The Story of Our Trip to Thailand: Part 4

This is the fourth part of my story about our family trip to Thailand. If you are just starting here, I suggest you go back to the first part of my story.

Pattaya Continued…

Our story left off after we visited the Sanctuary of Truth and headed back to the hotel swimming pool. The next day (Sunday), we were originally supposed to go to Koh Larn, but at breakfast, the group decided to change the plan and wanted to go to a water park instead. And when I say "the group," I mostly mean the kids! We did some research and found that Ramayana was rated as the best water park around, so that’s exactly what we did.

Ramayana Water Park

Apparently, the park offers free entry to seniors over 60 years old who do not plan on using the water slides. This was a big deal for our group because we had elderly family members who weren't going to use the slides, but they didn't want to stay behind at the hotel alone either.

Pro Tip: A very important part is to not forget to bring your passport (or at least a clear photo of it) so they can verify your age. Another great tip: take a picture of everyone's passports and save them on your Google Drive. You never know when you’ll need them, and in our case, it saved the day at the park.

Anyway, it was a fantastic day. The park was huge and beautiful, and the views from the top of the slides were just crazy. There were so many different attractions and areas to explore; we spent the entire day there and I’m sure we didn't even see half of it. Everyone enjoyed themselves. We rented a Cabana so that if someone got tired and needed a break, they could rest or even take a nap there. It also had a place to recharge our phones and a ceiling fan inside to keep us cool while we rested.

The only thing I didn't like was that you have to load your wristband with cash to buy food or drinks at the food courts. You never really know exactly how much you’ll need, which often leaves you with extra money at the end of the day. (We ended up using our leftover balance to buy extra bottles of water-you can never have enough water when you're in Thailand!). I'm really sorry I don't have many pictures from the park; it’s because we were in the water with the kids most of the time!

Evening Time

We were all exhausted from our day at the water park, but we still wanted to get out, take a walk, and see more of the magical streets and night markets. However, the kids were truly worn out. After we ate, they kept asking to go back to the hotel room to rest. It was a long day for them and they clearly needed a break. Even though we were tired too, we really wanted to explore more of the city, but in the end, we decided to return to the hotel and rest. It turns out that having that much fun can be hard work!

Day Off (Monday)

By Monday, we realized we needed a day off. Everyone just wanted to relax in the pool, go shopping, or get a foot massage. No one was in the mood for another big attraction at that point. Because of this, we decided to skip parts of our original plan; we ended up missing the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden and the Floating Market.

However, my wife and I really wanted to visit Koh Larn. We were willing to give up some of the other plans, but we didn't want to miss this one. Everyone eventually agreed that after our day of rest, we would spend our last day in Pattaya at Koh Larn.

Koh Larn (Tuesday)

Tuesday was a beautiful, sunny day - perfect for the beach. We were all very excited, especially the kids, to get into our swimsuits and jump into the ocean. We woke up early, ate breakfast, and ordered vans to the Bali Hai Pier to catch the 30-baht ferry to Koh Larn.

Once we arrived, we took a tuk-tuk to the beach and stayed there until the afternoon so we could catch the last ferry back to Pattaya. It was such a great experience. That place is awesome! I think it’s fair to say we enjoyed this beach even more than the ones near our hotel in Koh Samui. At Samui, the water got deep very quickly right at the shore and the waves were much stronger - maybe we just caught it on a bad day. But at Koh Larn, the water was perfect and we really enjoyed ourselves.

On our way back to the hotel, our son started looking for his phone. He is only 8 years old and isn't very responsible with his belongings yet. We looked everywhere but couldn't find it. Apparently, he had left it on the island. It was quite a drama at that point; we were angry that he wasn't being responsible, and he was crying over his lost phone. When we got back to the hotel, I opened the Google Family Link app only to see his phone sitting somewhere far away on the island.

The lost phone

Our Last Night in Pattaya

On our last night, we went to another night market to eat. I don’t actually remember the name of it, but I remember it had a big Ferris wheel. The kids were starting to complain, saying, “Not another night market, please… Can we just eat some regular food at a restaurant or something?” I didn't really understand why they were complaining; maybe it was just all becoming too much for them. We still went to the market anyway - you don’t have to do everything your children ask all the time! In the end, everyone enjoyed it, including them.

Pattaya was good to us; it has everything a family needs. even a big group like ours found its way there. It was a little sad to leave, but our trip was not over yet. Tomorrow morning, we pack our things and head back to Bangkok to catch our flight to Koh Samui.

If you like my story, keep reading for Part 5. There is a big surprise coming up because we just noticed that our flight back home has been canceled and moved to different dates. I'll tell you all about that and more in the next part!