Pattaya, Buddha Mountain

Yep this place overlooks all the sin in Pattaya, even bargals need somewhere to go and pray for a Mr ATM to whisk them away from their life of sexual debauchery, luckily it doesn't seem to be working to well :)

The last time I went there apart from today was about 10 years or so ago, this was cos my monkey used to live there, and she missed me, used to let her out of her cage to play around in the trees, but alas she was moved to another temple, as were all the other animals that had kept in tiny little cages.

Anyway here is the long climb up to the big Buddha.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temples_28.JPG

Yeah it may not look far to you in this picture but it is.

Anyway here is a picture of the Big Buddha itself, notice the covered praying tent? real class.

https://teakdoor.com/gallery/albums/u...l_SV400011.JPG

I have often wondered what they do with dead statuettes, well I find them, they hide them behind the wall, I mean don't you wonder what Thais did with statues that don't work nomore? Well they take erm to the Wat and hide them, here is a nice selection of non working praying entities.

https://teakdoor.com/gallery/albums/u...400016%7E1.JPG

Of course there is a big statue to pray to for each day of the week, I believe this is Sundays statue to pray to, Mondays one his sign had fallen off of, or someone nicked it.

https://teakdoor.com/gallery/albums/u...400012%7E1.JPG

This is the big Budha himself, can you imagine the amount of goldleaf on this thing? it must be worth it's weight in gold.

https://teakdoor.com/gallery/albums/u...400013%7E1.JPG

Here are 3 more days of the week entities, funny thing religeon aint it.

https://teakdoor.com/gallery/albums/u...400014%7E3.JPG

Here is a picture of the big donger which overlooks Pattaya bay.

https://teakdoor.com/gallery/albums/u...400019%7E2.JPG


https://teakdoor.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=58

more pattaya pics there :)

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...a_mountain.gif

Back to Buddha Mountain.



I often drive the long way to Pattaya as the view is much nicer and you miss all the poxy traffic jam coming into South Pattaya, yes it seems like they have spent the last couple of years digging up the roads yet again but haven't bothered repairing them because some other government dept is going to run something else underground in the future when they are allocated some money.



The entrance to Buddha mountain is on this road, ie Soi Thappraya, and they have a new sign up, got to admit I thought they had just changed the name of the Temple or whatever just to get more people to go there, but nope I was wrong, they have built a Chinese Temple there aswell, Wang Sam Sien, whatever that may mean.



Some of the stuff they had there a couple of years ago when I last went there, just assumed it was all part of the Buddhist Temple, but now they have a proper Chinese Temple and signs up explaining what stuff is.



https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temples_44.JPG

The entrance to the main Temple with a place for your joss sticks.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temples_45.JPG

Notice they have 2 safes to keep all the money in, must do quite well.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temples_01.JPG

This is a copy of Guan Yu's fighting horse and knife, the horse was called Shi Tu, not a nice name for a horse.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temples_07.JPG

Now originally I refered to this as the big donger, it is really the Tao Teck Brass Bell, weighs 990 kilos, 157cms high, 93cms circumference, and is the largest Ming Dynasty style bell that has been casted in Thailand.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temples_09.JPG

The walls are quite nice, probably need to get some of that money out of the safes though to finish them off.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temples_06.JPG

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temples_04.JPG

This is the main statue and praying area.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temples_43.JPG

This place used to only have Monks hanging around, seems they have all left and it is used for Nuns.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temples_21.JPG

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temples_25.JPG

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temples_26.JPG

A small shrine to pray at.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temples_27.JPG

Another building in the Temple compound, it has a statue in it, not sure what it's for.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temples_17.JPG

Here's a video of the inside of Wang Sam Sien Temple.

Guests you need to be a member to view videos.

Well I went up Buddha mountain a couple of days ago in the hope of catching a great shot for the photo competition, all pretty mediocre really so may aswell add them here.

The first is of a Thai policeman chanting something, he must have been really bad as he was still chanting when I went to leave about 30 minutes later.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...MOUNTAIN_1.JPG

Nice gardens behind the main Temple to the left, also another Temple building in the background.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...MOUNTAIN_2.JPG

A couple praying at one of the Chinese shrines.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...MOUNTAIN_3.JPG

A view of Koh Larn from the mountain.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...MOUNTAIN_5.JPG

Another of Koh Larn.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...MOUNTAIN_4.JPG

A Thai couple in the Chinese Temple.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...MOUNTAIN_6.JPG

this Wat looks a little cleaner and more kept up than many of the Wat's around Thailand.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dirtydog

The last time I went there apart from today was about 10 years or so ago, this was cos my monkey used to live there, and she missed me, used to let her out of her cage to play around in the trees, but alas she was moved to another temple, as were all the other animals that had kept in tiny little cages.

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Was the monkey KingWilly by any chance?

Now he has unleashed his rage on your website for your betrayal :)

The pictures are lovely especially the nature ones.Great stuff.

I was near Buddha mountain again today, they have been building this thing for a year or 2, at first I thought it was going to be an exclusive but extremely small village, trouble is it is on the wrong side of the mountain to view Pattaya Bay, it faces East towards Thappraya Road and of course in the distance Sukhumvit Road.

Really have no idea what it is for, maybe a park or something.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...Mountain_1.JPG

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...Mountain_2.JPG

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...Mountain_3.JPG

decoration everywhere. everything is decoration in thailand. was riding around in chumpae and came across this hugh piece of rock with a giant owl perched on top . This was in the front garden of some impressive looking ministerial building. i decided to have a closer look. Even from 10 meters it looked like rock . when i put my hand on it, it didn't feel right, and then i tapped it, ahh,,,it was fukin hollow. paper-mache. fooled ye.

Here is the view of Pattaya
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif