Many might think that Pattaya is an odd destination for Honeymoon. However, what they might not know (or might be forgetting) is that this beach side resort city in Thailand has much more to offer than just ladyboys, sex tourism and drunk tourists. Set about 120 kms from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, this coastal is surely a great way to get started on your Honeymoon (or any other regular trip for that matter!)
Prep Before the Journey
As with most international trips (except for Nepal), you’ll surely need a passport. Thailand offers visa on arrival for Indians and that is surely a convenient option. As long as you have a passport that is valid for at-least 6 months, you can just book a flight and hotel and fly to Thailand. However, there are always chances that the Visa on Arrival counter is quite packed because Thailand offers Visa on Arrival to lot of nations as well.
Therefore, we decided to get our visa process done in Bangalore itself. VFS is where we had to submit the application and the entire process took less than a week. Given that we were heading to Bali as well after Pattaya and Bangkok, we had to make some other arrangements as well as part of our preparations.
Reaching Pattaya
Our Thai Airways flight was scheduled to depart at 0030 hrs IST on 28th October and we had planned the cab ride well in advance (Thanks to Meru).
Furthermore, we had pre-booked a cab service from Bangkok airport to our hotel in Pattaya, Amari Ocean Pattaya. Now, Thai Airways generally operates the wide body Boeing 777s for most of their BLR to BKK flights. We found these flights to be extremely comfortable and the service on Thai Airways very welcoming. The flight took off as scheduled and we had landed in Bangkok about 15 mins ahead of schedule.
Immigration at Suvarnabhumi Airport
As soon as we landed at the airport and were heading to the Immigration counters, we felt happy that we’d gotten our visas in India itself. There was a significantly crowd for the Visa on Arrival and in addition to that, there was a large queue at the immigration counters as well. With the visa already printed in our passports and the entry forms filled up, we only had to wait at one counter!
Bangkok to Pattaya
After collecting our luggage, we reached the meeting point for our cab pickup, where we purchased a tourist sim card. These are not expensive and are extremely useful! After waiting for a short while, our point of contact reached the location and we were on our way to Pattaya. The journey to Pattaya take around 1.5 hours and the roads are in fantastic condition throughout the drive. Even though we didn’t get much sleep, we weren’t exhausted or sleepy and were enjoying the drive!
Our Hotel in Pattaya
We stayed at Amari Ocean Pattaya which is situated right on the Pattaya Beach Road. We had a wonderful experience of staying here and would surely return if we’re visiting Pattaya next. Read our reviews by following the links below:
Day 1 – Exploring the Beach Road and Pattayasaisong Road
We reached the hotel quite early by around 9:00 AM but the hotel’s check-in time was 02:00 PM. Since it was the peak season, the hotel wasn’t able to accommodate the early check-in request. But we did get a wonderful place to keep our luggage, freshen up and change post which we headed out to explore the beach, the beach road and the establishments around.
The Pattaya beach road is a road that has been designed with the tourists in mind. There is footpath that is very well maintained lined with trees on either side for most parts, making this a great place for walk (or for people on bicycles).
Random fun on the Pattaya Beach Road
After spending some time at the beach and playing in the shallow waters, we started walking and exploring the area, had lunch at McDonalds that is on the Beach road before heading back to the hotel.
We proceeded to the hotel, took our keys and settled in our luxurious Junior Suite Ocean View Room. This suite was designed in such a way that we wanted to spend most of the time here. However, that wasn’t the plan! We took rest for a short while, enjoyed the fantastic rain shower and got ready to hit the street and explore this part of the town.
On the way, we made booking for the Sriracha Tiger Zoo half day tour and for the Alcazar Cabaret show for the next day. Both of these were available with pick-up and drop from the hotel. However, we chose that facility only for the Tiger Zoo. The Alcazar theatre was walkable from our hotel and we decided to walk to the location!
Walking Street
Walking Street Pattaya is possibly the most popular and busiest party/entertainment area in all of Thailand. Stretching almost (or possibly over) a kilometer, almost every property is a club, go-go bar or a restaurant. Given the popularity of this street, we decided to walk to this place, which was about 3 kms away from our hotel. Now most of this route runs parallel to the sea/beach and this makes this a great experience with a cool breeze for company (along with thousands of tourists!).
We then took a tuk tuk for a short distance just to experience the ride. Now, the tuk tuks in Pattaya are quite different from the ones in Bangkok. The Bangkok ones look like a sporty cousin of the Indian auto rickshaws. The ones in Pattaya though are most probably pick-up trucks converted to tuk tuks!
Dinner and Pattayasaisong Road
We spent the rest of the night walking around the Pattayasaisong Road, soaking in the vibrant colors that this beautiful resort town had to offer! Irrespective of what the time was, that entire stretch seemed very lively! Numerous bars, restaurants, roadside souvenir shops, fine dining restaurants, malls, massage parlors! You name it, they’ve got it!
We found a well-maintained food court while walking and decided to stop for a quick cocktail! Now we don’t know what mixes these were but they sure were yummy. Couple that with bucket of KFC and our evening was set! We then changed location and took the dinner to a beachfront location! Enjoying KFC while sitting on a bench right in front of the beach is indeed a wonderful way to enjoy fried chicken!
After spending some time here, we headed back to our room by around 2:00 AM to get a good night’s sleep (as much as possible that is because the pick was for the Tiger Zoo was at 8:00 AM!)
Day 2 – Sriracha Tiger Zoo and Alcazar Cabaret Show!
After enjoying a quick but filling breakfast, we were ready at the lobby for our vehicle which was also on time! Since this trip was on a SiC basis, this involved picking up other passengers from nearby areas and we were on the highway in no time! The SriRacha Tiger Zoo is around a 90-minute drive from Pattaya and most of the route is on a very well-maintained highway!
SriRacha Tiger Zoos
As we reached closer to the destination, our escort gave us an idea on how best to navigate through the park with clear instructions that we must return by 1:00 PM for the return journey! And then we were given our passes and we were off to exploring the zoo, which apparently is the world’s largest tiger zoo!
We started with the “Feed the Tiger” where you get the opportunity to shoot a target that we drop a meat into the tiger’s enclosure! And followed that up with a photo with a tiger cub while feeding it milk! The tiger cub was extremely cute and both of us fell in love it all the more!
The zoo also houses some crocodiles and also has a pig race which one can witness. All these activities make it sound like a typical touristy place and that is exactly what this is! A very well-maintained tourist destination!
After enjoying the zoo for a while, we headed back to the vehicle, where it turns out that the other passengers were already waiting for us and we headed back to the room in no time, where we rested for a while and got ready for the evening’s cabaret show!
Alcazar Show
Pattaya’s Alcazar Cabaret show is one of Thailand’s most popular show that has been around for decades! Imagine a spectacular theatre show with energetic performances, extravagant costumes and vibrant colors. The way the show is structured is that it takes the audience through different countries and the corresponding cultures! From what we recall, Arabic, Persian, Thai (of-course), Chinese, Indian among various others!
What stands out is the fact that all the performers in this show are ladyboys or kathoeys, as they are called! It was truly a magical evening and is an event that shouldn’t be missed when in Pattaya!
Once the show was done, we again started walking all over Pattaya and exploring the city by foot! We weren’t feeling sleepy at all and the fact that our next day’s pick for our dive to Bangkok Hotel was scheduled for 12:00 PM, made us feel like going exploring this area of the town all the more by foot!
Bye Bye Pattaya
We woke up pretty leisurely the next day and headed towards the restaurant to enjoy a lazy and sumptuous breakfast, spent some time in the pool area, relaxing on their sunbeds, before heading back to the room, packing and then checking out.
We know we didn’t cover a lot of places that Pattaya has to offer but we’re sure we will return to this paradise sometime in the future!
Check-out our other travelogues from this trip:
- 2 Nights in Bangkok (Coming soon)
- 6 Nights in Bali (Coming soon)
Until next time!
The RE Travelers