About 18 kilometres out from South Pattaya you’ll start seeing signs for Nong Nooch. Turn left and head straight down.
Admission fee: Adults 300 baht, children 150 baht (100 baht for adults if you don’t want to see the cultural show)
Telephone: 03870 9538-62
IF gardening is your thing, then Nong Nooch is your Eden.
Ornate gardens, thousands of tropical plants, and a lake, provide some of the most stunning scenery anywhere on the eastern side of Thailand,
But it’s not just a big garden centre. As well as the cleverly-designed sections, there’s a mini zoo, butterfly garden and cultural show.
Before you even enter the main gates, the drive from Sukhumvit to Nong Nooch is spectacular, as lofty mountains rise and fall way off in the distance.
Once you’ve paid your 300 baht entry fee (it’s 100 baht if you don’t want to see the cultural show), it’s time to start exploring.
One of the first exhibition halls is also one of the most impressive. Orchids fill a giant room, and a small lotus lake and waterfall nestle in the middle. The smells and colours are everywhere, and the quality of the orchids is impressive. Just beyond this room is a second area which has more variety of flowers, and some ornate ornaments as well.
Most of the action is to be seen outside, and pathways lead visitors around the 520-acre site, while signposts point them in whichever direction they want to go.
As well as going left and right, you can also go up. Steps lead up to steel walkways that offer stunning views of the gardens, and also make it easy to get from one section to the next. If you really don’t fancy walking, and it can get pretty hot wandering around all day, then buggies are available to drive you around.
Walking further in to the gardens, you start to realise the enormity of maintaining a place like this. To us, summer may well be the time for long drinks and even longer days, but if you’re a gardener then bone-dry days are the last thing you need.
Here, dozens of gardeners are constantly armed with hoses that quench the flowers’ thirst. The rewards of their work are everywhere, noticeably on ‘butterfly hill’, where thousands of plants have been grouped together to form an amazing montage.
Close by are the elephants, who take visitors on their backs for walks around the area. The elephants form part of a cultural extravaganza show, which takes place three times a day.
Inside a giant theatre, guests are seated on wooden slats. The show itself gives a glimpse of several Thai traditions, including dancing from different regions, a demonstration of Muay Thai boxing, music and a grand finale involving elephants dressed for war.
Although horticulture is clearly the main attraction here, animals are also given a stage. A beautiful butterfly garden is home to about 1,500 tiny creatures, who occasionally stay still long enough for you to take a photo. A mini zoo includes panthers, snakes and, if you’re lucky, a baby tiger may be taken for a walk right past you.
It’s a challenge to see everything in one visit, but it’s a task worth rising to. Leaving the zoo behind, there are the cycads, bromeliads, and cacti to see, there’s the Stone Henge recreation on the outer edges of the garden, and a European-style garden to rival anything you’ve seen before.
