Adventure at Buddha Mountain

There are no taxis in Pattaya. Well, there are, but they are Bangkok cabs. Mostly they've come from BKK Airport and are cruising around town until they pick up enough baht or a passenger to take back to Bangkok. Outside of Bangkok it's impossible to get a cab to use the meter. In Pattaya, your only other option is the "baht bus", a songtaew. These require bartering, and won't always take you where you want to go, especially if your destination is a ways out of town. Since there were six of us at Wat Phra Yai, I figured that our best bet was to hire out a large taxi van to take us around. I spoke with the driver, and she agreed to drive us around for the day for B700. That was fine. Split six ways it's not too bad, and my next two destinations were outside of Pattaya in opposite directions. Our first stop was Khao Chi Chan, also known as "Buddha Mountain", about twenty minutes south of Pattaya City.

Known by some as the "Laser Buddha", the 130 meter tall Buddha at Khao Chi Chan was carved by a laser into the rock of a sheer mountain in 1996 to celebrate HM King Bhumibohl's 60th birthday. Outlined in gold, it is the world's largest 2D Buddha image (ie not a statue). Again, we were the only foreigners there. The pictures really can't begin to do justice to this amazing place. A person wouldn't even be as tall as one of the golden letters engraved underneath the Buddha.

It's kind of sad how nobody knows about all of the awesome things around Pattaya. There are many people who visit Bangkok and rarely leave Khao San Road (the backpacker's street). Likewise, there are those whose only image of Pattaya is Walking Street. These people have led to the city developing a really bad reputation, but it has so much to offer if you know where to look.