Mabprachan reservoir is kind of a resort lake.  It’s popular with the locals for fishing and picnicking on the banks and the road around the lake is packed with these very typically Thai small restaurants and “bar beers”.

This loop only touches the Siam Country Club course at one point but another of my routes goes around a big section of the perimeter.  Church of the Assumption is one of the two Catholic churches in Pattaya/Chon Buri area, the other is in downtown Pattaya.

Interesting story: the Portugese (and then other European powers) imported Catholicism to Thailand over 350-years ago but it hasn’t been very successful at gaining converts.  A couple years back (maybe 10 or so) the Vatican petitioned the Thai government for additional visas to bring in new priests to help spread the faith and administer the church but the government turned them down saying that they’ve had enough time and should be producing sufficient priests from within the local Thai Catholic community.

This is what looks like a medium-sized solar farm out between the Siam Country Club and the Thai Polo Grounds.  Not sure if its functioning or not.

Can’t go anywhere in Thailand without going past temples (“wat” in Thai), some large, some small but all beautiful and ornate to one degree or another.

This is what you might call the “non-touristy” part of Thailand.

The sign on the billboard fram says “10 rai land for sale”.  A “rai” is the Thai measurement of land area based on the size of a traditional rice paddy.  It’s been modernly codified as 1600sqm (40m x 40m).

More of the “real Thailand” that the hippies who want to see “the real Thailand” don’t usually see.

Coconut processing factory.  The big pile on the right under the white sign is a ten foot tall pile of coconut husk fibres.  Behing the building were HUGE piles of broken coconut husks.

Found this guy hanging out in the ditch along the side of the highway.  He stopped eating and stared directly at me the entire time as I stopped, got my camera out and snapped a couple pictures.

This temple is at the point on highway 331 where I turn left to loop back home.  It’s undergoing some significant renovations/construction.  The grey free-standing chimney on the left side of the bottom picture is the crematorium.  Most good sized wats in Thailand have one and they’re an integral part of Thai funerals and wakes.

This is the u-turn bridge outside the temple to get from one side of the highway to the other.  I think the speed bump is supposed to discourage scooters . . . but it doesn’t . . . at all.

The convenience store I stopped to resupply water and turn around back to my planned turn off had a massage parlor next door AND misters on the front of the shop.  Pretty nice feature to sit and cool off with on a hot sunny day.

The not scenic and not pleasant stretch of highway that will not be on my route in the future.  Not pictured: multiple stores selling aftermarket car rims/wheels with massive pyramids of rims displayed out front.

 

The spirit house grave yard.  Most every house and business in Thailand has a small Buddhist/animist/ancestor worship shrine.  When they have to be replaced or upgraded the old ones have to be disposed of.  Sometimes a local temple will collect them but otherwise people just sort of collectively determine a specific area to dump them, usually an area near a tree or natural feature with a particularly strong “spirit”.

Totally not creepy at all . . .

This one is done in a more Chinese style, more gold and red and a dragon motif.