Accommodations in Pattaya range from an expensive room in a 5-star hotel with topmost service down to a small rented room costing only a few hundred Baht. You may search for information on accommodation in Pattaya from the usual hotel reservation websites such as Agoda or Hostelworld or else just walk in to any accommodation which pleases your eyes.
As for my own trip, I went to Pattaya during the Fireworks Festival so most accommodations had been fully reserved well in advance, not that there was no accommodation to be found, but as I was traveling alone and was not thinking of a good accommodation with usage of various facilities in a hotel therefore I focused on the low budget hotel or hostel or backpackers. (For some people, it may not be convenient to stay in backpackers because accommodation is a Dorm room with shared facilities and bathrooms; however, I am used to this kind of accommodation ever since my time of traveling around in Australia so it does not cause any problem for me. ^^) So, I searched for this information for a while, taking care to look only for places which were free during the desired time and finally was able to narrow it down to 2 places. One of these was an apartment with daily rent, the other a backpackers place called Asia-Backpackers. Both accommodations are very reasonably priced, with the first one costing only 500 Baht per night and the second one only 330 Baht per night as it was a Backpackers. (Naturally, no breakfast would be provided.) Actually, my first choice was the daily rent apartment as I would be getting my own room plus it would be easier to reach, but after some consideration, I finally settled on Asia-Backpackers for my two-day accommodation in Pattaya.
Asia Backpackers is situated in Soi Bua Khao (Soi means small street in Thai), which is another zone of Pattaya’s nightlife apart from Pattaya Walking Street, so there are always a lot of people walking along the Soi. An added attraction is that the Songtaew (a two-row seat minibus) passes through this Soi (cutting across from Pattaya Klang Road to Pattaya Tai Road, and the fare is only 10 Baht for the entire trip), making this accommodation very convenient to reach. Asia-Backpackers is located opposite Pattaya City Public Health Service Center 1 and accommodation includes both Mixed Dorm and Female Dorm (I, of course, chose the Female Dorm ^^). The owner is a foreigner and the assistant is Thai, and both of them impressed me with their friendliness as soon as I set foot on the premises :). After I had registered, the assistant took me up to the Female Dorm and briefly explained the setup before leaving me to explore my new accommodation for the night.
During my exploration, I found that the Female Dorm comprises 18 beds, each bed with its own locker, an over-the-bed lamp and a plug for charging battery. This accommodation here is very clean; clean pillows and blankets individually wrapped in plastic bags are put on top of the beds which are not yet occupied (thus increasing my liking for the place). Internet can be accessed via the Backpackers’ WiFI, or in case we want to use the computer, this is available on the ground floor. In fact the only complaint I had while staying there was that the bathroom and the water closets on the 2nd floor where I was staying were undergoing renovation and I had to go up to the 3rd floor when I wanted to take a bath. Anyway, every time I returned from taking photos of the fireworks late at night and before I went out early in the morning, everyone else would still be asleep and the bathroom would be empty and all mine, so the bathroom issue was no problem for me at all. Another thing which some people might not like but which I did not consider a shortcoming was the fact that the bar was nearly empty of people. (As I said, this was not a shortcoming for me, but it just was not like other backpackers places which I had stayed in before where the bars were well patronized.) Anyway, I think the reason for this is that Asia-Backpackers is located in the midst of pubs and bars so the guests here may prefer to go out and enjoy the nightlife outside.
After recharging my cell phone battery and putting my things away, I was ready to go out and conquer the wide photo-taking world outside. I will leave you to do your own exploring of Pattaya City while I return to you in my next blog with a story of my short trip to Koh Larn on the last day of my stay before coming back to Bangkok which ends my memoirs of my Pattaya trip.
I should like to end this blog with these photos which I took at Koh Larn.. to make you wonder about the clear water, the white sand and the deep blue sky which are less than one hour away from Pattaya. If you want to know how to get to Koh Larn, please read about it in my next blog.
Train ticket ready – breakfast in my hand – picture-taking complete – spirit and mind all set, and I was ready for my adventure…
Back again inside Hua Lamphong Railway Station, I made my way to the entrance of the platform at the farthest end of the hall next to the ticketing area. On the way, I passed rows of seat, food shops, convenience stores, coffee shops, a Muslim Prayer Room, some government agency booths to render services, as well as an information center where you can make travel enquiries. After a glance around, I went to the platform and looked for my train.
Train No. 283 going to Pattaya stood at Platform 6. I got on and settled down on a suitable seat and waited for it to move out. (This train does not have any seat number on the ticket, and passengers are free to sit wherever they wish. However, trains running long distance will have the seat number printed on the ticket.)
Shortly after 7 o’clock, the train started out from Hua Lamphong Railway Station. From what I could gather, this train regularly runs from the center of the city and passes various communities, inner-city areas, high-rise office buildings and universities. Therefore, in the morning passengers who are office workers, students and travelers like me crowd around to use it. Moreover, as the train runs through Bangkok on a workday morning when there are traffic jams, it must sometimes stop for a long while so that the cars which are stopping across the railway tracks can move on. After leaving the city, however, it travels with good and steady speed.
After enjoying the sceneries out the train window for some time, the large number of passengers on the train started getting off at their destinations. Towards 11 o’clock when the train was due to arrive at Pattaya Station, I started to worry in case the train had passed my station without my knowing it (although I was fairly confident that it had not passed Pattaya because I was keeping my eyes on the names of the stations along the way and had not been asleep). Anyway, it was my own fault for forgetting to bring along the train timetable which I already printed out but left at home. Luckily, I was able to access the internet via my mobile phone so I started to contact people I knew in case help was needed. But finally while I was engrossed in the mission of discovering my whereabouts a lot of passengers remaining on the train started to walk around, and as the ticket collector came over I discovered that the train was just about to stop at Pattaya Station. ^^
*For those of you who do not read Thai, I recommend that when the ticket collector goes pass the first time, you tell him that you would be getting down at Pattaya and ask for his help, so that he can come and remind you when the train reaches the station.
For your information, Pattaya has two train stations: Pattaya Station and Pattaya Tai Station. I would suggest that you get down at Pattaya Station there is a two-row seat minibus, locally called Songtaew, waiting for passengers right at the train station and you can tell the driver where you want to go so he can drop you there. You then will be told of the cost according to the distance to be traveled. The fare is usually 30 Baht to Pattaya Klang (Central Pattaya), and 40 Baht to Pattaya Tai (South Pattaya) around the walking street. And in case you want to use the service of the Songtaew but want to take some photos of the Railway Station first, you should first ask the Songtaew driver to wait while you take some photographs. This has to be done because, as there is only one train to Pattaya, only one Songtaew will be waiting to take passengers into Pattaya city or further away, and if you should miss it, you may have to walk out to the main road to find transportation yourself. Anyway, don’t be too long with the photo taking, thinking that the Songtaew would wait for you, because other passengers on the Songtaew are also waiting for you to finish taking the photos. :)
So, finally, with the help of a fellow traveler on the Songtaew, I got to my accommodation safety and must wholeheartedly say that people in Pattaya are very friendly to visitors. An example is when I got down from the train and saw a traveler who, I think, had gathered only some rough information about Pattaya and was looking for some place to stay the night. A passenger on the Songtaew sitting next to me very cordially gave him advice, and although the lady did not communicate in very skillful English I could see that she was happy to answer questions which the tourist put to her. (A word of caution, however. You should always be on alert and do not believe all the advices you get because even though sometimes you will get good services you may be paying more than the ongoing rates. So, better be prepared and get advance information about the places and the rates before you decide to go anywhere.)
Hello everyone!!! Finally…last week I got to the Pattaya International Fireworks Festival 2013 to take photos of the fireworks as I promised, and also took the ferry across to Koh Larn whose beauty can easily match that of other popular seaside in the South of Thailand. It was a really enjoyable trip and I took a lot of pictures of sceneries and fireworks, got into adventures, got lost (hahaha :p). If you want to see my meandering, you may take a look at my Instagram (@Cyberlambkin). However, if you are not skilled in the use of Instagram, that’s still okay as I will be putting the pictures in this blog also. ^^
I began my trip to Pattaya early Friday morning via Hua Lamphong Railway Station…
Hua Lamphong Railway Station, officially called Bangkok Station, is situated in the middle of Bangkok and therefore quite convenient to reach. But if I were to choose, I think the most practical public transport to get to Hua Lamphong Railway Station is the underground train (MRT), though as my house is not on the route of the MRT, I chose to go to Hua Lamphong Railway Station by taking a bus which would go straight over there.
In actual fact, however, after jumping up on a bus and traveling for a while, I calculated the travel time and felt that on that early weekday morning with a limited travel time, I would surely miss the departure of the train (as I said in my earlier blog, the train departed only 1 time per day and if you missed it, you had either to find transportation to intercept it at one of the next stations or you had to think of other modes of transportation). Indeed, my alternate plan was that if I missed this train I would take the MRT to Asoke Station, then the BTS Skytrain to the Ekamai Bus Terminal and get on a bus from there to go to Pattaya instead. As it happened, when my computation showed that I would definitely be late, my inner longing to travel by train surfaced and I hurriedly jumped down from the bus and got on a taxi, and just by paying a bit more for the expressway fee, I was dropped right in front of the Hua Lamphong Railway Station within 15 minutes. (A bus ride from my house in the morning even with no traffic would take up to 45 minutes.) Now, I was there and still had nearly half an hour to look for supplies to take on the train as my breakfast ;) but before looking for provisions, I’d better go and get the train ticket.
I had not used the service at Hua Lamphong Railway Station for quite a while, so I was a bit confused, not that there was any change in the floor plan, but it was purely me as I could no longer remember the layout ^^” When I went further in, however, I discovered that it was not difficult at all to find the ticket counter as it is situated right at the end of the large hall. At that time, nobody was queuing up to buy tickets, but perhaps this was due to the early hour. After checking with the train personnel to see whether the information I had collected was correct, I walked away with a ticket and a determination to get myself some breakfast^^.
*The train from Bangkok to Pattaya is the No. 283 Eastern Line, running from Bangkok Station (BKK) to Ban Phlu Ta Luang Station (BTG). It is a third-class carriage with fan ventilation. Thai people may use the service free of charge; foreigners have to pay 31 baht to get to Pattaya. You may check the Timetable here.
After walking to and fro and taking pictures of the views in front of the Hua Lamphong Railway Station, I managed to get some barbecued pork, sticky rice, water, and some candies from a nearby convenience store for my breakfast. And now…I am ready to set out on my adventure ^^ How the trip along the way turned out, I will relate to you in my next blog.
