp in a carnival, circus-like setting. It was interesting but unsettling because everything was very unnatural to entertain the tourists.

The gardens were beautiful:


They had a beautiful tiger with which you could have your picture taken (for 100 Baht):

And an elephant show that had every trick in the book: painting, soccer, basketball, dancing, lifting visitors by the trunks, feeding them bananas, with the animals (elephants dressed in silly costumes:



There was a mock war scene at he Thai cultural show:

And for an extra fee you could take an 20min elephant ride on the paved grounds:

Among the most interesting items were the children visiting:



I think visit to the Elephant Camps around Chiangmai are a better, more natural experience.

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