We decided to take a very short trip to Pattaya to experience being in the place and look into another part of Thailand. From the sources, Pattaya is a popular beach resort on the Gulf of Thailand and 150 km south of Bangkok. It has been popular for its well known pulsating night life but is now being reinvented to become a more family friendly destination.
We flew from Phuket to Bangkok thru Bangkok Airways and landed in Suvarnabhumi Airport. We then located gate number 8 to buy for our tickets to Pattaya. The buses run every hour from here and costs 130THB. We tried to catch the 12 noon bus but was unsuccessful so we waited for the 1pm bus. While waiting, I sought to find an outlet so I can charge my phone and play COC. :)
Travel to Pattaya is usually 1 hour and a half but because of traffic, the bus company provided us expectation that it will take 2 hours. I slept for almost half the trip and woke up in Pattaya City at around 3pm. We then caught a tuktuk to our hotel and paid a total of 150THB to reach Basaya Beach Resort and Hotel.
After settling down and freshening up, we went out and explored what we can in the city. Our hotel was only a short walk to the beach. We marveled at the sight of the city from our spot near the shoreline. It felt as if we were in another country.
We were starved because we haven't had lunch yet. Thankfully, we were near their Central Festival Mall. It was strategically located as it was near the beach and there were escalators outside which offered tourists the view while going up per floor. This was the view from the 3rd floor.
After lunch, we negotiated for a taxi to take us to Buddha Mountain and Silverlake Vineyard. They said it was quite far and since the driver would wait for us, we agreed to pay 1000THB.
The drive to Silverlake Vineyard/ Winery was about 25 minutes. It was quite far from Central Pattaya but when we reached the place, there were a lot of cars and people. It was a Sunday, so the crowd was expected.
On the way to the main entrance there were already a lot of picturesque views. We spent a few minutes to take some photos.
Upon entering the place, we were greeted with a thick crowd. They were either talking or eating food from the cute little Italian inspired shops. We wanted to walk further to the fields and explore more of what is offered by the place. We found this signage for the Vineyard tour.
It was already 5pm and the place would close by 6pm. We didn't have interest in wine tasting so we chose package B. After paying 100THB at the counter and getting a token, we were asked to board one of the trams on the right side to wait for other tourists wanting the same package tour.
The wait was not that long as tourists started to fill in the empty seats. The first place we were brought to was the grape juice plant. From the glass windows, we saw the machines they used to extract the grape juice and how they processed and bottled these for the consumers. We exchanged our tokens to have one grape juice bottle.
On the way to the vineyard, we stopped by this lovely view.
The tram then traveled a few meters away and brought us to where we can visit a part of the vineyard in greenhouses. This area is where Buddha Mountain can already be seen.
The houses farther ahead from me is where guests can stay overnight if they'd like. We didn't go to take a closer look of the accommodation as we were excited to see what's inside the greenhouses.
Wow! Grapes and lots of them. This is the first time I saw them hanging in their vines up close and personal :)
The driver then drove us back towards the ticketing counter. We alighted a few meters before the drop off point so we can stop and take in the view for the last time.
We didn't ask for our taxi driver to drop us at the Buddha Mountain which was next door because we already saw the view. Instead, we asked him to drop us off at Pattaya Walking Street. This will be next up on my blog. Thank you for your time :)
