Tuesday 22nd October 2013:
Bright, cloudless and hot this morning.
Looking to get away from Pattaya for a few days true holiday. Pattaya's OK for a week or three but it wears a bit thin after that; we've now been living here for near 28 days. It's a big resort city and no way would I like to live here permanently.
Tuesday 10:00: Took a trip down Sukhumvit Road 20kms south to Nong Nooch Tropical Gardens on the bike.
Tuesday 10.20: Bugger!! Here we go again… had my second altercation with the Thai Highway Police (first one being in Surin in 2012). About 3kms out of Pattaya we got pulled over by a roadside checkpoint. All motorbikes were being stopped and checked for various infringements. Anyway, I picked up my second fine for being a naughty boy and was done for 200 Baht for riding without a valid licence.
Fine paid and we were off again, but bugger me 5kms further down the highway was another check point… same thing again!! Only this time I waved my naughty-boy fine ticket at them and even Thai fuzz won’t do you twice on the same day for the same misdemeanour.
Arrived at the park without further ado, bought entry tickets to include a couple of shows. One thing is really annoying in Thailand and that’s that farangs have to pay more, sometimes double, than Thais. They wouldn’t get away with this level of discrimination in Europe… it annoys me!
Spent the rest of the day touring this vast Tropical Park and took in a couple of shows.
First show was a Thai Culture show. Various costumes, dances, songs and performances from different parts of Thailand. Very good indeed.
Second show was an Elephant Show. I’m not one for taking an interest in performing animals, preferring to leave them in the wild. But the Thais absolutely love their elephants and thus the animals are very well cared for. Elephants are wild in many parts of Thailand. They seem to enjoy the acts they put on. There’s some great shots and footage of Aom being casually lifted up by tan elephant’s trunk and held there.
The show itself was elephants doing various tricks; playing football, basket ball, throwing darts at balloons and painting pictures on T-shirts. (you can buy the shirts afterwards).
There’s some tigers there as well which seemed quite dozy; wouldn’t take a chance though.
All in all an superb park. The tropical gardens are immaculately kept and well worth a visit.
NONG NOOCH:
Nong Nooch is world renowned for its impressive Elephant and Thai Cultural Shows, along with what is largely considered the biggest and most beautiful botanical garden in Southeast Asia.
The garden is constantly developing and evolving. Nong Nooch garden is also dedicated to education, preservation and research as well as the conservation of the worlds LARGEST palm collection, the largest variety of Orchids in Thailand and other tropical flora and fauna.
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ROWS 1 AND 2: Various general photos of Nong Nooch park.
THIRD ROW: Various poses at said park.
BOTTOM ROW RIGHT: Jumping for joy!!
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Here's a short movie below of Aom with her new pachyderm mates:-
TOP: More poses at Nong Nooch.
CENTRE LEFT: Thai dancing show at Nong Nooch. Very touristy, but very very good. Much better seen in the movie above.
CENTRE RIGHT: Thai Boxing show at the Park. Like the Thai dancing it's better seen in the movie.
BOTTOM: Aom's new found Pachyderm friends giving her a hug and a cuddle.
Below is a 10 minute movie of Nong Nooch. Included in the movie is a sample of Thai dancing from various parts of Thailand (north, south, east and west).
There's also some (staged) Thai Boxing and to finish off: Aom being picked up and cuddled by Thai Asian elephants (a repeat of the 1st movie).
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