Бангкок-Паттайя-Кох Чанг Bangkok-Pattaya-Koh Chang

12.02. 2012 I want to go to the sea! I thought a year ago and made a wish for myself on New Year's Eve - to the sea in November! I hate this gray month of wet shoes, and since falling into lethargy will not work, you must definitely fly in November! The choice of direction is small - the Canary Islands or the Far East in the form of Thailand. I choose the second and happily announce my decision to the household: “Hurrah! We're flying to Thailand! " Not particularly surprised by my initiative, the husband and daughter calmly went about their business. Well, okay. In the spring, I began collecting information on Tai. I learned prices, vacation options, everything about the weather and something about the country as a whole. Since flying all the same to the ends of the world and, perhaps, the last time to a resort with an already adult child, I chose the Bangkok sightseeing tour - the Kwai-Pattaya - Koh Chang river. See, so everything and to the maximum! In August, I ordered tours (in the company of 365 brivdienas), absolutely sure that the rainy season, as always, will end by mid-October, and nothing threatens a pleasant trip. By the end of September, the media began to sprinkle pepper - and in Thailand FLOOD and Bangkok is about to wash away! Tormented by remorse, I spent two weeks before departure cheating on the net. The fears of the difficulties of the flight somehow faded into the background - before my eyes the ditches teeming with snakes, flooded quarters, bloodthirsty crocodiles and the danger of dying of thirst, standing waist-deep in water... But then, thank God, my household supported me: “I don’t care ! Let's fly! And finally, that day has come! On the third of November, the Uzbek airlines liner, packed to capacity with tourists, took us right on schedule in the direction of the Kingdom of Thailand. After 4 and a half hours, having had a hearty lunch, we landed in Tashkent. Two and a half hours passed unnoticed (although the airport is more like a drive and there were no special options). Grabbing a bottle of cognac (it should be noted that the prices for alcohol at the Riga airport are inexpressibly more expensive) we safely loaded onto another airship. Fatigue, jet lag and cramped seats were already making themselves felt. The next five and a half hours were more difficult and here it is - the long-awaited dawn over Thailand! At 7.30 local time we landed in Bangkok. And, oh my! This huge huge airport! Following the mass of experienced (presumably) tourists, we rowed for a long time to passport control. The queue of 13 windows was small - 60-80 people each. We mastered it in about forty minutes (we, they say, were lucky, by the new year this procedure can take 5-6 hours). Further, the whole crowd is looking for a meeting point with our guide according to the signs. Hooray! Found! We were counted over our heads and loaded into a painted but very clean bus with life-saving air conditioning. (Somehow the temperature drop from 0 to +35 did not immediately become native). And finally, we begin our journey! It took us about an hour to drive across Bangkok to our CHA-DA hotel, gazing eagerly at the scenery outside the window. The first thing that raised the question - where is the water? Where are the flooded quarters of the metropolis? And NO! Because Bangkok is a city of 16 million, and the flooded rice fields on the northern outskirts are not the whole of Thailand! Well, thank God, we thought. It would be necessary to reassure the relatives… Well, with a 5-hour time difference in Latvia, it is now somewhere around 4 am, let's wait. Outside the windows of the bus, quarters with high-rise buildings, streets unusually entangled with wires and kilometers of cables, intricate four-tiered car forks, hurrying brand new expensive cars, pineapple trucks, nimble tuk-tuks rushed by. Hotel CHA-DA, our first stop. A 3-star hotel, it corresponds to them quite well - a normal room with a TV set, safe, hairdryer, etc. Linen was changed daily, very clean, European breakfast and... a rooftop pool. We liked everything, especially since we lived there for a short time. Having changed the wardrobe, we first of all measured the depth of the pool, had a prudent snack on provisions taken with us and set off to explore the surroundings. I was immediately struck by the high-speed traffic on the roads (in Bangkok, on simple streets, 3-4 lanes in each direction), there are no traffic lights, and pedestrian crossings are exclusively in the form of viaducts. Class! Nobody bothers anyone. Zero risk of hitting a pedestrian! Then we found out that a driver's license in Thailand is obtained in three days and for 6 dollars. The question to the examinee is approximately the following: sign 80 km - at what speed can you move -80-100-120km? Well, and the like. In fact, road signs are extremely rare. To my question, how fast can you drive around the city, the guide answered - as the Buddha will tell you in the morning! That's how to fight corruption! Move on. The chic sparkling high-rise buildings below look not scary because of the tangled electrical cables that are everywhere. It seems to me that even an electrician will not immediately understand where and from where they lead. On the sidewalks, passers-by crowd in anticipation of city transport, right there the local “jazz band” is chirping something on their own, the aroma of fried fish, spices and... sewage is spreading. A blue-faced dog lazily rolls around, and everyone courteously walks around it. (Buddha had 108 reincarnations, one of them was a dog, so respect and respect for every dog ​ ​ here. What if in your next life you will take its place yourself? ). Finally found an exchanger. They recklessly exchanged 1000 dollars for 30180 baht. Reckless because the course in Bangkok is very different from the course in Pattaya. There for 1000 bucks we would get 31260 baht. An important point, banknotes of 100 dollars change at a more favorable rate than 10 or 20. Dollar or euro - it doesn’t matter, we counted, you don’t lose anything. Trampled heels, we decided to have dinner at a local catering. I ordered their national dish - Tom Yum soup, rice with shrimp for the family and noodles with chicken. As a result, everyone ate, and I filled the fire in the stomach with two liters of water. Tom yum in the original version - DO NOT ORDER! The principle of less burnt than frostbitten does not work here! The next day, we found out that most of those who decided to taste the miracle of Thai cooking finished their meal at McDonald's. I note right away that this was not the only gastronomic experiment on my part, but over the 14-day period, I have never had heartburn, bloating, or other troubles in the form of a headache (and vice versa). Evening my husband and I finished off in the room, in the company of a telly and cognac, and my daughter indulged in shopping until midnight. In the morning at 8.30 a bus came for us and we, accompanied by a Russian-speaking guide, went to the big royal palace. We were warned in advance that the legs and shoulders should be covered with clothes, however, my Carolina's white trousers and a shawl on her shoulders did not convince the law enforcement officers, and the daughter was dressed in a flamboyant skirt over trousers and a colorful shirt (for 20 baht). In principle, we had exactly half a group of such clowns. At first, everyone was arrogant, and then - in the midst of gold and emeralds, bathed in the bright afternoon sun, everyone smiled contentedly and took pictures in the middle of the exotic in no less exotic cast-offs. It is pointless to write about the large royal palace, it must be seen. The next scheduled stop is the golden Buddha statue. In general, Buddhism is not a religion, it is a worldview, or something. The guide told us a lot about it. I liked the calm and peacefulness, contemplation and understanding of life, promoted by Buddhism. But not everything is as transparent as it seemed to me. So, Buddha statue. Length 46 meters, height 18. All covered with gold, absolutely all... Hm, digressed. On the heels are mother-of-pearl images of 108 reincarnations of the Buddha. Among them - Dragon, snake, dog, horse, etc. . If the pots run out, but the coins remain, you will be prosperous all year, and if the coins run out earlier, it doesn’t matter! We must come back and try our luck again! With Carolina, everything happened much more prosaically. At pot 30, she ran out of wishes. We dined in a restaurant (lunch included in the price) and went to a jewelry factory. Thailand has the world's largest deposits of rubies, sapphires, emeralds and other precious stones. The luxury that opened up to our eyes is amazing! Again, this is a must see! Egypt is resting! Having fed our eyes, we were sent in a minivan (at the expense of the institution) to “any chosen direction”. We moved to the central shopping complex, but not for shopping, but for the aquarium. It is located... in principle, on the territory of the store. Pleasure cost us 900 baht from the nose. For 1100 baht, you could not only look at all sorts of sharks and other toothy monsters, but also feed them from the boat. We didn’t take a chance… Leaving the aquarium, we discovered with pleasure that the tallest building in the world, the Bay Yok Sky Hotel, is located next to us, and we decided, without waiting for the evening twilight, to walk along the Bangkok alleys on foot to it. Not surprisingly, the 84-storey building seemed very close to us. We scratched before him for an hour and a half, no less. They say that there is a glazed elevator along the entire height of the building, but we most likely entered from the "anus" and, therefore, first got from 1-56.57-75.76-81 floors. (We just don't look for easy ways). They paid for the cost of the observation deck and, in addition, dinner at the restaurant in the same place in the amount of 2080 baht for three. (Discounts for veterans of the Battle of Kulikovo are not provided, I asked). The view of Bangkok is, of course, grandiose! There is no beginning or end in sight! The observation deck is open during the day, but the restaurant opens at 6 pm. We were lucky. Before the opening of the restaurant, we looked and took a panorama in the daylight, had dinner, and since it gets dark at 18 in Thailand and quite sharply, we looked at all this splendor, only with night illumination. About dinner. Buffet, about 10 types of sushi, lobsters, lobsters, fish and meat in different servings, fruits and masterpiece desserts. Drinks for an extra charge. For 60 baht, full and satisfied, we took a taxi to the hotel. So the second day of our stay in Thailand came to an end. And in the morning we move to the province of Konchanaburi, which is about 250 km northwest of Bangkok, almost on the border with Burma. Putting aside only the essentials (a towel, a swimsuit, a change of underwear and a bottle of rum), we move into the heart of Thailand, into the jungle on the River Kwai. On the way we made several stops: on the outskirts of the province we visited a farmer's house. There, those who wished were given a tour of the production of coconut products. Yes, nothing fancy. Everything is very bad. But then we were in handicraft workshops for the production of teak furniture. It is of course YES! Whatever the bedside table is a masterpiece, whatever the table is a work of art. Made in 3D format, this furniture has a guarantee (! ) of 100 years. Teak wood is compared to iron because the density of the wood is so high that it sinks like metal in water. . In complete delight, opening our eyes, we looked at this man-made beauty for a long time. Before the brain had time to digest what we saw, we drove up to a truly exotic place - the floating market of Damneosaduak. In groups of 6-7 people, we were loaded into narrow long-nosed boats and with acceleration we wedged into dozens of the same boats, navigating through the web of water channels. The first impression was slightly shocking - green water in the canals and VERY dirty concrete fortifications exuded a persistent fetid smell of rotting grass and God knows what else. I thought that if the boat capsized without even swallowing a drop, I would immediately scab over and die from every conceivable skin disease. After a couple of minutes, vague thoughts were replaced by curiosity, and I turned on the video camera so that these marvelous pictures from another world would remain in my home video: here is a woman erasing something on her patch, and soap suds flow through the boards into the channel; but in a floating pie, a smiling Thai woman offers us colorful fruits. Kapunka-ah! We answered in a cat tone and moved on. . Here is a floating “inter-district base” with Thai souvenirs, and here is a showcase of Prada bags, Dior and a MONTANA watch for $ 3... Here are Thai people in traditional cocked hats cooking something right in the boats under a fragrant smoke, but on the shore, hanging flip flops the company eats rice with chopsticks, apparently with chicken. The waterway, 5-6 meters wide, is a shopping bazaar in an unusual form and understanding for us, but in fact it is. And behind the frail buildings located along the banks of the canals there is a wild jungle, where there are really a lot of wild monkeys. After wiping ourselves and those around us with prudently captured wet wipes, we changed the mode of transport. This is Kanchanaburi! Getting off the bus, I noted for myself that it is 10 degrees warmer here than in Bangkok. And I was not mistaken. The guide said about 40, which, in general, is usual for this area. The wide plaza, surrounded by low buildings, looked like Mexico from some movie. Again, an abundance of products made of precious stones. They have this goodness - yes heaps! But! The stomach called for a meal and to everyone's pleasure we headed to a restaurant on the water. Lunch was correct (in every sense). Further, according to the plan, there was rafting on the Kwai River, but the guide decided that it was still far from evening, so we were going to ride elephants! It took 40 minutes to get to the farm. The fact that we are on the way, it became clear from the broken paths and broken bushes. Dismounting, bypassing the "mines", we got to the stall, where we were waiting for the "departure" of 20-30 elephants, packed in a double "reserved seat". The ride cost 15 bucks or 700 baht per person. There are no indifferent! Climbing onto a high platform, we decorously, not without fear, took two places "according to the purchased tickets. " Each elephant had a guide who set the direction on the trail and, for a conditional 50 baht, got off the elephant with the words “photo! ” and took pictures on any of the latest photo, video or television devices. Elephant riding is interesting even for adults! First, the ascent along the path, then the descent, then the elephants go into the river and there it is not known whose ears he intends to dive. In general, fun! And elephants are so different, with a temper! And then we were offered a performance by a young elephant - girls. She passionately kissed everyone and did a soft massage with her wide feet on the buttocks of the lady, and... causal places on the men. The laughter was unreal! Tired of resting in Thai, we sat in boats and, under the rays of the sun leaving behind the green hills, moved along the Kwai River into the depths of the jungle. Rocky multi-colored shores with bewitching ledges and caves rushed past us. Thickets of bamboo, bananas and palms, entangled in vines, mysteriously hung from the cliffs. For about an hour we flew across the winding water surface to the floating hotel. Two dozen houses, interconnected by bridges, stood right on the river. The pontoon foundations connected them to the shore with cables. Opposite each house is a raft with sunbeds. Having received the keys and a kerosene lamp, they examined the room. Small, with two wide four-poster beds upstairs, the room has a combined shower and toilet, a washbasin and a mirror. The latter did not come in handy, as it quickly got dark, and in the light of a kerosene stove everything is already beautiful. We had dinner at a restaurant on the water. The choice of jars did not differ in variety, but it was enough to satisfy the hunger. Those who did not want to eat and drink could meditate. The sky is strewn with stars, the full moon is reflected in the murmuring folds of the river, the caps of the hills, covered with dense thickets, are enveloped in a light haze, the cries of wild birds are heard every now and then... Romance. And nearby - no electric light, no music, only smoking torches. It feels like everything is not happening. The candles I brought came in handy. We settled down on the raft in four. Then new and new characters began to join our cabal, and by three o'clock in the morning the evening ceased to be languorous and I initiated everyone to disperse into minks. We managed to listen to the silence and charm of that night only from our room, as we left the shutters and doors open for the night. The morning brought some freshness. Those wishing to see the village of the Burmese aborigines moved into the jungle immediately after breakfast. My husband and I did not exchange this precious pleasure for a chance acquaintance in the forest. Slowly we boarded the boats again and sailed back to the pier. . Elephants, monkeys and even a monitor lizard (originally taken for a crocodile) on the banks of the river still evoked genuine positive emotions in everyone. Today's route lay in the opposite direction to Bangkok and further southeast to Pattaya. Along the way, we again made a number of stops - bathed in radon springs, tasted local healing teas (where we stocked up with numerous gifts for loved ones), dined with national Thai cuisine and, finally, rafted in life jackets along the Kwai River. The principle is the following. We were loaded on a porch, and the boat dragged us up the river for about a kilometer and a half. Dressed in life jackets, we alternately jumped into the water, and the current of the river carried our lazy carcasses back to the landing site for a pore. The rafting took 20-30 minutes. The trick is that on this stretch of the river there are 3 natural waterfalls, and as you slowly swim past them, you get great pleasure. Not everyone dared to do body rafting for a number of reasons - the water, although flowing, is far from transparent, the current, and the fear of an unfamiliar reservoir and its inhabitants. We went into the river with the whole family, and none of us later regretted it. The road to Pattaya took about 4 hours from our last stop. At about 6 pm we entered the city and we were seated in minibuses of 8 people according to the principle of the neighboring location of hotels. And we are lucky again! The reserved Dragon Beach hotel (due to some kind of conference) could not provide us with an overnight stay and we were settled in the A-ONE hotel, which is in the center of Pattaya on the first coastline. We were wildly happy, because firstly, an excellent 4-star hotel, with a good room, with two pools filled with sea water, secondly, the sea and the beach are across the road, and thirdly, there are a lot of shops on the right and left. In the evening hours we indulged in shopping and long walks along the embankment, saving on taxis and time.