Since we work full time, the weekends are oh so precious to us so we’ve made it a point to go outside of Bangkok (even if it is a short drive) every week. This time we decided to head out to Chonburi, a Thai province situated in the eastern Gulf of Thailand. This beautiful coastline city (also called Chonburi) of the province is about halfway to Pattaya and takes only 1.5 hours to get to (about 100 km southeast) from Bangkok.

Chonburi (for simplicity sake, we are talking about the city throughout this post) is a lot more local and domestic tourism-based as compared to Pattaya. You won’t find a lot of foreigners here but the city is buzzing on the weekend with locals and Thai tourists.

So why did we decide to go here? Well, I saw some interesting Instagram photos and posts on Pantip.com of a place the locals were calling the “Grand Canyon” of Chonburi. They also talked about a “snow mountain”. This really intrigued us! We also heard about a temple here that showcased some really odd images and depictions.

The plan was set in motion and we were on our way there. Here’s what we did and saw during our day trip.

The Grand Canyon Chonburi

Finding this place wasn’t as easy as it seemed at first. We had gotten the exact location from a Thai website called Pantip and had saved it on our Google Map but for some reason we could not access it. It didn’t occur to us to input the coordinates directly again so we made many wrong turns, U-turns and asking the locals. Surprisingly, none of them knew what we were talking about.

Finally, a friend of mine sent me the coordinates through whatsapp and we were able to locate the Grand Canyon. His coordinates weren’t exact either as it led us to the wrong sub street. We first arrived at what looked like the snow mountain we had seen on Instagram.

But this wasn’t it.

Nonetheless, it was still kind of cool. We walked up the pile of rocks and it looked like we were on the moon. Kind of an eerie feeling up here. After taking some pictures and walking around, a local on his bike approached us and asked us in Thai

“You want to take pictures? You’re in the wrong street. Come with me, I’ll take you there!”

At first we were hesitant but he insisted so we took him on his offer.

Apparently, we had gone to Khiri Nakhon soi 9 but were suppose to go to soi 8. No harm because we got to see something at least. I always welcome getting lost and having a little bit of misadventure.

Here’s the place on the map (13°18’59.4″N 100°58’44.4″E) to set you right.

Within a few minutes, we reached our destination. We parked our car and were told we need to pay 20 Baht for parking. At the entrance was a bunch of things written in Thai and a big 10. We assumed there is a 10 Baht entry fee because this was apparently private property.

We went around a makeshift gate and walked along a dirt road path to reach this – the Grand Canyon of Chonburi.

Basically, what I understood is that this is or was a mining quarry with a patch of the reservoir in the middle. That’s it. Nothing spectacular or awe-inspiring but to the Thais, this place was quickly becoming a popular spot to take some fancy Instagram-worthy photos.

And that’s what it was basically. A hipster, trendy location for photos. Sure the view was beautiful and the train tracks opposite the reservoir canyon provided some great photos.

However, for us the adventure was in finding this place because you can’t really do much here. I hoped to find a way down to the water as I could see a path on the far right. Kanika insisted I don’t try since this is private property and there is no way we would be allowed to go there.

Snow Mountain

Located in the same compound is the so-called ‘snow mountain’ and it’s easy to miss it. To get there, you have to walk along the canyon and into the bushes up front. There on the right you’ll see a white hill-like landscape. You’ll probably notice some people heading there (or returning) so follow the path.

As you get closer, you start realizing, OK that’s no snow mountain. Haha sorry for the click-bait but that’s how we got interested in this place. It’s basically a hill made up of white/grey pebbles and rocks and the mountain hill was probably created during a mining excavation.

But don’t be disheartened, it is still worth a visit because what is interesting about it are the crevasses and strange cave-like openings alongside the hill. It’s also pretty fun climbing up and down it!

Wang Saen Suk Hell Garden

Next we went to a museum/temple a short drive away.

This is probably the strangest place I’ve ever been to in Thailand. The Wang Saen Suk hell garden is a museum next to a local temple, which is located very close to Bang Saen beach. The hell garden is a very interesting but freaky attraction that showcases the teachings of Buddhism regarding the torments of hell.

Basically, through wax depictions of horrific scenes, you will learn about what happens to people when they do bad things and it is quite explicit. Some of the things are quite specific too, like if you steal fish from someone, you will come out in the next life as a spirit of the fish and live a tormented life.

Truly this place deserves a visit. I won’t give much information about what I saw there but hopefully, some of these images will be enough to tickle your curiosity and make you go see it for yourself.

However, if you really don’t think you can make it there, check out The Bohemian Blog’s post about this strange place.

Chilling by the Beach

Just across the temple and only five minutes away is the Bang Saen beach. We headed there for an amazing seafood lunch. The beach was packed with locals and Thai tourists with not a foreigner in sight.

After driving around for minutes, unable to find parking, we finally were able to sit down on the beach. They have umbrellas set up with beach chairs (much like those in Pattaya) and it would cost you between 150 Baht (for four chairs) or 300 Baht (for 6-8 chairs) to sit on them.

The weather was really nice on this particular day but perhaps a bit too chilly that we were literally chilling by the beach.

Soon we started ordering our food and I must say, we over indulged as our bill came out to be about 1,500 Baht (~$40) just between the two of us. We ordered fried rice, grilled chicken, steamed shrimps, grilled squid, somtam and a seafood curry. The value and portion size was great.

Other than eating at the beach, there are also plenty of water sport activities available such as banana boat, jet ski, tubing and kayaking. The beach itself isn’t much to look at but that doesn’t seem to bother the Thais one bit. In fact they were having a lot of fun! If we had our swimming gear, we would have totally gotten in.

Other things to do in Chonburi

Here are some other things you can do, which we didn’t have the time for:

• Discover the Bangsaen Institute of Marine Science at Burapha University
• Explore the town – temples, industrial estates and local markets
• Visit the Khao Khiao open zoo
• Head further down to Si Racha district for some beautiful parks, turtle conservation center and a tiger zoo
• Take a ferry and transfer to Ko Sichang (island) from Si Racha port

You can also make the trip a weekend one. We saw some amazing-looking resorts along the Bang Saen beach as well as some short-term apartments in town. One that really caught our attention was the Bangsaen heritage hotel. You can also check out these Guest house Bangsaen.

So we hope we convinced you enough to take a weekend trip to Chonburi before heading over to Pattaya.