Thailand Beauty and Culture

Nong Nooch Gardens & Cultural PerformanceTour Code: LC1205A

Finally on our motorcoach, we had a picturesque drive to this popular attraction off the beaten path. Nong Nooch Gardens is a privately owned, 250-acre village set against lush green hills. When arriving at the gardens, we had 30 minutes to explore the pottery garden.  

Modern restrooms were there as well.  Note that you need to bring your own toilet paper.

click to enlarge images

Our guide led us to Thai Village Theater, where we had assigned seating.  Along the way we passed several stands selling prepared Thai food items.  Several souvenir shops were also in the complex.  









As we waited for the performance to begin, a man was speaking on stage. We couldn't understand the announcements or what was written on the sign created before the show, but everyone clapped at the conclusion.   Subtitles would have been helpful, but we doubted they could have kept up with the pace of his speaking anyway.

The show consisted of several colorful cultural performances of Thai folk songs and ceremonies. We saw folk dances from various regions in Thailand and thrilled to a demonstration of Thai boxing and sword fighting. 

Another highlight of our visit was the charming elephant show. Before the show began it was possible to get up close to the elephants and have them lift you.   There was the typical elephant parade as well as elephants showing their skills.   Elephants painted t-shirts, which could be purchased in the shops.   There were soccer and basketball games, twirling of hula-hoops, bowling, and stepping over volunteers, to name a few of the skills shown.

We had 30 minutes free time following the elephant show.  Unfortunately our guide hadn't made the schedule clear ahead of time, so we didn't have as much time to explore the grounds as we would have liked.

Final stop on our tour was for shopping at a company mandated local reputable gift shop in Pattaya. We had gotten a couple items at the gardens, so we just stayed on the bus.

This was an enjoyable tour, but a bit rushed. We would have loved more time to explore the beautiful gardens. 

Click on the image to the left for more Blog posts about this trip.

Related Album:

Nong Nooch Pottery
Nong Nooch Theatre
Thailand Culture
Elephant Show
Nong Nooch Gardens

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Welcome to Laem Chabang Thailand

Immigration Thailand

Local Thai officials decided that all passengers would need to go through a face-to-face immigration process in Laem Chabang.   Our passports were delivered to our cabin by our steward around 9 pm Tuesday, after dinner and the show.   Princess Cruises had completed landing cards and included them with the passports.  We just needed to sign the cards and complete the questions on the reverse side of the landing cards prior to meeting in the morning.

Passengers were assigned meeting times based on their shore excursion schedule or independent plans.  Instructions were also in our cabins the night before.

Our scheduled time to meet at Wheelhouse Lounge was 7:20 am.  When we arrived there, it was packed with passengers.  Princess Theater, which is the tour staging area, was also full.   The staff released passengers from the theater, and our tour was the next called.  We waited until it was time to be escorted to the gangway.  

On the pier, a tented area was setup with several lines. Thai immigration officials were sitting at tables, processing passengers.  We were directed to the first line.  When it wasn't moving, we moved over one, which turned out to be a mistake.   Finally we got to the front, our passports and landing cards were checked and stamped.  They were once again retained by the ship staff, who filed them in bins according to deck.  

We had a short walk to the motor coaches.  Since we'd taken so long, we had to take seats in the very last row, along with another gentleman and his son.   Our view was blocked by emergency sign on the window.   It wasn't the most comfortable ride in the last row on this particular bus. We will talk more about the tour in another post.

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