Fun fact: our first international trip together was to Thailand where we met some elephants for the first time and attended a concert. Five years later, this trip marks our first international trip as a married couple, back to Thailand once again to meet some more elephants! 🐘
Before we decided to book a flight to Boracay the previous month, this trip was originally planned to be our honeymoon. Thanks to Philippine Airlines for making the trip extra special by giving us a free upgrade to premium economy.
Hello, Thailand! From BKK Airport, we went straight to our hotel in Pattaya via Klook’s private airport pickup. It took us a little less than two hours to get to our hotel.
Pullman Pattaya Hotel G 🌅
We stayed at Pullman Pattaya Hotel G, a 5-star beachfront hotel located along Wongamat Beach.
We booked their Executive Cub Room which offers a panoramic view of the Gulf of Thailand. They put up a lovely setup for the towels on the bed complete with orchid flowers, it’s just so thoughtful. And of course, we got two welcome drink vouchers courtesy of Accor.
We then visited The Sunset Lounge, which is their executive lounge for club room guests. The executive lounge gives guests lots of perks such as: complimentary refreshments and snacks, afternoon tea, and evening canapés – this is also the reason why we booked a club room 😆
We also had our breakfast at The Sunset Lounge, which offers a bit more privacy since it’s exclusive to club room guests. Basically, if you book a club room, you’ll never go hungry.
During our visit, there’s a jellyfish warning so we didn’t really get to enjoy the beach. We spent a few hours by the pools and I even tried to join the water aerobics as part of the resort’s daily activities.
The beautiful sunset we had during my birthday, yup, this trip is also this year’s birthday celebration ✨
Thai Food We Had 🍲
On our first night, we visited the Terminal 21 mall to have dinner. It’s a huge mall featuring different world cities like Paris, London, Italy, Tokyo, San Francisco and Hollywood.
But of course, since we just got back in Thailand, we opted for Thai cuisine. We dined at Ponn Cafe and we’re very satisfied.
We ordered Deep Fried Spring Rolls for appetizer, Stefan had Crispy Fried Pork Belly and Scrambled Eggs, and I got Tom Yum!
Everything we ordered tasted better than we expected, and I’m very pleased with my authentic Thai Tom Yum and Thai Milk Tea.
The night after, we just walked nearby the hotel to find some place to eat and we ended up at Mana Pattaya. Surprisingly, if you look it up on Google, you can see that it’s tagged as a German restaurant. However, we had amazing Thai food when we went, their watermelon shake was so good too.
We had their Spicy Stir-Fry Prawns and Grilled Pork Neck with Spicy Sauce and both are absolutely delicious.
Pattaya Elephant Sanctuary 🐘
Now it’s time for the main event, our visit to Pattaya Elephant Sanctuary. It is a sanctuary with a small herd of rescued elephants now living together as a family. 💖
They practice ethical elephant tourism and follow “Saddle-Off” which means no elephant riding. The elephants are free to roam around and have fun with each other. Frank, the baby elephant in the middle, was playing around a lot the day we visited and he’s just adorable.
During our visit, there were only three elephants in the herd: Somkid (56), Thangthai (45), and Frank (9). The tour starts with the safety guidelines by the tour guides, followed by an introduction to the elephants and getting to know them by feeding them fruits.
After that, we got to know the elephants individually while walking with them as the tour guides tell us about the stories on how they were rescued. Thangthai and Somkid both worked in the logging industry before as well as giving elephant rides to tourists in trekking camps 😔
Thankfully, they are now enjoying their new lives here at the sanctuary and serving as a nanny to Little Frank. They are all free to wander around again in nature.
After the trail walk, we joined the elephants in their bath and helped them cool off in the pool their caretakers built for them.
The bath concludes the tour with the elephants as they will now rest, or in Frank’s case, play. As for the guests, we were treated to a vegetarian buffet after the tour.
If you’re going to visit Thailand, I highly recommend visiting an ethical elephant sanctuary like Pattaya Elephant Sanctuary. Not only will you experience getting acquainted with these gentle giants, you will also be supporting these rescued elephants for their day to day needs as well as help support a sustainable and ethical elephant tourism.
