Sawadee kha....Today I would like to invite you all to relax and travel on this hot summer. Before anything, I must inform you that this trip is all started when I joined the activity of 2 days 1 night Pattaya trip with the page https://www.facebook.com/thetrippacker. The rule is we must either plan a trip by the available choice or totally new on our own. A travel lover like me then immediately made up a trip and waited for the result. The page informed us that there'll be two awards: a great trip and a lucky trip. On the award announced day, I got the lucky trip award. So I got to stay free at Hilton Pattaya Hotel in a King Hilton Deluxe room with a breakfast for two people. Let me be clear that the page didn't require us to write a review after the trip, they just sent us a voucher. But I just like to show off so I come back and write this review for everyone.

After we got the award, I was responsible for finding travel attractions, route and book the room while my husband was responsible for driving and financial support. We plan to visit temple and pay respect for prosperity and merits at Chachoengsao Province first as we will go pass it anyway. We start this trip on 1st September at 4 a.m. from our home at Korat (Nakhon Ratchasima Province). We go on the 304 route of Pak Thongchai, Wang Nam Khiao, Prachinburi and Chachoengsao. It takes about 3 hours with 234 km from our home to Wat Saman Rattanaram which is our first stop.

We reach Wat Saman Rattanaram early morning and no tourists are yet there. We can easily park inside. I'm not sure how crowed it could get on the holidays. Today there's slight rain so the sky doesn't open, haha. There's a lot of places for us to pay respect and make a merit at this temple. There's also restaurants on the ground and the water, let's go take a look together.

From Wat Saman, we are heading towards Wat Sothon Worawiharn. This trip we also rely on Sygic GPS Navigation Map like usual and sometimes, she leads us to the right way and sometimes the wrong way but it's fine for us. It is about 16 km from Wat Saman to Wat Sothon. I've read in the pantip and they said that sometimes, some people will lead you to a free parking but in exchange you need to buy their flower. So we must do a quick survey here. I see the free parking sign on the opposite site so we turn right to park there.

Let's see the new Ubosot from different angles.

In front of the Ubosot, there's orchid for paying respect to the Buddha image and we can donate accordingly. For the girls who have inappropriate dress, the temple also provide the cloth for you. Spaghetti straps, short skirts or the torn jeans are not allowed.

From Wat Sothorn, we move onto Pattaya. There's toll way along the way and we paid 30 THB for the fee. The slight rain at Chachoengsao comes back again when we enter Pattaya.

For our lunch today, we follow this review http://pantip.com/topic/34111777. My husband chooses Sketch Book Art Cafe which is located near the main road. There's parking near the main road and I'm not sure if they also have other parking lot available. We are lucky to get a parking right in front of the restaurant. Before anything, I would like to express my big thanks to Khun Maew Num for recommending delicious food.

I like the inside atmosphere. The restaurant is cute, good lighting and not so crowed, only two tables are occupied. There's also a variety of food,the price is reasonable and we love the food. Let's see the atmosphere of the restaurant below. In fact, there's more angle that I want to take but I don't want to disturb the other two tables guests.

This is our favorite dish. If I remember correctly, it is 195 THB and it's delicious.

This is my husband choice. Coming to Pattaya, he orders Minced Pork with Basil Leaves. His reason is that we can be sure of any restaurant has a tasty food by ordering an ordinary dish.

Oh, I forgot to mention that there's 103 km from Wat Sothon to Sketch Book Art Cafe. When our stomach is full, we are going to our hotel for tonight. Now, it's noon and it is about 4.7 km from Sketch Book Art Cafe to Hilton Pattaya Hotel. Once I got the prize of staying at this hotel, I started to search for its review on pantip. There's quite a pros and cons as well as debate on its SR and CR. This review, I intend to have it as CR. I'm not sure if I should do SR which is a one night stay with breakfast and CR is the review I gave above and more. apart from tonight accommodation review. Ok, let's go to our hotel now.

Hilton Pattaya Hotel is located on Central Festival shopping mall. It is very easy to find and close to the beach. But we didn't go along the beach route. We go along the Soi as suggested by Sygic. We park on the second floor of parking lot. We didn't take our baggage to the hotel yet because we come early and can't check in yet. The check in time is 14.00 p.m. We were thinking to go and take photograph around the hotel first as we didn't want to go elsewhere. We actually weren't quite sure if we have come to the right place but just walk out accordingly to other reviews.

This is another entrance of the hotel. We can turn right from the mall door.

After going in, we will see the elevator and just pressing it for the 16th floor.

When the lift open, it's the lobby area. There's not many guests and some are in their bikinis. We walk to the counter and hand them the voucher. The staff then tell us then there's deposit which we can either pay by credit card or cash. So we give them 2,000 THB and they give us the receipt. This deposit is refundable on our check out. While we are waiting to check in, the staff give us two purple hot drink as welcome drink. I'm not sure what this drink is but it's certainly refreshing. The staff said we can check in right away...Oh wow, so nice, this is just what we wanted. The staff also asked for the baggage card but we didn't park on the first floor parking lot of the hotel so we didn't have it. We said our baggage is in the car and we will get it ourselves.

At the lobby, we can see drift from afar and it's a pity that I didn't go in, I forgot!!! This photo was taken on the next day as when we checked in there's other guests and we didn't want to disturb them.

Today we get to stay at 29th floor, room 2923.

Let's get into the room. This is taken from the inside out.

This is the mini bar that we didn't touch. Here, there's 2 complimentary drinking water which put outside.

Here is the bathroom.

This is my husband bath tube and we also prepare bubble bath too.

Now, let's move onto the relaxing zone. The bed is comfy with the TV on the right. At the end of the bed is a sofa that I really want to take home, haha. It's even more comfortable than the bed.

The Pattaya beach view from our room.

From what I read, it is said that they might be some noise from the bar below at night. When I close the door at the balcony, I didn't hear anything but when I sit at the balcony, the noise is vivid. Like I said earlier, this voucher is also include breakfast but when we check in, the staff didn't say anything. So we go to ask at the counter again and our breakfast is at EDGE restaurant at 15th floor from 6.00-11.00 a.m. We then quickly go to bed in order to wake up early to enjoy the beach walk and the sun rise. But, we wake up late at 6.30 a.m. so we just clean ourselves up and go for breakfast because we want to take some photos while not many guests are yet there. We can either take the elevator or the stairs to the EDGE. When taking the stairs, you walk straight until you see the Thai restaurant, Flare. Then, turn left to the escalator and it will take you to the EDGE. Then, there'll be staff welcoming you. We just need to tell the staff our room number. The seats are available both indoor and outdoor. The staff is very friendly. They keep walking here and there and asking whether we want anything more. I also ask them of how to get down to the beach as when we came we didn't come along the beach. When I got the answer, we still keep talking a bit. I think they provide excellent service. In fact, I wasn't looking for perfect service but just smiley and friendly service is enough.

After breakfast, we go to enjoy the swimming pool. There's not many guests yet. I want to swim too but I didn't bring my swimming suit. The pool is not so big but enough to have fun. Even people who can't swim like me can also have fun as the pool is only 1.20 meter deep. There's also 3 Jacuzzi around the pool.

After watching other people swimming for a while, it's also the time for us to pack and check out. I still don't want to go back yet but the time is here as we want to go to one place that we didn't go on our last visit. When we checking out, the staff ask whether we have anything in mini bar or not, we said no and everything finishes and we get 2,000 THB back.

It's now the time to say goodbye to Hilton.

From Hilton, we are heading towards Teddy Bear Museum Pattaya which is not so far from Hilton. It is close to Markland hotel and we can use the hotel parking lot from 5-9 floor. Please be careful when driving up as the up-down road is on the same way and it's quite narrow. When parked, there's a sign to the elevator which will take us to the lobby of the hotel and we can continue walking to the Teddy Bear Museum Pattaya. The opening hours of the museum is 09.00 - 22.00. The adult ticket is 250 THB and the children is 150 THB and free if the kid is less than 90 cm. height.

After taking the escalator, we will see this view which is the entrance to the Teddy Bear Museum Pattaya.

We reach there at 9.00 a.m. and it yet open. The staff said please give them sometime to cool the place up. So we walk around at the front to take some photos while waiting.

If you are ready, let's get a ticket now, 500 THB for two adults, let's go!

B

After having enough walking and taking photos, it's time to officially saying goodbye to Pattaya. It's time to go back working as a salary man. It's such a wonderful feeling to go out and see the wider world than the computer screen world. It is so relaxing. We get to meet new weather and people. It's just so refreshing. And we happily end our trip. We go back with the same route of Chonburi-Prachinburi-Wang Nam Khiao,-Pak Thong Chai-Korat with some souvenir for our beloved ones. I wish my trip would be beneficial for other travelers....And please accept my apology for any mistakes here.