14-Oct-2026
By now, my vacation is halfway over. But there's still so much more to see and do. Today should take us to the city of Si Racha (ตำบล ศรีราชา), which like Ban Bueng is in Chon Buri. Apparently, we need to get there because Chella needs to sort our some visa stuff, and naturally I'm going to accompany her there.
But first things first. And that's breakfast, which is leftovers from yesterday. Chella loves it, though she tells me she preferred the mushroom carbonara sauce from before, and asks me to make it again for her. Works for me!
Also, today's the date for my next shot of the rabies vaccine, so after breakfast we head to the hospital to get that done.
Afterwards, we order a Bolt to take us to Si Racha.
The route there is mostly the same as to Ban Bueng, only near the end we go further south and towards the coast. Unlike last time, we also take the Expressway into the other direction to get there, and a slightly different route through the city, persumably because the driver wants to avoid traffic.
Here's some impressions from along the ride.
Here's a motorcycle selling fruits. A fruit-o-cycle?
And here we are on the Expressway again.
Looking left from there, these really tall buildings do stand out. Turns out that this is the Assumption University Suvarnabhumi Campus (มหาวิทยาลัยอัสสัมชัญ วิทยาเขตสุวรรณภูมิ).
Also, there's this rather expensive looking penthouse.
Eventually, we draw close to the hills of Chon Buri again.
Which means that the surrounding area gets gradually greener.
Also, there's a traffic jam at the end of the Expressway, as the four lanes gradually converge into one. We'll, I suppose that's still preferable to driving off the end of the line.
Afterwards, there's this very tight bit of road that I'm gonna call the Death Star Trench Run. Oh yeah, and apparently keeping safety distance from the car in front of you is for the weak in Thailand, even if you're going at 50 km/h on a narrow road.
And now we officially cross over to... actually, I'm not sure. We're already in Chon Buri. But I'm sure it must be something. If only I could read that.
For the final stretch, we're using local roads again.
And then, we arrive in Si Racha, pass the Sacred Heart Catholic Church (วัดพระหฤทัยพระเยซูเจ้า ศรีราชา), and are on our way to the tethered island of Kok Loi (or Ko Loi, or Kohloy, depending on which translation you prefer. Either way, the Thai spelling is เกาะลอย).
That's our main event today, and it is where the Bolt drops us off. From here, we should explore the island for quite some time before eventually returning back to the mainland.
As you can probably tell, there's quite a few temples and shrines on this island. Are you ready for a full run of them? First, we have Wihan Si Sitthi Muratha Wari (วิหารศรีสิทธิมุรธาวารี), which is actually a Hindu temple.
Next is San Chao Wang Ta Sian (ศาลเจ้าหวังต้าเซียน), which interestingly also has a Chinese name: Xiān Dà Huáng (仙大黄 "Immortal Great Yellow"). This one features statues of the twelve Zodiac animals surrounding it.
Next, we have San Thep Chao Kuan U (ศาลเทพเจ้ากวนอู).
And then, there's the big one: San Chao Mae Guan Yin Koh Loi (ศาลเจ้าแม่กวนอิมเกาะลอย), and it's Chinese name is Nán Hǎi Guān Yīn Miào (南海观音廟 "South Sea Compassion Bodhisattva Shrine"). Like all of these, this one has beautiful paintings on the ceiling, but sadly my camera chose to focus on something else. This one has beautiful animals on its roof too: Kirin, Fenghuang and Dragons.
Oh yeah, and in case it wasn't obvious, we're at the sea now.
Then there's this shrine, which I think is already part of the central temple of this island that I'll get around to shortly. So I don't think this one has a name of its own.
And now for the main attraction: The Wat Koh Loi (วัดเกาะลอย)! Sitting on top of the island, we need to climb the mighty dragon stairs to reach it.
And once we're up there, there's just so much Buddhist culture to be admired.
There's also a donation box for the temple cats. Guess where my traditional 100฿ donation is going today!
They also have a little hall that I think tells the foundation story of the temple.
And of course, from up here we get a good view of the shrines below.
After that, it's time to descend the dragon stairs again, and in the process of doing so admire the mural at the back of the gate.
The island also has a little decorative pool...
...as well as turtle pond. Not with real turtles though.
And then there's still more shrines and statues to see down here.
Also aforementioned temple cats, to whom Chella takes a real shining.
Now for our next adventure: Getting lunch in a country the language of which neither of us speak. Let's see what we're gonna get here. Because while the menu has pictures, it doesn't associate them with the actual dishes, and pointing to dishes also doesn't seem to work for some unknown reason.
Here's hoping this doesn't end up like this:
In the end, we are served a bowl of plain rice for Chella, and a big bowl of seafood for me. That works out for us since it's plenty to share between the two of us.
After that, we walk over to mainland Si Racha by means of the purple pier. Note that just like with the island, there seems to be some disagreement as for how to spell the city name in Latin, because the pier says "Sriracha".
I can spot some white birds beneath the shore promenade. Are they maybe cormorants?
Now, the reason we came here in the first place was that Chella could get something visa-related done. However, when we get to where the immigration office is supposed to be, all we find are two shrines next to a construction site.
Meanwhile, Chella's friends are at the real immigration office, and there they get told that everything is fine, and they don't have to do anything after all, so in the end we came here for nothing. Well, nothing and a buttload of culture, that is!
Since Chella's friends are in a hurry, we never manage to figure out where the real immigration office would have been. So instead, we explore the city for just a little bit...
...which also means we run into a few more shrines.
After that, we order another Bolt to take us back to Bangkok.
The route we take is a different one than on the way here. In fact, we're taking the Route 7 again, which now makes this trip the exact reverse of the trip to Ban Bueng.
Before long, it starts to rain quite heavily, which makes us glad that we managed to get into the car in time.
But the rain lets up by the time we pass the yellow plane.
We enter the Route 7 not long after, and from there it's about an hour's drive until we reach Bangkok.
Here's one of the airport link train stations that I passed through when I first arrived.
And there seems to be many mosques around this part of town.
And then we're on the home stretch, making our way through the knot that is Bangkok's road, and back to our Airbnb.
Once back at home, Chella cooks some Filipino soup for me. This one is not gonna be my favourite, but I'm still grateful to Chella for preparing it for me. The chili-lime soy sauce that she serves with it is definitely fantastic, though!
And that's it for today! Tomorrow, we're going to Bangkok's Chinatown, because there's a festival going on there. I'll write about it once we're back. Until then, stay tuned, and be of great cheer! =^,^=
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