Another video from my road trip through Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro and Croatia. Beautiful country, great people, rural and rugged more often than not. I loved it.
This is just one of the many short videos I took while driving around. Watch them all and visit my other Social Media and Travel sites as I develop them.
Another video from my road trip through Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro and Croatia. Beautiful country, great people, rural and rugged more often than not. I loved it.
This is just one of the many short videos I took while driving around. Watch them all and visit my other Social Media and Travel sites as I develop them.
https://wp.me/P3CC9J-6vq
Stay tuned for the others. Please take a minute and donate even a small amount to help me make more videos.
Wizard of Where
Another video from my road trip through Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro and Croatia. Beautiful country, great people, rural and rugged more often than not. I loved it.
This is just one of the many short videos I took while driving around. Watch them all and visit my other Social Media and Travel sites as I develop them.
https://wp.me/P3CC9J-6vq
Stay tuned for the others. Please take a minute and donate even a small amount to help me make more videos.
Wizard of Where
This and the following videos were shot as I walked and rode around the Jomtien and Pattaya Thailand area. It is alive with activity and full of tourists and locals. It appears if the city planners wanted to cram as many souvenir shops, bars and restaurants as humanly possible into one area, they succeeded. Watch all the videos I took while walking/riding around in Pattaya and Jomtien as it's an interesting place. During the morning the Thai people are hanging out and there are a few early morning riser tourists. As the day advances and moves into the evening a whole other type of lets say “interesting people crawl out of the woodwork” The main narrative is in the first post.
This is just one of the many short videos I took while driving around. Watch them all and visit my other Social Media and Travel sites as I develop them.
https://wp.me/P3CC9J-6vq
Stay tuned for the others. Please take a minute and donate even a small amount to help me make more videos.
Wizard of Where
I can hardly believe my luck, I was offered a flight over Kosovo out of the blue and of course I accepted. It was a helicopter flight in December and it was a bit cool but the view was incredible. We left from Pristina and I’m pretty sure the direction was north although I didn’t ask. I assume we started out in that direction as we landed in the north for a look at the Kosovo/Serbia border.
Kosovo is a beautiful country from above and the landscape is filled with rolling and rugged terrain. We were at a rather low elevation so the cars, cities and villages were quite visible throughout the entire trip. Each of the villages and small cities we flew over appeared quite active with plenty of foot and vehicle traffic. One feature I thought was quite interesting were the number of half built structures and although I heard a few explanations as to why, I’m not sure which was correct. It seemed to be quite common to see a three story structure with only the bottom and perhaps part of the second story finished to a state in which someone could live. The explanation I heard repeatedly was due to taxes of some sort which seemed plausible as it is a new country and possibly grappling with income sources. The other story I heard was that people were working in Western Europe and sending money home to build the structures but the money dried up or jobs were lost which also seemed reasonable. I’m not sure but there sure were quite a number of partially built buildings.
Another thing I noticed was the roof structures, rounded or traditional angular as I see in the west. Although I’m not sure, I did hear one explanation, that is was due to religion with the Islamic community having one roof shape and the christian community another. Its possible but again, I’m not sure. The whole thing makes the country interesting when you combine it with location, culture and past events. The divergent cultures which are tied to their specific religions self segregate for various reasons which I can only speculate at. But, I should mention that in my travels this habit seems to be quite common as the old saying goes, “Birds of a Feather Flock Together”. Not that this is a bad thing, people generally seek out others with common interests, cultures, religions for various reasons, safety and familiarity being high on the list.
We ended up landing at a site in the north close to the border area and we then stepped off the flight for a brief period and walked to the border. Not to the checkpoint but on an overlook where we could see both countries. Its difficult for me to understand the deep seated suspicion and mistrust the locals must have for each other and it is evident in their efforts to live in areas where everyone has similar religious or cultural beliefs. The area where we landed was hilly, rugged and covered with trees making for difficult movement on foot should one try to cross the border over land. After stopping at a store on the border we hopped on the flight and headed back through what appeared to be a different route. This time we passed over a reservoir, quite large actually and the surrounding area was beautiful. I think I heard mentioned that this was a water supply for the country although I can’t say for sure. I was able to see quite a few little cities along the way as I mentioned earlier and I couldn’t wait to perhaps drive the route up to the north to see the place on the ground. That was to come later but I thoroughly enjoyed the view from above and would do it again if given the chance.
This is just one of the many short videos I took while driving around. Watch them all and visit my other Social Media and Travel sites as I develop them.
https://wp.me/P3CC9J-6vq
Stay tuned for the others. Please take a minute and donate even a small amount to help me make more videos.
Wizard of Where
Watch all the videos from my trip to Istanbul, Turkey. It's an interesting place full of history. This first video has the narrative.
This is just one of the many short videos I took while driving around. Watch them all and visit my other Social Media and Travel sites as I develop them.
https://wp.me/P3CC9J-6vq
Stay tuned for the others. Please take a minute and donate even a small amount to help me make more videos.
Wizard of Where
I hopped on a friend’s motorbike and headed over to a giant replica of Buddha on the side of a mountain. There were of course vendors hawking their various goods as well as food and I wandered through to see what was available. It was the typical stuff but with a tilt toward the buddha we could all see. It is a small park with a viewing area for the icon and quite a nice place. I couldn’t stay too long as it appeared a storm was about to begin and sure enough I got caught in it about midway back to the condo.
Buddha Mountain (Khao Chi Chan) is an enormous, 130 meters high and highly visible landmark in Pattay. The golden Buddha image is set on the mountain, and as I learned it is also called Khao Cheejan and can be seen from miles away.
Officially it is called Phra Phuttha Maha Wachira Uttamopat Satsada and was created in 1996 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s accession the the throne.
There appears to be a bit of history surrounding this iconic tourist spot from the Vietnam War. It turns out the Thai Army used Khao Cheejan mountain for its mining efforts. There was an American army base called U-Tapao airport and the stones were used there. After the war mining continued for construction purposes until 1976.
Lasers were used to carve out the image and later gold leaf was inlaid which I hear took many months to complete. This icon, a Sukhothai era Buddha image is 130 meters high and 70 meters wide, making it one of the biggest Buddha images in the world.
As I indicated the Buddha Mountain is surrounded by landscaped gardens and there are also vinyards close by. As you walk around you will see a variety of salas (open pavilions) and pools filled with lotus flowers giving the place a tranquil and peaceful atmosphere.
In addition there are alos quite a few shrines where Thai people come to pay homage which is the norm any time you encounter a buddha type shrine. A number of signs in English language provide information about the history of the place.
Anyhow, here are pictures from Big Buddha Mountain I took while traveling around the Pattaya, Thailand area. I took them after visiting Anek Kusala Sala.
It is a 130 meter tall Buddha image that is carved into a Mountain which makes it the largest Buddha Image in the world.
It is actually 130 meters tall and 70 meters wide. It is is inlaid with gold and has been carved into the rock with laser technology in 1990 and was officially opened in 1993 by His Majesty King Bhumibol.
Buddha Mountain or Khao Chee Chan is adjacent to the temple compound of Wat Yansangwararam.
To get the the Buddha Mountain in Pattaya here are directions.
From Pattaya head south on Sukhumvit Road towards Rayong.
Go 9 KM from Pattaya Tai to Ambassador City Jomtien. You can’t miss the sign on the right.
You will pass Pattaya Underwater world on the right and Pattaya Floating market on your left.
This is just one of the many short videos I took. Watch them all and visit my other Social Media and Travel sites as I develop them.
https://wp.me/P3CC9J-6vq
Stay tuned for the others. Please take a minute and donate even a small amount to help me make more videos.
https://wp.me/P3CC9J-54c
So, are you looking for an interesting way to get from Bangkok to Pattaya? There doesn't appear to be any meaningful driving laws or speed limits other than try not to run people down or smash into anything. I took a bus from Bangkok’s Ekamai station to Pattaya so I could wander around one of the primary tourist meccas.
I spent several weeks tramping around the area, eating, talking to the locals and basically enjoying myself. It's busy most of the day throughout the city and especially on the walking street. There are taxis running around the clock so getting up and down the beach is easy. There are also busses that run from the Jomtien bus station to the airport in Bangkok. It’s inexpensive as well, something like $4 from the airport to Jomtien bus station. There is quite a bit to see in the area, some of it reasonable and some not. If you’re into Buddhist culture and temples there are more than a few to visit. The whole area is designed to keep tourist busy with indoor and outdoor shopping, eating and drinking, hanging out on the beach and other creative ways to burn up time.
Although the area isn’t terribly expensive, especially during the off season, if you get out of the tourist areas it’s very reasonable, even cheap. I would go to Pattaya at least once so you can say you went. Here are a few things I'll elaborate on in other videos.
Anek Kusala Sala – An elaborate temple you really should see
Big Buddha Mountain – A huge image of Buddha on a mountainside
Pattaya floating market – an elaborate floating market in pattaya
Halloween – a celebration in Pattaya
Ko Larn – a tourist mecca off the coast of Pattaya
Pattaya flat– where I stayed in Pattaya
Jomtien Condo – Another place I stayed and although I referred to it as Pattaya, it was actually in Jomtien
Floods in Pattaya – Pattaya flooded while I was there
Pattaya street performers – everyone is trying to make a living in Pattaya
Pattaya – the city itself
This is just one of the many short videos I took while driving around. Watch them all and visit my other Social Media and Travel sites as I develop them.
https://wp.me/P3CC9J-6vq
Stay tuned for the others. Please take a minute and donate even a small amount to help me make more videos.
Wizard of Where
I was on the walking street in Pattaya, Thailand during the evening and as you can imagine the environment brings out all types of people and I mean all types. People just hanging out, some trying to make a buck, others people watching, drinking and engaged in various types of activity. Every bar had women and ladyboys outside working to get the passersby to come in, some were sort of passive but others were rather aggressive. All were dressed provocatively or at a minimum in some interesting clothing combinations. If you want more info start with video 1
Anyhow, this is one of many videos, watch them all and visit my other Social Media and Travel sites as I develop them.
https://wp.me/P3CC9J-6vq
Stay tuned for the others. Please take a minute and donate even a small amount to help me make more videos.
Watch all the videos from my trip to Istanbul, Turkey. It's an interesting place full of history. This first video has the narrative.
This is just one of the many short videos I took while driving around. Watch them all and visit my other Social Media and Travel sites as I develop them.
https://wp.me/P3CC9J-6vq
Stay tuned for the others. Please take a minute and donate even a small amount to help me make more videos.
Wizard of Where