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Bangkok: Songkran festival of Khao San Road

By My journey, Photography
From left: Wei-Seong, Boon-Huat, Wee-Peng, and Meng-Hong at the Khao San Road's Songkran Festival of Bangkok

From left: Wei-Seong, Boon-Huat, Wee-Peng, and Meng-Hong at the Khao San Road's Songkran Festival of Bangkok

On our arrival in Thailand, we went to the biggest celebration of Songkran Festival in Khao San Road, Bangkok. I didn’t bring my camera with me because I was afraid it getting splashed with water. However an email of photos I received from Wee-Peng yesterday, then reminded me that I did take some photos of the Khao San Road’s celebration with his camera phone, which carefully wrapped with the shower cap we took from the hotel. More shots after the jump:

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Pattaya: elephant show of Nong Nooch Garden

By My journey, Photography
From left: Meng-Hong, Wei-Seong, Boon-Huat, and Wee-Peng at the European Garden of Nong Nooch Paradise

From left: Meng-Hong, Wei-Seong, Boon-Huat, and Wee-Peng at the European Garden of Nong Nooch Paradise

After staying a night in Pattaya, we departed back to Bangkok the next morning. On our way, the tour guide took us to the Nong Nooch Garden, which has a wide variety of gardens inspired from all over the world including traditional Asian tropical gardens, the Cactus Garden to French and Roman gardens. Besides, fascinating Thai culture and traditional dances, and other performances such as religious ceremonies, martial arts and the amazing elephant show – one of the most popular attractions of the garden, are presented daily in the theater within the garden compound.

Wee-Peng vs the mighty elephant

Wee-Peng vs the mighty elephant

After 20 minutes drive from Baron Beach of Pattaya, we arrived at the Nong Nooch Garden. That morning, the garden drew a massive crowd of tourists. We were late for the Thai cultural and traditional performances, however we did not miss the elephant show.

The well-trained elephants in the show were performing skills adopted from human sports like bike ride, soccer, basketball, and more. Towards the end of the show, audiences had the chance volunteering to be towered and massaged by the gentle elephants. They were really brilliant so we purchased bananas to reward and feed the elephants.

After the show, we were given the opportunity to touch and feel our favorite elephants. In addition, we could also pay to ride on elephants, perch between two elephants’ trunks, and take photos with elephants, which Boon-Huat and Wee-Peng did.

Time was so limited for us there because we had to go to a bees farm and a jewelry factory of Bangkok. After having our buffet lunch in the garden, we could only spend a little time in the European garden.

The whole garden was beautiful and the shows were amazing. According to the management, those gardens are constantly updating, with new ideas, new plants and new formations; therefore gives a reason to revisit Pattaya and Nong Nooch Garden again.

Below are some of the shots I took:

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Pattaya: the Alcazar Cabaret Show

By My journey, Photography
The dancers of the Alcazar Carabet Show in Pattaya

The dancers of the Alcazar Carabet Show in Pattaya

During our trip to Thailand, We went and stayed a night in Pattaya before we traveled back to Bangkok the next day. The one and the only night in Pattaya, we chose to spend the night with the popular show in Pattaya – Alcazar Carabet Show. It is a must see if you visit Pattaya. I’ll explain later after the jump.

The Alcazar Carabet Show was amazing and got us totally immersed in it. It successfully blends the art of acting, stage design, costumes and the sequence of the show so well to be impressed by every one of all ages. We were entertained with the music, lip-sings, dances and various shows played by many perfectly beautiful female.

The traditional (Vietnamese, Indian, Malay, etc.) and modern dances (e.g. Poker Face by Lady Gaga) performed on the stage, fused also into a unique show which brings eastern and western cultures together, thus brought to us a very colorful and entertaining show.

The Siamese traditional dance performed on the show in Pattaya

The Siamese traditional dance performed on the show in Pattaya

I heard that originally, the show was at a small theater of 350 seats with 40 employees on almost 20 years ago, founded and operated by the Phettrakul family who never gave up and continued to improve and upgrade its facilities until the show became world famous.

Today’s Alcazar Cabaret Show features a grand beautiful theater with a capacity of 1,200 seats & 440 employees, fully equipped with high tech surround sound system and modern computer technology. The Alcazar Cabaret Show is now well-know throughout most of the international.

These are some shots I took during the show:

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Pattaya: Thai New Year the Songkran Festival

By My journey, Photography

She enjoyed so much of the Songkran Festival in Pattaya

The second day in Thailand we departed to Pattaya, the other city of Thailand which transformed from a small fishing village in decades, into a city of popular beach resorts and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. The city is about 165 km southeast of Bangkok and it took us 3 hours drive from Bangkok to reach our destination.

On our way to our hotel, Baron Beach Hotel near the beach, we went pass a lively street with Songkran Festival celebration. The crowd was not as massive as in Khao San Road’s celebration, however people were as wild and as blissful.

The Songkran Festival is the most celebrated festival in Thailand. In April of every year, the Thais have just garnered their harvest of rice, and are expecting rains for the next season’s planting. The Songkran portrays the typical ways of life of the Thais which involve agriculture.

Sayings from old days tell us that mythical serpents would spout water from the sea and bring rain water to the land, and the water-splashing during the Songkran is believed to have been a rain-making ritual. It is also believed that water cleanses and washes away bad luck, thus a blessing to get splashed by others.

Along the streets of pubs and bistros in Pattaya, the tourists and locals armed themselves with water pistols and other vessels suitable for dousing and engage in some seriously wet warfare. They just could not stop splashing water on others including us. Laughter was all around the place. It was really fun.

I managed to take some shots of the celebration:

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Bangkok: Erawan Shrine through the Red Shirts

By My journey, Photography
Too young too furious - Bangkok dangerous

Too young too furious - Bangkok dangerous

The second day in Bangkok, we visited the Four Faced Buddha shrine a.k.a. Erawan Shrine nestled right in the heart of Bangkok city. However, Ratchaprasong intersection where opposite Erawan Shrine was flooded with the Red Shirts. The streets were closed and occupied with the Red Shirts and their vehicles, camps and stalls. The tour guide had to stop the car at somewhere far and walked us to the shrine. None of us was wearing in red or yellow to show that we did not support either side.

Erawan Shrine is hindu and was built in 1956, it features the Four Faced Buddha named Brahama. The shrine was built to eliminate the bad karma of the Erawan Hotel (In 1987 the old Erawan Hotel was torn down and the 5 star Grand Hyatt was built, the shrine remained however). The hotel laid the foundation on the wrong date and encountered a massive number of challenges and missteps during construction, including injuries to workers and boats with raw materials for the construction being lost at sea. Upon completion of the shrine, the missteps and bad luck ceased.

The guide didn’t want us to stay at the area for long to ensure our safety from the Red Shirts. In fact, she stood with the opposite side. According to the tour guide, her work was greatly affected as the Red Shirts’ protest battering the tourism industry in Bangkok. After paying homage to Brahama and made wishes, we left the shrine.

I still don’t understand the reason I didn’t snap any photo of the shrine. However, on our way in and out the shrine, I managed to take some shots of the Red Shirts:

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Bangkok: Arrival, Songkran Festival, Suan Lum night market

By My journey, Photography
The monk was departing to Bangkok with AirAsia

The monk was departing to Bangkok with AirAsia

Last week, Wee-Peng, Meng-Hong, Boon-Huat, Wei-Seong and I went to Bangkok, Thailand. We were worry about the red shirts but felt excited at the same time.

After two hours of flight we arrived in Bangkok and checked in our hotel, Baiyoke Boutique. On our way to the hotel, we saw people were cheering and splashing water on others. In addition, we saw some red shirts too but they were harmless to us.

Of course, the first thing we did was joining the crowd for Songkran festival (Thai New Year) at Khao San Road, where previously the violence between the red shirts and Thai army took place which killed tens just a week before we went.

We took a tuk-tuk (a popular Thai public transportation) to Khao San Road. I didn’t take my camera with as it might get splashed in the water-fight. There were groups of people stationed at the roadside waiting to splash water on pedestrians and cars which passed by.

The tuk-tuk’s young driver knew we wanted to have fun too. So he slowed down the vehicle wherever the people were stationed and got us splashed. Tuk-tuk cars are all doorless, thus we all got wet and it was really chilling when the tuk-tuk was moving fast. Some people even filled their pail or water gun with icy cold water and splashed on us. 

It surprised us when we arrived at Khao San Road. It was so crowded with local people and also tourists with water guns or bowls of powder and water mixture. The powder mixture used for smearing others is a sign of protection and promises to ward off evil. Many people with bowls of this mixture at Khao San Road applied it to various parts of the face, neck and torso of others. Most people there were either wet or smeared with the powder mixture, or both. So were we!

It was a waste that I could not snap any photos there; however I did on the Songkran Festival in Pattaya later.

That night, we went to Suan Lum bazaar, a night market to have dinner and shopping before we went back to rest. We were attracted to some beautiful lamps at the market which I called it puzzle lamp. They were puzzled up by PVC pieces into various beautiful shapes.

These are some photos I took:

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