the most direct route from pattaya to bangkok is simple you get in your car
and you drive for two hours on the toll road and it's done easy peasy
lemon squeezy but today we're going to be taking the scenic route
but there's so much to see along the way that i think so many people miss out
so today we're going from pattaya to bangkok
taking the scenic route here's a few examples of what we're gonna see today
so sit down and enjoy this ride from pattaya to bangkok
starting with one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen which is right behind me
which is this beautiful image of the buddha that's been laser printed onto the side of this mountain
so laser printed might be the wrong terminology but they used laser technology that's what i read
online to create this image and the late king uh ramen nine bummy ball he named this uh this statue
on on the side of the cliff i don't know if you can call it a statue more of an image because it's
not really coming out of the rock it's just on the rock but it's absolutely gorgeous and this area
which is just about 20 minutes away from downtown pattaya it's glorious there's lots
of little mountains here and it's there's a big golf course and a lot of thai people come down
here especially now early early in the morning nine o'clock and come to worship and come to take
beautiful photographs at this amazing image and it's so scenic and beautiful except there
are like 10 people mowing the grass making an absolute racket so i apologize for shouting at you
so it's very scenic but there's not much peace and quiet for me right now it's an absolute racket so
let me just play some music and i'll give you some information because i can't even hear myself think
yes apologies for the noise from the gardeners they can't help it they have to do their work but
there you are this is travel video making you have absolutely no control over the sound where you are
filming as usual so this is the buddha mountain or as the thai people call it kao chi chan
and it's a fascinating story guys it was created in 1996 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the
coronation of the late king rama 9 bummy bowl and they used a very cutting edge technology
at the time they used a laser to inscribe and outline this image of the buddha itself the guided
laser technology that was used was the first of its kind and it was the first ever to
carve an image of lord buddha himself on the side of a huge mountain it stands at over 100
meters tall and even today it's still considered the largest line-edged buddha image in the world
and so it's a very important and permanent religious representation for thai people here
and 20 minutes outside of pattaya it's worth seeing guys it's an absolute
marvel of engineering and beauty but after 20 minutes or so once you've admired it once you've
taken in the scale of the place there isn't much else around so let's just jump straight
on dreamy and hit the open rural roads which are my favorite roads here in thailand to drive
so
on the north side of pattaya is a small city that a lot of people miss on the
way to bangkok and it's called sriracha here you can see it's quite big actually
and it's right on this beautiful beach and it's really popular with the japanese apparently
this is where the japanese love to come to holiday when they come to thailand and there's an island
uh not too far away from here where again lots of japanese tourists go and isn't this
beautiful this temple up here with that beautiful white statue of the buddha and then there's all
these blue nagas and um blue and green sort of aqua theme you've got fish here and fountains
it's very beautiful and look there's a glass sphere here which is reflecting the city skyline
and uh let's let's go a little bit closer and get a closer look at this this is quite nice you can
also get blessings here from the monk and you buy a little lotus flower depending on the day of the
week that you were born there's two for wednesday one for wednesday and once for wednesday night
and then you can put some money on it and it will float around and give you good luck
but let's have a little look this refraction here can you see it if
i put you away you can see it better right it's the city skyline and the ocean
flipped reverse i'm not actually quite sure of the significance of that but there you go it's still
quite pretty so sriracha you're beautiful you're interesting but i don't have time to visit today
but i'll come back soon the reason why i'm on a rush by the way to bangkok today is i
was in pattaya for six nights unfortunately i was a little bit sick i have a sore throat
um just had a bit of a man flu whilst i was there so i didn't really get to explore that
much and uh tomorrow is my birthday and i want to be with my girlfriend and my friends in bangkok so
gotta get moving unfortunately but that's what happens when you get sick on the road you just
gotta get on with it and keep going beautiful spot right the next place i'll take you to is another
scenic spot somewhere along the way i'm sure we'll find some more on these country roads these rural
coastal roads plenty of surprises to come plus we'll be going to our 76th province very shortly
so this is province 76 cha chen sao i try i try my best this is an incredible place so this is
a temple and uh it's got a proper name but its nickname is the bat temple because quite
you know in keeping with the name a big i don't know if you call them a colony i don't i know if
you call them a troop or what do you call a group of bats but a massive family of bats live here
and i wasn't prepared for how many i mean every single tree in this temple has one or two dozen
maybe even more than that giant fruit bats they're also known as flying foxes because they're not
like those little bats that you get you know these are huge and they're flying around but in general
they're all just resting in the hottest part of the day and they seem to be fanning themselves
i don't know if that's an automatic response that they can do when they're asleep because otherwise
it mustn't be getting much rest so i would hope that they can just do that whilst they're actually
sleeping they're all just looking at me like what are you doing here who are you let us have a sleep
wow very cool very very very very cool oh okay guys enjoy your rest um like there's
lots of beautiful um buildings here as well like especially this really old one um but uh
i don't really i'm it's so hot and i just came to see the bats and i've been here for a good
half an hour just staring at the way they all flap around and fight about where to sleep and some of
them are just peacefully asleep and the other ones won't stop fighting about where to sleep
must be a stressful life just trying to get a nap and we're going to continue our
journey in our 76th province we're going to be heading to um the coast on the way to bangkok
this is the route 84 bridge it's just a more scenic route to get to bangkok guys
you just follow the coast here is it an original vw maybe let's have a look
it might be you can see the vw wheels it probably is right one of the reasons why i didn't go to
this province for so long because i was too scared to try to pronounce it but it's lovely
you just drive along down this highway you've got ocean on your left ocean on your right it's
like a bridge highway much better than going on the toll road get to see the way fishing life
hopefully by the time we get to bangkok i'm shaking off this man flew
okay so we're here at the last stop on our scenic journey from pattaya to bangkok we're
in the province of number 76 i still refuse to try to pronounce it anymore
oh someone starts sawing metal what a classic i've literally been here for an hour
having lunch resting having a nice cold glass of water or two because it's 36 degrees
and nobody was doing any soaring but obviously when you turn the camera on there you go
um i was going to take you to this beautiful temple here but um i did some reading at lunch
and it's famous because there's a lot of buddhist funerals taking place here and then a bunch of
cars came and a hearse came and so someone's being buried or cremated as we speak so i don't think
it's the right time to go over with my camera so i just flew the drone a little bit to show
you the beautiful building and then i think maybe the remains go straight into the sea
um so it's a very famous um temple for funerals um because it's right here on the water's edge
and another thing that i was doing at lunch was just sat here this restaurant that just overlooks
this sort of like estuary marshy muddy area but there's quite a lot of big mud skipper fish and
they're just doing their business and i've just been staring at them they're all flapping around
chasing each other really cool little species of fish i think they're the only species of fish
that can breathe on land and walk around i've booked a hotel at lunch as well
i'll show you where i check in it's going to be in prom pong district or just off the bts near
a sock it's my favorite area um well i'll show you why and the room looks quite nice
so i'm hoping it's going to be good because i booked four nights there for tonight and
the next three including tomorrow which is my birthday i'm gonna be 36 tomorrow jesus
it's been about i think seven weeks since i left bangkok
in fact one of the last videos i made here was right here on the left
at mark wiens's head mark remember that when me and gary did some food video there
and then two more stations on the bts at prom pong turn left and my hotel's called like
the he hat or something i'm not quite sure how to pronounce it big day big day on the bike
here's the room sofa bed nice big double bed mini fridge telly what's the view saying
non-existent never mind oh that was a long day guys i'm not gonna lie the scenic route it's
beautiful but it takes eight hours on dreamy everything takes a long long time anyway
i'm gonna take a couple of days off i'm gonna enjoy my birthday and um
right now i need a shower and i need to sleep gotta have a date with this