Pattaya

Teak joined with wooden pegs and no iron nails. Work started in 1981 and carries on, so hard hats are handed out at the gate. Carvers are at their benches as you walk through. Sea air rots the timber and it is replaced continually, so there is no finish date.

A 109-metre figure was cut into the face a quarry had already stripped and laid with gold leaf, and the lawn in front is wide enough that seeing all of it means backing away, with no shade on that grass at midday.

It is too spread out to walk, a buggy route covers it instead, and the cycad collection is large enough that every kind is labelled. Elephant shows are ticketed separately, and whether to watch one is your own call.

Forty-five minutes on the big boat from Bali Hai pier, fifteen by speedboat. The big boat costs far less but sails only a handful of times daily, so check the last one. Of the island's beaches Tawaen is where the water toys are and Samae is the quiet one.

Over six kilometres of straight sand, and far emptier than the town beach. Umbrellas and chairs are hired at set stretches and taking one usually means ordering a drink, though walk further south and both the crowd and the umbrellas thin out.

Wooden decks reach out over the water and split into four sections by region. Touring it by boat and walking it are priced differently, and the boats come rowed or with an engine. The stalls work for visitors, so ask the price before you buy.

The hill between the town and Jomtien puts the whole curve of the bay in one frame. Coaches arrive near sunset and the railing fills, but stepping a few metres aside clears it, and a navy monument and a temple share the top.

Boats that went out at night land before dawn, and the catch is auctioned on the boards beside the pier. It does not run for visitors, prices sit closer to wholesale, and by eight the good fish has gone. Ask and they will clean it there.

A fishing village twenty kilometres south of Pattaya, where the restaurants stand on piles out over the pier. Go in the afternoon as the boats land and you pick from that day's catch. The lanes will not take a weekend's cars; people park outside and walk in.

From six in the evening the cars are shut out and it stays a footway until dawn. The whole thing is one line of about 700 metres, loud enough that you cannot hear the person beside you. By day it is closed and empty, so do not turn up then.

A beach running just over 3km in front of town, hotels and bars lining Beach Road behind it. Songthaew pickups loop one way down Beach Road and come back along Second Road. Wave one down, and press the roof buzzer to get off.

The beach at the far north of Naklua, wider of sand and a shade clearer of water than the town strip. Tall condos and resorts back onto it, so shade arrives early in the afternoon. From its south end the Sanctuary of Truth comes into view.

Sprawling grounds south of Pattaya scatter a Chinese pavilion, an Indian-style stupa and a Swiss-style chalet around a lake and hills. Some 300 stairs end at the Buddha footprint hall. Walking it all is impractical; people drive between sections.

Vines and a winery around a lake right beside the Khao Chi Chan Buddha. Visitors take photos in the gardens before the European-style buildings and taste wine and grape juice in the tasting room. It pairs with the Buddha in a single afternoon.

Open land beside Thepprasit Road fills with stalls from around five in the evening, drawing locals ahead of tourists. Past the rows of clothes and odds and ends, food stalls spread wide at the back. Its trading days have changed before, so check ahead.

Roughly 40 minutes by ferry from Si Racha lies the island where King Rama V built a summer palace. Its great teak hall was dismantled in 1900 and reassembled in Bangkok as the Vimanmek Mansion; grounds and stairways remain. Tuk-tuks do the island loop.

About an hour north of Pattaya, the beach Bangkok people drive to on weekends. On Khao Sam Muk hill at its south end, hundreds of macaques sit along the road. Leave a car door open and they climb in, so keep the windows shut.