When most people mentioned Thailand, beside Bangkok, Pattaya usually take central stage in the conversation and rightly so due to its weather and location right by the Gulf of Thailand. The beachfront is literally littered with bars and restaurants. There are also condos, motels, and all kinds of acommodation catering to the tourists and transient visitors. Like any beachfront resort around the whole, driving through the street that separate the sandy beach from the shops, loud music blaring from this places filled with non local abound.
By the time we drove into Pattaya, the sun was about to retire and the afternoon rain had just passed a while ago and my jet-ski adventure just vanished. We drove through the beachside main thorough fare, passing by those bars and restaurant but also the many massage places and headed up hill. Bung told us we are headed for dinner but as we headed uphill, we went through what i thought was a residential district with a little upper scale properties. We came to a stop along a busy and narrow street (well a lot of roads in Thailand are narrow) across from a shop called “The Mermaid” that has quite a crowd of people waiting to get in. From the decor and appearance, this looks like a place that serve mainly alcohol and caters mainly to the young. Luckily, Bung had called ahead for reservation and we were ushered in. Let’s see what we encountered inside the premise.
The Mermaids is famous for their bird nest like dining booths that are perched like a bird nest on tree branches. The whole dining experience is sitting in these nests perched high above the ground with unobstructed view of the water. Well for the fortunate few that was able to reserve one of these nests. For others, they have to contend with gigantic pool side lounge chairs or big floor cushions. I believe no one would complain about the sitting arrangement or the food. After settling into our assigned nest and taking in the view in awe, it struck me immediately that I have seen this before. I believe a few months ago I came across a post on social media about this place, didn’t know where this was but did crossed my mind that would love to see it in person. There is a rule however in that you are limited to 2 hours sitting. I don’t believe we took the entire two hours because the food were served pretty quickly and we didn’t take our time to enjoy the view while eating. Guess that’s the problem when you travel in a large group – eat before it is gone mentality! That was however enough time for us to capture these beautiful scenes, food, and atmosphere for posterity, the wonder of smartphone. There was a brief few minutes moment when the setting sun created a unexpected beautiful backdrop for a photo shot at one of the 2 nests we occupied. The left photo showed the beautiful almost unnatural orange-pink cloud and matching reflection on the water (look past the lovely ladies gents). The photo on the right, I was trying to recaptured the same moment for Claudia a few minutes later in another nearby nest, but alas, it paled in comparison to the right. The location of the left nest and the timing was just perfect. There was a even better photo taken, unfortunately, it was on one of these ladies phone.
Well, this section should actually comes before The mermaids in chronological order. That wouldn’t be fun isn’t it? This next place probably doesn’t get enough attention as it deserved. I believe anyone who visited Pattaya knows about The Mermaids, but not many knows about this place.
The Sanctuary of Truth Museum is an odd name for a place like this if you are expecting to walk into an old historical buildings containing artifacts. We arrived at the museum ground, driving through the a large gate house building into a gravel paved compound. It had rained earlier in the day and the ground was water and puddle of water are all around. Like I said, this is not your typical museum you would expect. I was actually wondering what are we doing here as there is nothing resembling a museum. It looks more like a unkempt playground, no significant building or structures in sight. We were told a guide and a vehicle will pick us up and later we were told we can take our personal van through the ground. Up to this point I still have no idea what are we doing here! I thought, maybe this is just an unscheduled stop on our way to Pattaya. So we hopped back into van and took a really short drive to another “rest area” where there are now a crowd of people, some waiting, others checking out the souvenir stands, and more crowding toward the end of the waiting area posing for photos.
Turned out the gem is right out in plain sight behind them – The Sanctuary of Truth Museum! It is not covered with marbled walls, gold glittered chandelier hanging from ceilings! The entire building is made out of wood or rather teak wood. No wonder, there were teak wood log laying around by the side of the path as we drove by. The museum is set right by the water and there is a unpaved path that leads down to the site. Upon arriving there, it looks more like a construction zone than a museum attraction. Earlier on, when Helen mentioned a few times that it is 30 years in the making of this place, I didn’t understand what she meant. Now I do, they started work on enhancing this ancient building 30 years ago and they still have not completed. There is a reason for this, every piece big or small is meticulously handcrafted by craftperson on site.
Since this is a construction zone, we are required to put on a hard hat if we plan on touring the interior of the museum. When we think of a museum, the first thing that pop in our head is antiques, artworks lining the rooms of a museum. Well in this museum, the building is the artifact in itself, but all those wood craving that adorned the walls and ceiling tell many stories. These provide the answer to the “Seven Truths of Life” – 1. Who we are? Where are we from?; 2. How do we survive?; 3. The End of Life; 4. Sample of Civilizaiton; 5. What is the purpose of life?; 6. A society is a two sided coin; 7 The Beginning of Society. It is interesting, how each section of the museum represent one of the Seven Truths with the sculpture providing the answers.
Allow enough time to go through the timeless masterpiece. I wished I had done that, the weather and the humidity was too much. If I had done some research before visiting, I might have approach this from a different perspective. My intention was photo taking, even then I have no idea what I was doing. Sanctuary of Life Museum is one must visit spot if you are in the vicinity of Pattaya.
