Discover the tranquitity of Pratrumnak.200 feet above Pattaya's bustling scene featuring majestic Buddha statues and serence views
By Jack Corbett
Most visitors to Pattaya come for the women and the
drinking arriving and leaving to return a year or two or even a few
months later completely clueless of the peace and serenity
permeating this area. And whereas the beaches below are often
littered and the water unfit to swim in, there are cleanup crews
making their daily rounds here keeping the area almost spotless.
So what's here? The first hill overlooks the Bali Hai Pier.
An ascent by road has a couple of very sharp curves while the
pedestrian has a shorter route up several groups of steps.
More of a knob than a hill, there really isn't much up there other
than a concrete helicopter pad and a spectacular view of the Gulf of
Thailand. The knob projects into the second hill without
changing elevation much. On top of this second hill is a
Chinese Thai temple area. But it's the third hill where the
Golden Buddha is found.
Up here there's very little car or motorbike traffic so it's an
ideal area to walk through and the views are majestic, giving
little hint of all the craziness that goes on at sea level.
The go go bars are close by, but the two worlds are so separate
since it is doubtful if very many of the night owls frequenting the
go go bars have have ever been up on these nearby heights.
There's no question that Pattaya's an
exciting place either to live in or visit. Some claim it's the
sex capital of the world. And from my vantage point there's a
concentration of the worse sorts of people here. Pattaya's
gotta have the most self centered idiotic homicidal motorcycle
drivers in Thailand. And since it is justifiably famous world
wide for its sex scene it attracts more than its fair share of pimps
and whores. Moreover those men coming here to partake of
all the cheap sex are not the best examples of the world's best
Western men. And if this is not enough Russia's targeted
Pattaya for making a huge Russian presence. So take it from
me, taken as a group, the Russians who come here have to be the most
arrogant, ill mannered, boorish, unpleasant assemblage of humanity
here. But all that is forgotten here on Praternak. It
rises above it all, majestically, a garden spot full of color with
transcendental views of the surrounding city as well as the Gulf of
Thailand.
The Sheraton Hotel
Our excursion to Praternak would not have
been complete without having lunch at the
Sheraton Hotel. We could have gone to the
Royal Cliff Hotel which no doubt is sensational but I had already checked out the
Sheraton several years ago and knew it would not disappoint.
After all, one of my American friends was here visiting, and Tom had
arranged to have a Vietnamese girlfriend stay with him. I had
just bought a black Honda Civic and my girlfriend had just gotten
her driver's license, so I wanted to be absolutely certain the hotel
where we'd have lunch would be stupendous. I had never had
lunch or dinner at the Sheraton, however. All of us
found the service and the food to be up to the hotel's five star
billing.
Even down at the beach I suspect the water's cleaner than it is over
at Pattaya or Wongamat Beach. For one thing the coastline takes a
sharp bend off of Pattaya Beach so there's some measure of protection
from all the floating debris that plagues the two beaches north of the
Sheraton. Moreover, there's not nearly the concentration of
humanity just down from these hills so there's bound to be less sewage
creeping into the water. So....although the price might be a
little steep for a lot of tastes especially when you factor in that
Thailand hotels offer a lot for the money, you really can get away from
it all here, so it could very well be worth paying the much higher price
just for the overall quality of the beach. On the other hand, I
just looked at the February pricing. At $175.00 and up, I've just
gotta say, "ouch". But be sure, I will be back for lunch.
You can email me at the address above
