Daily Report: Three Kingdoms And Hot Air Balloons

Today, Epril and I joined Geoff and Honey Mae for a visit to the "Three Kingdoms Theme Park", a park built to showcase two things: (1) The epic tale of Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, one of China's greatest semi-historical tellings, based on the unification of 3 nations in the second century A.D. into the modern nation of China; and (2) Mr. Kiarti Srifeungfung, a man who went from truly humble beginnings to becoming the founder of Bangkok Metropolitan Bank, one of the richest men in Thailand, and the man to whom the park is dedicated.

The park is a little bit difficult to find without good directions, which unfortunately can only be found here on Jil In Pattaya: Drive out Soi Siam Country Club past Mapbrachan Reservoir. Drive under the first archway over the road which is for the temple on your right. Drive under the second archway, which is a "Welcome to Soi Siam Country Club" archway. About 200 feet past that arch, you will see a right turn. Drive down that road about 2 kilometers, and you will see the back entrance to Soi Siam Country Club "Old Course" on your left. About 100 meters past that, branching off on the right you will see the entrance to the Three Kingdoms Theme Park. The 10-story-tall pagoda out in the middle of nowhere should guide you the rest of the way. Geographically, the Three Kingdoms Theme Park is directly behind Horseshoe Point. In fact, the wall to the park and the wall to the resort's pool are the same. However, going to Horseshoe Point and trying to find the place wouldn't be my recommendation.

The entrance admission to the park is 150 baht per person, regardless of skin color, and is a little bit high for what you get: About a 90-minute wander through the grounds if you really take your time.

The park is divided into two groups of objects. The first is a 50-panel mural that tells the story of The Three Kingdoms. (It reads from left to right.) It takes about 40 minutes to read the whole thing, and is a bit confusing. I'm sure that the 800,000 word original tale (wikipedia entry, and a brief synopsis, similar to what can be read at the Three Kingdoms park can be found here) was much more engaging and easier to follow than the quick 1-paragraph summary of each chapter that the panels offered. However, reading the panels was tedious and not particularly fun. (I will admit that the English translations were fantastic though, which is rare for a tourist attraction in Thailand.)

The second group of objects is 3 pagodas: One dedicated to Guan Im, often called "the female Buddha" and goddess of Mercy, housing a gorgeous white marble avatar of the goddess; one is dedicated to Guan Yu, the Chinese god of Honesty. In the center is a main pavilion dedicated to Khun Kiarti, the various characters of The Three Kingdoms story, and at the top is a small temple. You can climb the tall center pagoda, and get very good views out over the surrounding countryside. There are other bits and pieces around: Some sculptures and a collection of petrified wood.

Overall, it wasn't a very worthwhile trip. It was a bit interesting, but I wouldn't have paid 300 baht ($9) per couple to see it. If you are out at Horseshoe Point or the Thailand Polo Club, or are finishing up a round of golf, and you are driving by and have some time to waste, then I suppose it would be worth a visit.

Oh: Learning experience. It's often impossible to figure out when you don't know something before finding out otherwise. After the park, we drove out around the Thailand Polo Club, and came across a field of low lying bushes. Now, in my mind it never occurred to me otherwise, and I had never seen evidence to inform me differently: There are pine trees; there are apple trees. Ergo: What should pineapples grow on? Yeah... quite quite wrong. Somehow, I had gone through my entire life never having seen (or wondered) where and how pineapples grow. For those of you who have not seen pineapples growing before, they grow pretty much at ground level.

Fortunately, the Three Kingdoms Theme Park was not the only reason we were out in that neck of the woods. Epril and I also went to see the 2007 Pattaya International Balloon Fiesta with a few dozen hot air balloons. Unfortunately, we messed up our arrival time: My friend Matt had told me that the whole party started at 5:00. I figured that meant they started filling the balloons with hot air at 5:00, and would take off at 6:00. However, at 5:15 as we were getting ready to go see the hot air balloons, I saw off in the distance that they were already up in the sky... and far too scattered about to make for any good photos. When we got to the field they were alighting from, only one giant elephant (which never actually flew) and one other balloon remained. Fortunately, the twilight photography of the flame-lit balloon did make for a very nice picture, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.
After seeing the balloons, Epril and I went to a restaurant on the side of Mapbrachan Reservoir called Khun John's Lakeside Restaurant, which was a nice and inexpensive place to have a meal (although the live music was pretty poor... but thankfully not loud at all). Then, we went back home to watch "Night At the Museum" on DVD.