My trip to Thailand.

Looking at the blank pages in my Passport for the last seven years was annoying, to put it mildly. Finally, my cousin and I decided to go to Thailand. It seemed like a convenient option since it’s not too far; a four-hour flight from Mumbai. It’s a beautiful country and perfect for our first international trip. We only had five nights of stay in total so we spent two nights in Pattaya and three in Bangkok. We tried to see as many sights as we could in the limited time at hand, some places were just a fraction more impressive to me personally than others.

• Pattaya Tower

The tower is situated close to Jomtien Beach. The view from the observation deck which is on the 55^th floor is simply breath-taking. You get a beautiful view of the beach. From the 56^th floor, you can take the tower jump which has two options – single seating or double seating. If you are unadventurous like me, you can stay on the deck level take in the view with a cup of coffee. There are also three revolving restaurants situated in the tower on the 54th, 53^rd and 52^nd floors.

• Coral Island

It is a picturesque island in Pattaya, which takes around 30 minutes speedboat ride to get there from the city beach. It is beautiful with its white sand beaches and the clear water is so peaceful, makes you want to stay there as long as possible. There are particular areas like zones for water sports and swimming so it doesn’t get too crowded in the water. On the island, there is a shopping area which had some pretty cool touristy and local things to buy.

• Nong Nooch Village

This is a very beautiful and unique man-made village and it is spread over many acres.  There are so many different pockets to this place. We walked around the big lake, visited the pottery garden where every structure was built using pots, it was amazing; there is a butterfly garden which has so many pretty varieties of flowers. I had a chance to see the Thai Cultural Show and also the Elephant show, which is a famous feature of the place; it was one of the highlights for me in the Nong Nooch Village.

• Safari World

Safari World was a must-see for when I planned this trip because I read a lot about it so going there was really exciting. It lives up to the hype created around it over the years. Firstly, you get to see so many exotic animals in their natural habitats. You can drive around in your car and see them in the open, it’s fascinating. Secondly, the dolphin and sea-lion shows are just incredible, it’s once in a lifetime kind of a moment. The park itself is huge, we just walked around till it was physically possible but we didn’t even cover half of it.

• Madame Tussauds

We went to the Madame Tussauds Museum in Bangkok and I was ecstatic. I always wanted to visit one since I was a little girl so I was a little a star struck when we got there. I definitely felt like one of my childhood dreams was coming true. We got to see these cool wax statues of celebrities and click pictures; it was a lot of fun. We got tickets to see a 15 minutes clip of the movie Ice- Age in 4D. It was one of the favorite places to see in Bangkok.

There were many other places we visited like the Gems Gallery, Chao Phraya River Cruise and ‘Wat-Pho’ – the temple of the reclining Buddha and ‘Wat Traimit’ – the temple of the Golden Buddha to name a few. All of the places were characteristic and lovely in their own way but these are the ones that stood out for me.