My experience in Pattaya as a solo traveler

 I just finished my week long solo trip to Thailand. While I didn't do anything super crazy, this trip helped me to spend time with myself. I also get to choose what I want to do instead of me compromising for someone else or vise versa. I get to do many things that I wouldn't have done or spend time on that otherwise. 

I have reached Pattaya around 10:30AM. I am tired and exhausted by that time. So, I preferred to rest for a while before going for my first activity that evening. Which is Alcazar Cabaret Show. This show is great from the beginning, but keeps rising the bar through out. Overall, it is delight to watch it for around 70minutes non-stop. [link]

The foremost and the one I liked the most is spending time with elephants at "Elephant Jungle Sanctuary Pattaya". I get to spend time with the wonderful hosts and learn about this majestic animal. The activities we participated are-

• Feeding the elephants and spending time with them. (ofcourse photos).
• Making protein balls for elephants.
• Giving mud bath to the elephant.
• Washing the elephant.
• Decent lunch.
• Finally, making paper from elephant poop. (Really that is true)

Being someone who likes elephants, this 4 hours is the highlight of my whole trip. [link]

This is the paper made from elephant poop.

The other animal I get to have photos is with Tiger. Personally, I didn't feel excited to be with the tiger as they seem to be in their own world and seldom responding. There are complains that these animals are drugged so we can have nice photos with them. While, I did get good photos with the tiger. This activity is no way near the happiness I got while being with the elephants. Here are few picture. I promise that everyone who goes there get to have similar pictures. One suggestion is, pay a bit more and hire a photographer, they knows the good poses to take photos. Between, Jungle safari they offer is a joke. It is not even a Bhat worth it. [link]

After activities involving animals, the most sought activity in Pattaya is... 

If you are a regular single male from India, you probably guessed something Adult in nature. But, that is not what I am referring to. The other most sought out activity in Pattaya I did is, water sports. Personally, I feel the water activities in Andaman are better (I did in Andaman few years back). I didn't do scuba diving in Pattaya as there are complaints about the quality of water there. Of all the activities I did, parasailing is the best. I might have liked parasailing more as I did that for first time. One thing, I have to give credit to Thai people is they are very good at taking good photos while managing so many people. They use good cameras and drones to capture great photos. They managed to capture good pictures of mine as well. Some of them are below-

There are couple more tourist places in Pattaya, I did like. They are 

• Sanctuary of Truth
• Mini Siam

The construction of Sanctuary of Truth is really wonderful. The way they moulding the wood to depict stories from different cultures(especially Indian) is awesome. This needs 2-3 hours of dedicated time. Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend enough time there as this is the last activity in the day trip I went with and I am really tired and hungry by that time. [link]

Mini Siam is some place that is last in my list. I went there as I got sometime to kill. But, after going there I felt glad I went there. This gave a glimpse of Thai culture and history. I get to know how close Ramayana is for Thai people. There is a Ramayana museum in Mini Siam that is a must go. Apart from the museum, there are several depictions from Hindu stories. I am personally surprised how close Thai culture is with Hindus, yet we don't know much. I personally enjoyed my time in this place. I also want to caution that, if exploring history and culture is not your thing. Then, you might want to avoid this place. Apart from cultural, this place also has miniature versions of many world architectures. [link]

The last interesting tourist spot I want is the Ancient City in Bangkok. This place is massive, you can't go by walk. You should either go by cycle or get a go cart or wait for tram. I went on a go cart as there is 1 hour wait time for tram. I later regretted that, I should have waited for tram instead. Driving the cart, checking the map and choosing which locations to go to is not easy to do simultaneously for a single person (atleast for me). I drove to few great architectures and finally returned in 2 hours. I am sure, I have missed many other great places there. [link]

Apart from all these regular visits, I experienced Japanese Onsen which is part of Japanese culture. If someone want to know what Onsen(Hot Spring) is, just google it. [link] [my experience]

While the above activities are what I liked, there are few things I didn't like and I wish I did something else instead-

• Pattaya Floating Market. I really don't know why it is called floating market. There is a market around a pond, you don't transact while in boats. They advertised wrongly.
• Big Buddha Temple. While the Buddha statue is great and the place is peaceful, there is really nothing else there. Avoid if you can do better things.
• Buddha Mountain. You can avoid this if you have better things to do.
• Pattaya Gem Store. I really don't know why our tour operator took us there. That is just for their marketing.

How did I travel to different places while in Pattaya?

The best way to travel in Pattaya for a solo traveler is Motorbike. You can rent it if you are sure to drive in Pattaya streets(The traffic and driving gets almost as crazy as in India). I have used "Bolt Motorbike" to travel wherever I want. The driver is generally within 1 minute away and traveling using Motorbike is much quicker then traveling by car.

Thai people

Whatever you read in internet, that is mostly wrong about Thai people. I have interacted with many people during my stay. From our hotel receptionists, to bolt drivers, tour operators and few others. They are all very pleasant and good to interact with. One of the main problems we face while traveling in India is haggling. I expected that to happen to me while in Thailand based on what I read on internet. But, I never faced such a thing. Instead, the people are helpful to me everywhere. Only thing I have to do is ask for help.

Thanks a lot for reading.

Kob kun mak