The Sanctuary of Truth

Melissa’s cousin, Soon, set up a private driver to take us to Pattaya to the Sanctuary of Truth today. Our driver arrived at 7:30 a.m. and the drive down south took about two hours.  The Sanctuary of Truth is located on the Gulf of Thailand.  Lek Viriyaphan designed it, the same man who envisioned and paid for the Erawan Museum. It is a hybrid between a castle and a temple and built completely out of wood.

We were driven down the hill in a van because we had a baby and a stroller.  We were given hard hats because the place is under construction and has been since 1981.

There are symbols of eastern religions throughout the massive structure.  Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesha, Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tzu….way more than can be mentioned and even seen. Relics of Buddha are enshrined in the very center.  

The Sanctuary of Truth is meant to answer the questions:  Who are we?  Where are we from?  How do we survive?  What is our life purpose?  We were given a pamphlet about the Seven Truths of the Sanctuary of Truth.  A guide was giving a tour and sounded a bit like a cheerleader. We opted to experience the place without her help.

We explored for quite a while and then headed outside to sit in the shade and get some cold drinks.

Matt and Yves headed over to feed the elephants.  Yves watched nonchalantly as if he feeds elephants everyday.  We reconnected with our driver and headed south to a seafood restaurant Soon had recommended called Pupen.  It was an outdoor restaurant right next to a beautiful, sandy beach.  

We ate sea bass, oyster omelet, crab fried rice, and spicy scallops.  We loaded back into the van and headed to Pattaya Floating Market, which was built in 2008 as a tourist attraction and features products from the four regions of Thailand.   We were greeted by three people, often referred to as Lady Boys or Kathoey —people of a third gender — one body containing two souls.  They invited us to stand under the rainbow colored streamers and take a family photo.

Then we were ushered into another photo area, included in the price of our ticket.  (It is truly a tourist area.). We waited in line as two tour buses ahead of us got placed on boats.  It was chaos.  When our turn finally came I learned how difficult it was to get down into a seated position in a low boat with the two knees I have. 

We were rowed past numerous stalls selling drinks and food but we were very full of seafood so we kept on sailing through the 10 minute loop around the lagoon.  

Getting me out of the boat was just as embarrassing as getting me in.  Once I had stumbled/crawled/been hauled out of the boat we took a quick loop through the market and got this picture of Yves. 

We felt like we had done Pattaya at this point.  We connected with our driver and headed back to Bangkok, wondering if there would be another cockroach encounter tonight.  Our apartment smells like a chemical plant.  We opened every window and turned on the air conditioning.  We figure that there is no cockroach alive in this place because we can hardly stand to be here.  Matt pulled the travel crib to the living room for Yves. Matt and Melissa headed out to run errands with the plan of the grandmas taking care of Yves.  He always seems to know when his parents are heading out without him.  He cooed and talked in his crib in his Magic Merlin Suit for a short time and then he screamed until Chinda knew exactly what to do to soothe him.