Editor

ANNE-MARY NECHITA

anne@7travel-magazine.eu

Text & Photo:  DANA CEUSESCU

Pattaya resort suffers from the multiple personality syndrome: on the one hand it is a very modern town, built on vertical, renowned for excellent hotels (more than reasonable prices), shopping, entertainment and nightlife; on the other one is an exotic paradise, with paradisiacal landscapes, fishing villages forgotten by time and almost virgin lands. A few people know that the city, found in an exponential growth, tries to impose itself as an important cultural centre. First, there are here several Buddhist shrines, true monuments of  art: the central temple, the temple of truth and  Buddha’s Hill. 

One of the biggest temples in Thailand lays outside Pattaya resort, on Sukunvit Road, a road cutting the city.  Wat Yansanwararam was inaugurated in 1988 to celebrate the 42nd year of the reign of the current king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, translated "Earth power, incomparable power", better known by Westerners under the name of Rama IX, an immutable national symbol, with nuances harder to understand for Westerners. 

Near the temple is Viharnra Sien museum, founded by Sa-nga Kulkobkiat, Master in Feng Shui, who was born in Thailand and lived in China. The institution is conceived as a tribute to the friendship between the two countries. Thousands of Thai and Chinese art, statues, china, jewellery, furniture, tapestries, paintings  and unique pieces - soldiers by Terra cotta from the Tomb of King Chan (world premiere, is the first time when China has left permanently to a foreign  museum exhibits of such a height value) are exhibited here. The museum is divided on themed collections illustrating the Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism.

Two kilometres from Nong Nooch begins Viharnra Sien, the botanical garden, actually a huge park spread of an area of six hundred acres. It takes at least a day to visit the entire area. The most prestigious Asians landscape architects worked here. The pride of the park is the French style garden, considered by Thais rival of Versailles. And they are right. But the silver palm forest, a rare and precious species, the exhibition of orchids, the greenhouse with butterflies, and the garden with cacti worth to be admired, too. Near the garden. The „long-neck” women were installed. They used to live on the border between Thailand and Myanmar, but since last year many families have migrated to the hills bordering Pattaya. On a hill edging  Noong Nooch Park a Buddha was "carved" into stone by laser, and it measures 109 meters. The huge work Khao Chee-Chan, made in Sukhothai style, marked the jubilee of the present time royal family.