This article is part of the "Asia Route Travel Log 2025-2026" series.

After getting my diving license in Cebu, I took a red-eye flight to Bangkok.

Barely slept. Landed in Bangkok in the morning and went straight to Pattaya by taxi, rubbing my eyes the whole way.

I figured it was just a travel day and I'd crash at the hotel. That's not how it went. A 70-year-old man with machine-gun energy in the shared taxi, a Tiger Park where the "price" changes with the size of the tiger, a floating market three times plainer than I'd imagined. Looking back at the photos, the first day was packed with a strangely Pattaya kind of feeling.

I left Cebu on a red-eye and landed in Bangkok in the morning. Still basically no sleep, straight to Pattaya by taxi, eyes half closed the whole way.

We didn't stop in the city — straight from the airport to Pattaya. That's where the Pattaya trip began.

When we arrived at Don Mueang Airport, the restroom sign was a little quirky and kind of cute.

Even a small detail like that makes you feel you've come abroad. Still just at the airport, but already in a place that's clearly not Japan.

On the taxi from the airport to Pattaya, we ended up sharing the ride with a man living in Australia.

It started casually — "same direction, let's split the fare." We were two friends traveling together, so we figured why not and rode along.

Talking in the car, it turned out he had a girlfriend in Pattaya and had been back and forth about 30 times. And he was 70.

I was dying from lack of sleep, while the 70-year-old next to me kept up machine-gun talk the whole way. Honestly, I felt I'd lost to his energy — like a regular who owns the place after 30 trips.

I was running on no sleep after the red-eye, but his talking energy never dropped. What should have been just travel time turns into something that feels like a real trip the moment you meet someone like that.

At first we were heading to the Pattaya floating market.

But it looked like we'd need a reservation, so we booked online and decided to hit the nearby Tiger Park Pattaya first.

Tiger Park splits its prices by the size and type of tiger.

Small tiger, medium tiger, big tiger, white tiger, gold tiger. A system where the "fee" changes with the tiger's size. While my friend was losing it next to me, I stayed oddly calm, watching this huge mass sleep like a house cat and thinking, "that's strange."

This time we took a photo with a big tiger. My friend was pretty freaked out, but I managed to take the photo more calmly than I expected.

You can check the location on Google Maps.

After Tiger Park, we had dinner and headed to the Pattaya floating market.

The crab curry we ate on the way was pretty spicy. Good, but spicier than I imagined — the kind you eat while sweating.

The food gets long, so I've put it together in the Pattaya food post.

Honestly, the floating market was plain.

I'd built up the words "floating market" too much in my head. When we got there, it was about three times plainer than I imagined. At first I thought, "oh, so this is it."

But sticking my feet into the doctor fish — 100 baht, no time limit — and just zoning out might have been the most peaceful time of the whole trip. The moment you put your feet in it's seriously ticklish, but once you get used to it, it starts to feel good. It's the small experiences like this that stick with you afterward.

A day spent flying from Cebu to Bangkok on a red-eye and going straight to Pattaya.

I'd treated it as just a travel day, but with the man in the shared taxi, Tiger Park, the floating market, and the doctor fish, the first day turned out richer than I expected.

The next day was diving in Pattaya. Since I'd gotten my license in Cebu, we wanted to dive other seas too, and it turned out you could see a shipwreck here. We booked in a hurry and got ready for the morning.

I've written about the diving in Pattaya diving.

This article is part of the "Asia Route Travel Log 2025-2026" series. The full route and article list are organized in the summary post.