BANGKOK IN DECEMBER DAY 3 (26.12.2014)

DAY THREE (26.12.2014)

Day 3 is called a day of excursion out of Bangkok. We traveled for 2 hours up north heading towards Saraburi to catch the SUNFLOWERS

Journey took longer than expected as locals were also heading home to their hometown in conjunction with the New Year's break (4 days of public holidays).

We started our journey pretty late i.e. from 9am. Thankfully, we managed to catch the sunflower albeit not in FULL bloom as the sun is still HOT. If you want to catch the sunflowers in full bloom, please start your journey by 7am. 

I was expecting acres and acres of Sunflower Farm but it was rather disappointing that we managed to catch a few. I had a friend who proceeded to a site near the dam where there were plenty of sunflowers. We hesitated when asked by the taxi driver whether we wanted to go to the dam site but decline as we came for the sunflowers and not for dam site-seeing.

I should have done more research on the area. Our taxi driver said that we were between Lopburi and Saraburi. Anyways, I thank God that the sunflowers were waiting for me literally so that I can take some really gorgeous pics of them!

The map below shows how far we traveled from Bangkok to Saraburi / Lopburi.

Here is an excerpt taken from the website below :-http://thailand.sawadee.com/lopburi/attractions.html

Sunflower Field
Location: Phatthana Nikhom District

Lopburi Province is the BEST and LARGEST places to see sunflower fields in Thailand. The beautiful sunflower blossom field covering an area of 1,400 rai are waiting for you to see at KHAO JEAN LAE, PHATTHANA NIKHOM DISTRICT. The panoramic sunflower field has become Lopburi's major tourist attraction especially during NOVEMBER to JANUARY when they are in FULL BLOOM. On weekends, thousands of tourists from Bangkok will take one day trip to visit the sunflower fields for picture taking.

How to get there

1. By Car - From Bangkok, drive along the Lopburi - Saraburi Road for approximately 30 kilometers, then turn left into Highway No. 21 and proceed for another 15 kilometers. Traveling from Lopburi town center, the sunflower field is located approximately 45 kilometers from the town.
2. By Train - From Hua Lamphong Railway Station, Bangkok, trains heading south toward Ayutthaya (1 hour) and Bangkok leave throughout the day, roughly every hour between 05:00 am. and 09:00 pm. Rapid and express trains between Lopburi and Bangkok take about three hours, while ordinary trains take about 4 hours.

Hope the above information helps. I would have asked the taxi driver to drive us to Lopburi as mentioned above if I have done proper research. 

Chocolate Ville
http://www.chocolateville.net/

After Sunflower Field we headed down south to Chocolate Ville. It took us about 1 hour plus to reach the place due to heavy traffic.

Kids would love it here, as well as some adults like me.

Some of you may like Chocolate Ville and some of you may not. As for me, I love places that is pleasing to the eye and it reminded me of Sovereign Hill in Ballarat where I spent 8 hours there.

Chocolate Ville is not a chocolate factory. It's just has the same theme as Sovereign Hill, just a smaller scale in comparison.

It opens daily from 4pm to 12am.  

Please remember to book the restaurant as there is only one available restaurant and only limited seats. You may book them via their Facebook page. If you arrive later than what you have booked for, the seats will not be kept for you and you do not want to be placed on the waiting list, trust me.

Here are some pictures. 

IMHO I prefer the daylight pictures compared to the night ones.

On a side note, please book your taxi to get you a ride home as well as there isn't any public transport and BTS available near the area.

Our fare amounted to BHT4000 for Sunflower and Chocolate Ville, It was rather pricey. My taxi driver on arrival at the hotel requested for an extra BHT500 from the original price of BHT3500. 

I will not used him anymore for excursion such as these save and except to and from from Airport which I think it is reasonable.

BUN SHOP

I need to mentioned that we we stopped over a eatery and a bakery prior to Sunflower Field. It is not a bakery per say as it sold sweet cakes instead. YUMMY ok. BUT expensive.

I didn't know how to read Thai, so I assume they sold a box for BHT50. LOL! It wasn't! We spent BHT500 for 3 boxes. 

The name of the shop is called MILK CAKE BAAN SUAN