Ao Noi, Prachuap Khiri Khan to Pattaya, Chonburi…

I didn’t have any deadlines other than getting to Pattaya in time to check into a hotel and eat dinner. I decided to do some sightseeing first, before scooting around the Bay of Bangkok (Ha! I wish.) And hopefully having a little more time for sightseeing at the end of my drive.

Thung Noi. 12.088059 99.956383

First up was Thung Noi port and beach in Kui Buri District of Prachuap…

As you can see, it was very hazy so I didn’t linger.

Wat Khao Daeng. 12.135452, 99.960765

It wasn’t far from Thung Noi to Sam Roi Yot National Park. On reaching the park office I had two choices. Stop and buy a drone permit so I could take photos at several places in the park, or keep going and just film at Wat Khao Daeng. When I saw the haze, and realized I couldn’t really see the famous 300 peaks, I chose the latter.

I wandered around taking pics…

It looked like the Queen of Hearts had been here shouting “Off With His Head”…

I guess they’ll fix it one day.

Then it was time for Maxie to do his thing and zip around taking aerial shots. Except that I hadn’t realized I was being watched. You see, the wat is inside the National Park, and as I mentioned, I didn’t buy a permit. There didn’t seem much point for ten minutes of flying.

But as soon as I took off, an army-looking person appeared and announced “You can’t do that ‘ere.” I think he was just the wat’s security guy with an army shirt, but either way, he wasn’t impressed. Until…

I announced that I only wanted a few photos of his temple, at which a look of pride came over his face and he decided that would be just fine. So, courtesy of one army-looking security guard…

Pop-up Fish Market. 12.169418, 99.995226

Next; thanks to one of Ms. Chuckle’s Magical Mystery Tours, I found myself on a dead end road to a beach I hadn’t planned to visit. One day I’m going to throw her out the window! Thanks to it being a road to nowhere the local fishing persons and market persons had decided this would be an ideal place to block the road with a pop-up fish market…

I’ve only just noticed the fish on the lampost, poking up through the haze. Perhaps that’s the sign… pop-up market here.

Anyhoo; it was all very jovial, and there were probably more fish than I’ve seen in a lifetime…

Can you imagine being a shrimp sorter?

Makes you wonder: how many shrimps could a shrimp sorter sort if a shrimp sorter could sort shrimps?

Actually; no, it doesn’t! -ed

Whatever. You said “short simps” didn’t you?!?

Wat Khao Kalok. 12.334925, 99.996729

Another one protected by nagas running around the perimeter of the ubosot. Not to mention those two angry-looking fellas either side of the entrance…

I had the usual nose around…

Before wandering off to find the lake. That has snakes slithering around the mountainside…

Oh, and there was a Chinese-style temple too…

And Maxie had to take a look at the adjacent beach plus haze…

At which point I decided it was time to make the long-ish trip to Chonburi. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to miss Bangkok’s horrendous traffic. In one hour (of the several) I covered just five kilometers! But; although mega-grumpy, on arrival in Pattaya I decided I had just enough time to get aerial shots of the famous Sanctuary of Truth.

Fail!

After spending an hour going round and round on Pattaya’s Scalextric-sized roads, and seeing “No Drone Zone” signs anytime I got close to the sanctuary, I gave up. The signs have no regulatory value. Anyone can put up signs. I could place one at the end of my road saying “Naked Ladies Only” but I doubt it would work! But I figured I should respect their wishes and I went off to find my hotel.

The Icon Place at Nurn Plub Wan. 12.931412, 100.905690

An hour later! I’ll limit my comments to the fact the place is down a tiny road that doesn’t even show on Google Maps, and that the building has not one sign indicating it’s a hotel. The room was adequate, but dingy…

It had a fridge, not connected, and no sign of any place to plug it in. So the nice reception lady had to come and haul the fridge out of its cupboard. And then dive under low shelf to connect the wifi router. The router worked, but the internet didn’t. You’d think they do these things before a guest arrives!

Not impressed.

So I went off to find the Happy Steak Restaurant, where I was quite happy to eat a rather tough steak.