Ohhh, our first day without the group – entirely without the group! There is an optional tour to some island for the beach and snorkeling, but that ain’t our thing, so we are, as usual, doing our own thing! It seems strange not to have a farewell dinner or a last hurrah with everyone, but so be it. There were some nice people on the tour, and then there were those not so, well, nice. We aren’t really disappointed we won’t be seeing them again.

So on to our full day in Pattaya. Of course Pattaya is a beach resort, with all things centered around beach and water activities. Oh yeah, and bars and alcohol. The one redeeming factor here is the Sanctuary of Truth, where we have been before, but we figured we’d go again, just because it is an amazing feat of artistry in wood. It is a long walk, almost an hour, through the already hot streets – but it is our morning exercise, so we don’t necessarily mind. Although once off the main avenue, the little lanes are a bit concerning – not the least of which because they are really narrow and some are just dirt paths really. But Google maps do actually prevail this time and we make it to the Sanctuary unscathed – and with plenty of time for the 10:30 English tour.

I’m sure we’ve gone over the history of the Sanctuary before, so here are the cliff notes: the Sanctuary is an unfinished museum, built by a rich businessman who was a patron of culture and wanted to preserve Thai history and belief systems. This museum, a cross between a castle and a temple, revolves around the Truth Journey – who are we? Where are we from? How do we survive? and what is our life purpose?

The building is made completely of wood, with no nails, only wooden dowels holding everything together. As we begin our tour, we walk through the workshop where sculptures are busy at work carving items that will be placed into the castle.

Approaching the actual building, you can pick out the five peaks of the castle which represent the five missions of human: do good deeds, inherit the best from science; build eternal peace; good behavior and making a good result; and the fusion of the 4 previous virtues. The detail is incredible – and just as amazing to us as the first time we were here. Around the back, above the entrance we will use are the most incredible Elephants and aquatic creatures meant to represent swimming against the tide.

Of course it doesn’t stop on the outside. As we are led through the different Truth “halls,” we get an education on the 7 pillars of Truth. First is the four basic elements: earth, wind, fire and water. All depicted by different carvings.

Moving through the different halls just exposes more and more amazing carvings and thought processes. I’m not going to go through all the 7 Truths here – but will just let you revel in the amazing artistry as we did.

We are particularly taken with the carving of the late King Rama IX, the revered and favorite King of all Thailand. We adored him, almost as much as the Thais did – because they always spoke so well of him and loved to tell of his kindness and goodness for the country. so, having his likeness here means a great deal to anyone who knows the background.

Interior tour finished, we wander around on the grounds for a bit, taking some final snapshots, marveling at the majesty of it all….

…then make our way back out of the complex into the streets in search of food. It’s lunchtime! Taking a more circular route back to the hotel, we veer closer to the beach, passing lots of highrise condo and apartment buildings and walking through some interesting little dirt lanes. (Here we go again Google!) Fortunately others are also on these same paths, so we aren’t too concerned and eventually we do make it back out into paved civilization, finding our chosen lunch spot, And Burger. What the heck? We’ll do a burger – might as well.

We arrived right as they opened, ordered our Junior burger (for me of course!) and an Aussie Egg Bacon burger for Ed and grabbed a table out on the patio area in front of the place. They didn’t have any alcohol, but there was a convenience store right next door, so Ed went off in search of beer and I happily guarded our table and my water. Beer purchase complete, burgers on the table, we dug into an excellent lunch. Just as good as at home – and at far less than half the cost!

The walk back to the hotel was easy enough, if not long and hot, but we had nothing else to do – and an entire afternoon to just laze about, organizing the packing and getting ready for Australia and our reunion with Rosanna and Peter, our forever AAC friends.

Later, at dinner time, we ventured out perusing the street food offerings. The Central Marina food park was like an upscale night market! Actually, it was all about the same, just the setting seemed more upscale – in front of a mall/market on nicely paved cobblestone plazas. The food offerings were the same, if not a little more expensive, and the table set up exactly the same. We decided to go ahead and get at least a crippy fish here – because they looked so fabulous. And they were – the guy grilling them was adorable and the fish was one of the best we’d had. That along with beers from the beer stall and the twinkling lights, and we were happy with our first course.

Instead of filling up here, we made our way down the street to the other food market, the Runway market. Don’t ask what’s up with all this airplane obsession. We’re clueless. But here again, there is a massive airplane parked in the back of the food market lot. Just bizarre!

Unfortunately, nothing here rang our bell, so we headed back to the Marina court, where we found a great table near the band and feasted on some yummy spring rolls and even yummier seafood Pad Thai that was huge and chock full of seafood.

After listening to the band (who were really good) for a bit, we made our way back to the hotel to hang out on our balcony for our last evening in Thailand. We can’t believe its gone by so fast, but we’re so excited to be going to Adelaide tomorrow and meeting up with our friends, then finally onto our postponed (thank you pandemic!) cruise!